So, I'm looking at what we've got and things are really not as bad as they seem. We really need to find a quality coach. I've got a few ideas. Dominic Kinnear is the most logical person to step in now that I've fired GBS. However, if any of you know of a good tactician that can work with young players and create cohesion that would be ready to step in now, give me a recommendation. I'm done with Bingham. I also heard he is a bit of an ass, so if no one wants to trade for him, I'll just swallow the contract and keep him out of the player pool. I want to start Eric Lopez. He is 6'1", young, and a local. He can't be worse than Bingham and he is a product of our youth system. Here's what the back four would look like: Arraujo DuPay Steres Traore Of the backs, I'm only sold 100% on Arraujo. DuPay and Steres could be good reliable back ups, and I like what I've seen from Traore so far. But what I want is to find 2 quality veteran center backs, and maybe a left back, who are capable of coming in and giving us 1-2 good years. AND that understand the history of the LA Galaxy and know what is expected of them. Remember how Greg Berhalter joined the team after a long career in Europe and made the back line solid? We need that. Are there any MLS center backs who are likely to be let go of their current teams but are still good? Think Chad Marshall helping out Seattle for a bit. Or, just looking through a few options in the EPL. If these guys have something left, why not inquire? Phil Jagielka, 37, played only 6 games with Sheffield United this season, a team with good defenders, and his market value is about $1 million. Will he take half that to play first team soccer? Listed as "without a club" Wes Morgan, Leicester City, 36. Played 10 games, was a Jamaican international. Valued at $1.2 million, but can we talk? From the where-are-they-now file, Pablo Zabaleta was released by West Ham after making 10 appearances. 35 years old, valued at $1 million. We can talk, right? I like our potential midfield. I'm thinking: Jonathan Dos Santos Joe Corona Cameron Dunbar Efrain Alvarez Christian Pavon Corona can play mostly as the holding mid, JDS has license to get up and back, but Efrain stays higher up to do more in attack. The 15 minutes he played tonight shows that the talent is there. With quality backs, Pavon can have a free role on that side of the field. Dunbar is young and I'll let him fight for the spot. Sebastian Lleget will have to fight for minutes, but I'd like to see him start thinking of himself as an attacking threat again. Chicharito Like it or not, he's our DP and we are stuck with him. However, with players who will be threats to score next to him, all he has to do is what he does. Sneak into a space and get to the ball. Nothing fancy, and he is good at that. Of course, if someone wants the star power and is willing to work out a deal, I'll talk. But for DP money, it would be great to find a talented striker. I've been watching Giroud play for Chelsea this year. Started on the bench, got some minutes here and there, now he is starting and finding the net. He's 33 and worth about $8 million. I can dream. But what about someone like Teemu Pukki from Norwich City? He's almost 31. He doesn't want to play in the Championship, does he? Still has some market value, but we can talk, right? Do you old guys remember John Spencer from the early years? He'd be like that guy. Another thought. Remember when we had Hyung Myung Bo and how many Koreans came to the games? Good atmosphere. Too bad he wasn't very good. He was done. There's a guy named Kim Shin-wook who plays in China who is 32, has 14 national team goals in 55 appearances, and is worth about $2 million in the transfer market. Has had a great career in the K League. He's got a few years left and he'd put butts in seats. Hey, I'm the GM. These things must be considered. Not sure how many Finns Pukki would bring out. So, what do you, members of my soccer roundtable, think? Manager? Center backs? Left back? Striker? Do you disagree with any of my assessments? Do you think there is a keeper out there we can talk to? Maybe one that fits the veteran profile? Let's have fun with this, and keep it professional.
Alright let me dissect your post a bit. Bingham - We tried to shop Bingham in the is past offseason but found no takers. He is pretty solidly back up keeper quality, but we are stuck with him. His contract is up at the end of this year, and I don't see us resigning him. There are a lot of quality options that we could look to for this role. Begovic would be a keeper I'd look at it. Defense is our most pressing issue. We are stuck with Gonzales till 2021 unfortunately, but I think we should be looking to trade Lletget + something for someone like Birnbaum or Opara. We could also look towards the eastern european leagues for some defensive talent. Insua is also alright, so he will be our starting LB. In midfield we need a #10 asap. We lost Katai so we lost his huge salary. I'd invest that into a #10 and we need a more classic speedy winger for the right side. Striker, we need a back up to Chicharito. Probably a big striker ala Alan Gordon was. We need someone we can bring on who can win flick ons and allow us to go route one style.
