Honestly...whomever the coach is I like the coach (that has to play the players given) and the GM (guy that gets said players) be all in one unless they are seemless at the jobs working together. I do not think Heitz worked well with any of the coaches we have had while he was here. Or Vice Versa. Either way...it was a problem.
He just looks a tortoise without his shell. He creeps me out a bit. Okay, I said it. That's why I don't like him. Oh, and he is, at best, a middling coach. There is that. Sadly, he will likely be better (or no worse) than Klopas, Hendrickson, Wicky, Paunovic, Yallop, Klopas, CDLC, Hamlet, Klopas... That says little about Gregg (the man with an extra G) Berhalter and volumes about how much the Fire suck at selecting coaches.
He was a pretty good MLS coach with Columbus. 4 playoff appearances in 5 years with 1 MLS Cup appearance and another conference final. I was ready for him to be done with the national team after the world cup, but that's mainly because I don't think it's a good idea for a national team coach to stay on for more than one cycle. He's also probably the best established coach we have a chance at getting. Curtin would probably be my first choice, but he's not leaving Philadelphia unless they fire him for this bad season.
So, he didn't win anything with Columbus, check. As for "pretty good coach in MLS," we had a potato occupy the coach's chair who was a "pretty good MLS coach," and one with a far superior record of MLS success and, well, it didn't turn out very well. I just don't see anything that Berhalter brings to the table. Admittedly, I don't remember how Columbus played under him, but the USMNT has looked awful, like kids running about with no rhyme or reason. Yes, they had some success, in tournaments like the Gold Cup, but then the USMNT almost always has success in the Gold Cup. Didn't look very good in Copa America or the World Cup, though. If they bring him in and give him control, it will be interesting to see what his vision is for the team and what he brings to the table. Regardless, it cannot be much worse than what we have dealt with the past 15 years. It could, possibly, even be better I know, take that sh/t to the Optimism Thread.
Dennis Hamlett was also a "pretty good MLS coach", maybe we should bring him back so he can still be right here.
Yallop was over the hill and on his way out by the time he plopped down at the Fire. He was the epitome of NASL terrible soccer (no offense to the NASL). He was a generation away from the league. Berhalter at least should still be on the rise. I thought from his first camp to his last with the USMNT, he improved quite a bit and I don’t know if he’s hit his ceiling yet. I don’t think so, but that’s just an opinion. The thought of his hiring does not excite me but even if you think Yallop was a successful MLS 1.0 coach, Berhalter has never come close to hitting the lows of Potato.
Sad you say Yallop was "over the hill" when I see he is only a year older than me! (I know what you mean) Of course, the comparison to Yallop was an exaggeration. However, just making the playoffs four out of five years (making one final) should not be the definition of a "good MLS coach," as was suggested. Yallop won the Supporters Shield and was MLS Coach of the Year the year before he joined the Fire. ...yet. He has not tried his luck with the Fire.
I think his overthinking soccer and his over-complicating it will be much more successful at the club level where he gets to pick his players and work with his players daily will prove far more successful than at the national team level, where his player pool was much more limited and his time with the players was comparatively small. I hope his skill at making substitutions gets better, because with the USMNT it was atrocious. I think that he will make the club better, even to the heights of making the playoffs.
That's a pretty good point. However, will he really be able to "prove himself" with our Chicago Fire!?!?
If he has full control over soccer operations? He'll have every chance to do that. If I'm remembering correctly, Yallop was hired, in part, because he had had previous success with a limited budget. Berhalter would be coming into a very different situation.
I disagree. With the idiotic and childish way he dresses on the touchline, he looks more like the unlucky AYSO parent who got stuck "coaching" a game, when he knows jack and shyte about soccer. All the other parents ditched this one, so he's stuck with yelling "KICK IT" to Cooper and Connor and all the other snot-nosed shyteheads. In general, coaches should put on a fvkcing suit, and look like a fvkcing professional, not some dad on his one day off from the accounting department. Strive to emulate Ancelotti, not Yallop or some other garden-variety schmuck. For your sakes, I hope you're wrong. Nah, they don't suck at "JUST" selecting coaches. They suck at many, many other things equally as well,
Quality imagery here. I enjoyed coaching U-10s & U-12s. I did my best to coach the kids well enough in practice so they would know where they were supposed to be in a particular situation. I seldom hollered directions, but when I saw someone out of position I would yell SHAPE and they all checked whether or not they were where they were supposed to be. When I see Frank yelling out instructions I see something like that AYSO parent who does all the thinking for his players. A couple of times a season I would wear a tie & sport coat just to subliminally let the kids know this was an especially big game. Whether or not it's your personality it never hurts to take a page or more out of Don Carlo's book. As a player just seeing him look like that in the technical area compared to most other managers make me want to follow him because he's better.
And before any mouthbreather chimes in on Pep being more casual on the touch line, go back to him at Barca as manager. He had the balls to get rid of Eto'o and Ronaldinho, and to plug in a kid named Busquets, all of which cemented his authority with that team. He also wore a fvkcing suit, to convey to his players that HIS work is important, and that he's a fvkcing professional. And now? Yeah, he dresses casually, but he's also earned the right to do so, after having kicked the shyte out of La Liga, the Bundesliga, and making the EPL his b!tch. There ain't any American coaches that have anywhere near the same level of gravitas, especially Berhalter. Wear a fvkcing suit, ya dumb fvkc.
Who Gives A ********? That might not be last on my list of concerns but it's pretty damn near the bottom requirement.
When you're the (snicker) chicago fire, and you've been a fvkcing dumpster fire for 20+ years, every angle and every aspect makes a difference. When you guys, I dunno, like, WIN SOMETHING, then be as cavalier and as casual as you'd like. But, YMMV.
Mike Ditka won the Super Bowl while wearing a sweater and spent part of the season rolling around on roller skates. EDIT: All that what Reagan was president. [shudders]
And in a different sport with different professional standards, generally played in different weather than soccer. Also, the roller skate thing didn't happen until '88.
I would think the right wing militaristic nature of the NFL would give it stronger “professional” bent. And the superbowl was played in a dome. Gasperini and Sarri are two coaches that come to mind that are casual. Sarri wore a t-shirt at Chelsea. I’d be OK with the Sprezzatura.