C-bus are currently 22nd on the team payroll ranking, so Gregg won't have a chance to be a Nancy, a genius coach working with modest budget.
More interesting would be what if Berhalter out performs Cherundolo. Not say he will but dynamic to consider given Cherundolo seems to be widely seen as the top domestic based American candidate for the next time the job is open.
Schmetzer, Nancy, Cherundolo, Vanney, and Curtin would all be solid MLS-based candidates. Wonder whether Gregg will switch back to the 4231 he'd showed competence with at C'bus. He would then need to sort out his amid.
everyone excuses away the player’s performance as a meaningless game, yet can’t grasp that this was just as meaningless for Varas. He was playing with house money, a great time to ******** around when there was nothing to lose. They are called friendlies for a reason. His roster and lineups were reasonable, he didn’t try anything crazy, and he challenged the players to play through Canada’s press. WOW. Varas has a resume of coaching games that actually mattered. At least judge him by those. BTW this response doesn’t make and claim or judge about how good a coach Varas is.
I would say the other thing to keep in mind is flat out, the Crew have the best front office in MLS. Bezbatchenko built an MLS Cup winning team in Toronto, went to Columbus and built 2 more. Now Nancy doesn't hurt either as literally anything that man touches turns to Gold, but Crew under Precourt and the Crew under the Haslems are completely different animals. As for Gregg with the Fire? I think he'll do... fine-ish? I think he'll at least make them a functional team with a vision. Whether that works or not who knows. The big issue Chicago has had is Heitz didn't really sign people with a plan and legit only had 1 DP hit (Hugo Cuypers this year)
Bez and Lagerwey are the best. Thorington is also up there. It's especially impressive that he has been able to get those guys under the cap?
The Crew do have a great front office but that’s also why Nancy’s time in Montreal is also relevant as they do not have the same great front office.
All I’m saying the new line for coaches in MLS is the Berhalter line. If you can’t perform better than Berhalter in MLS it’s hard to make the case that you should be coaching the national team.
Could be but also could be he was told by Crocker or even by spokesmen for Poch to do a mostly similar type of roster. Knowing he was leaving right away for SD he would have no reason to rock the boat. I really can't imagine at least some instruction of intent came from US Soccer for him. We will all see how he does at SD but unless they put together a ton of talent in year one he will likely be a sacrificial lamb coach like most other first year expansion coaches.
nothings more enjoyable than being a coach and have higher ups handing down roster picks/Tactics/formations.... for you to employ.
Would be good to see him at Chicago. I like when coaches jump right back into it and bringing that club out of the doldrums would be a nice accomplishment.
Chicago and Gregg should drag out the negotiations as long as possible, to drum up more interest like Crocker and Poch did.
No, he does not. Apart from these two games, Varas has only ever been a head coach in youth soccer. These two games were a massive step up for him, and he showed that he wasn't up to the task. That's why Marsch gloated after the game about how easy it was. In his own post-game, Varas threw his players under the bus, failing to take any responsibility ... truly amateur hour.
I can understand an argument that youth games don’t count for anything. But it’s hard to turn around and then claim that friendlies do matter. I, personally, don’t have an issue with a coach calling out players post match. It’s not like we all don’t have eyes and saw the same things he stated.
Because of these two performances, Varas arrives in San Diego having already been ripped to shreds by Mark Zeigler. What Varas said: Pre-Canada: "Our focus is on bringing a winning mentality" Post-Canada: "The mentality is on the players." Pre-New Zealand: "I really believe in how all the things in life are interconnected, you know. So even separating the mentality from the style of play is kind of difficult." These are his actual public statements.
Some people just like to be mad for the sake of it. Berhalter is gone as is Varas and they aren’t super relevant to the USMNT anymore. Other than I hope San Diego in particular develops a lot of players for the national team.
You previously framed Varas' public statements as a simple reflection of what everyone saw. That's untrue. In the span of a few days, Varas went from mentality being his focus to something he had no control over to something he doesn't even believe in because "everything is interconnected, you know." It's inconsistent and flaky. That's why Zeigler and others have treated him like a laughingstock.
So are you mad they didn’t hire an interim coach up to your standards while they were off hiring Pochettino and having multiple conversations with coaches like Klopp? If there’s a plausible candidate you would have preferred as interim coach please feel free to say who that is.
let’s try again, but I don’t really want to spend much time on this. I don’t think this is really important nor interesting for the readers on this thread. to me, Varas is talking about players feeling confident and how that effects the style of soccer played. All of these states are inline with that “framing”.