Oh also, call up Tim Ream if Fulham don't make it to the premier league via the championship playoffs. We can give him a good non-DP salary and he'd sort out our defense.
As for coach, I would take a chance and see if Keane would be interested. Can't be worse than what we've had.
Time to accept that we are have-beens now and stop paying attention to the shortcomings of our players. We can keep reshuffling them forever with no results. We must dump FO and start from scratch like we are expansion team. 1st step - Klein, te Kloese, Schelotto all must go, whoever takes their places should be given 2 years timeframe to shape the team. Keane was mentioned, and i think he could be a good choice for expansion team coach, he was very motivated player, knows the league well.
It can and will. Keane is not qualified for this. We are not a club that hires first time managers and just hopes for the best. I'd be willing to have Keane on as an assistant, but I don't want a repeat of ruud gullit.
Agree that Keane is unproven manager, but at least he can motivate that bunch of clowns, yeah, he could be a great choice as asst manager.
Watched Phil Jagielka at Everton....past it. That said, love the time and effort you put into the post.
That's what we need, a complete do-over. No more merry-go-round switching the horses around hoping the thing will ride straight both at team level and FO level. Not gonna happen however unless Phillip decides to do that and applies foot to ass, but for the sake of argument... Ok, so team demolition, check. Klein out, check. Guillermo out, check.... te Kloese out? Why don't we like him or why not give him the benefit of short-term doubt? Man comes with lots of experience and we dont know how tight his hands are tied or is simply working on problems and riding out moves by predecessors? Maybe move him in to Klein's position? On Keane. Man was brilliant as player and he does know the league. The same can be said of Guillermo. I wish we had a Keano or Guillermo as players on this team because that's what we need. But too green. I think part of GBS faults is that, just too green to have a full set of skills under his belt. On Keane as assistant. I don't know. You see how the players talked crap about the intesity and demands of playing with somebody like Zlatan. Now we are gonna give them the intesity of Keane? Would that help or poison the locker room? On another subject brought up by Stopper regarding koreans and playing to nationality strings regarding players. I do not mind it, it is a business after all as he said. Whatever you get, get good ones. No Myung-bos or Kee-Hees but more like In-Beoms. ok, my two cents.
They need to stop trying to imitate Atlanta United and FC Dallas and sign three superstar DPs, not niche market DPs, but real ones. Keep one of the current ones, but use TAM. Then go get Cavani, Suarez and Lewandowski, or maybe all of them.
I think the experience of playing together matters more for the defense than the other parts of the team so I'd like to see us keep the same defense for a few years. While I'd like someone with more experience (3 of your 4 starters are pretty young) I wouldn't want to spend money on someone with only a year or two left, particularly if they were from outside MLS. Maybe we can get a free agent for experienced depth and add a youngish centerback from somewhere.
Ok, boot to Klein, te Kloese to replace him. It is still reshuffling, I think team got to the point now when complete franchise reboot is needed. We were the kings of LA before and during Chivas, but arrival of successful new team changed everything, and changed it for good. We keep clinging to the past, to our 5 titles and past achievements. Look at LAFC and LAG right now, there is no comparison in quality, losing derby 2:6 - it is not ********ing rivalry, it's like LAG and original Chivas roles reversed, all is left from real Galaxy team is just a name, we have to be honest with ourselves and accept it. We don't have franchise players anymore, I personally don't feel any connection to any of our players, journeymen, newbies and scraps, they come and go.
Go ahead and vent Pirozhok. I know how you feel. Just know you are preaching to the choir. Don't worry about the goats. Galaxy's slide does not coincide with their inaugural season but with klein's tenure, remember that. So, I hereby nominate Marcelo Bielsa as our new coach. The guys did the deed with Leeds and now that they are back on the EPL Bielsa may not stick around, look for another sad case. lets send teKloese over there talk to the guy. These are crazy times with a crazy team so maybe we need El Loco here to sort things out. Yeah he is a high-end coach but he goes for lost cause as in Leeds. That's why he cra-cra. I just think we could submit an application to the guy.
Frank de Boer is available. No. The best thing about him being available is that maybe someone can make GBS available. Today.
We all seem to agree on the same point, i.e. there needs to be a regime change. However, this will be from left field, but Magic Mike for coach anyone? He can be both the head coach and goalie coach
OK, you're the GM now. You addressed the glaring problems with the first team. Can we talk about our academy? At minimum, I'd like to see our academy develop players that are good enough to start on any MLS team. Argentinians love LA and we should have no problems in finding a way to convince great academy coaches from clubs like Boca Juniors, River Plate, Argentinos Juniors, etc. to live in Los Angeles, become our academy coaches, and instill in our 8-10 year olds a quality first touch, an ability to obtain possession and the competence to confidently build an attack out of the back. Equally important is for those coaches to identify and develop the next #10's and #8's to run our team's offense and the next #9's in order to turn them into merciless ice cold clinical finishers in the final third. As our 8-10 year olds become 11-13 year olds, the fundamentals they learned become the foundation for a possession-oriented playing style. Like Ajax and Barça, our club would have a consistent playing philosophy from youth level to first team. ...and it would be Argentinian.
YES!! It’s honestly criminal that we haven’t produced quality, reliable contributors for this team. Dallas and NY have built supporter shield contending team with local talent. The question to me has always been.. why?
I'm following closely the Academy and especially G2, and I think both are heading in the right direction. Los Dos seem to have a great coach in Junior Gonzalez and they have put very solid results recently with mostly teenagers just coming off the Academy. The first team has recently signed highly touted youngsters like Araujo, Dunbar and Perez. It's definitely an improvement after the departures of Mendez, Llanez, and Hernandez-Foster is probably next. I'm not a fan of everything he has done for the first team (choosing GBS seems to be a mistake, the Pipo Gonzalez signing too), but DTK seems to have a plan for the youngsters. I trust in him to right the ship, and if I have to choose someone to keep between him, GBS and Klein, I won't hesitate.
Boca is a legendary club, still known for producing great talent. I'm not sure it would be inconsequential to lure their coaching talent away (but it's something we ought to be trying).
In American football, there is the concept of a system player. It refers to a player who performs at a level above his talent because of the system he plays in. Was GBS a good coach or appear to be a one because he was at Boca?
GBS had some success with a small Argentinean team (Lanus). I want to say he won a big trophy or two with them. Here’s the thing. I think, like DeBoer, he’s a rigid coach— plays the same formation game after game even though he doesn’t have the players. Doesn’t make changes or subs once the game has started, etc. But! I also think there’s something to him. The reality is that he has been saddled with a lot of different players who are not MLS caliber players due to bad contract decisions between 2017 (we will remember this season for decades to come) and now. I’m not saying this absolves him from guilt. I’m just saying that he hasn’t really had the freedom to play his game. The pieces aren’t there, and they won’t be there for a while.
You know it is part of human nature to give the benefit of doubt to other people. One of the nicer parts of human nature TBH. I myself indulge in the thing from time to time. I did it with Guillermo. With a record around 18/6/21 we can now see that although he may not be a bad coach, he is a bad fit for LA Galaxy. Other coaches around the league have come in an turned their pityful teams around, some in record time. Teams that by comparison do not spend nearly the amount of money Galaxy does. Yet year by year, we are getting worse. Zlatan was just a 6'5'' crutch that we enjoyed but now that he is gone... crickets. Lots of things going on in this club. Lots of bad things. Players look disinterested, lost, just going through the motions. Guillermo has no answer for this apparently. I would say he has lost the locker room but did he ever have it to begin with? FO in fear and panic over pulling the trigger an once again showing their ineptitude at the task of finding the right coach. Ownership that seems disinterested in the whole thing and maybe a sign that the team could benefit from new blood and renewed enthusiasm and passion to compete. Anyway, that's my two. I am way past disappointment in this team.
Ownership change is necessary now to turn things around. Team was probably turning out nice profit for owner even in the past 5 years, thus management complacency we could see. But we need new owner who wants his team to achieve something on the pitch. I agree with @Beirut that GBS is just a part of the problem, he is shackled by really poor roster he has at his disposal, watching us playing at Covid Cup was depressing, we did not belong there, we are simply not at the level of top tier soccer (MLS) now.