I don't know who we're going to hire, or how that hire will end up doing. But if it's Southgate, we'd be hiring the most successful England manager since Alf Ramsey. That's not exactly a sharp stick in the eye.
I admit I have had Renard as my #1 from the start but the more I think about it I think Pochettino would be the best hire. There was no coach at PSG at that time that group of players wasn't listening to anyone and that was their problem.
I had a vision of a weird remake of Doctor Faustus. So the Devil comes up to us, the community of US soccer fans, in 2018 just before his hosting duties for the World Cup. He can promise us that in 2022 we'll qualify for the knockout stages. The pain of Couva is still fresh in our memories so we need something to look forward to. Of course we're up for hearing his offer. But what does he want in return? The soul of 19-year old phenom Christian Pulisic? "No!" thunders the Prince of Darkness, and he seems a bit insulted. "I'm out of the souls business now. I just want to inflict two years of misery on you leading up to your 'once in a lifetime' second-ever home World Cup." Two years might not be too bad -- that 2018 cycle was really awful, and we can't afford anything close to that again -- but leading up to 2026 is a pretty critical time. "OK, Satan. We're still listening. What kind of misery?" "In 2024 you'll have a new coach imposed upon you by a malign power from the East. And, get this, this new coach will be the runner-up from the last Euro championships. There will be great wailing and gnashing of teeth." That seems a bit off. This isn't the Spanish Inquisition coming at us with the comfy chair. Some sort of trickery is afoot. "Head coach, manager, whatever. You mean the head guy, right?" "Yes, he's the manager, the head coach, the individual on the sideline responsible for the European runner-up. The gaffer, the big kahuna..." "Wait wait wait. You said last Euro. Do you mean Euro 2024 or Euro 2020, hmmm?" "Both!"
England may face USA opposition for Mauricio Pochettino in hunt for Gareth Southgate successor✍️ @Matt_Law_DT#TelegraphFootball #USMNThttps://t.co/NwX9XWzXWK— Telegraph Football (@TeleFootball) July 17, 2024 Telegraph says we have not made direct contact with Pochettino but we’ve been asking around about him.
I'd forgotten Poch had been at Southampton. So to the obvious question... yes, it looks like Crocker's time there may have grazed Pochettino's in 2013. I just glanced at Wikipedia though so would love more details.
As of right now everything is hearsay, rumors, and connecting the dots based on press conferences and past relations. People who cover US soccer have said thr fed is on lock down right now with leaks. Seems to be new rumors everyday. For a brief moment Monday there was talk online that the US reached out to Willy Songol (Georgia's coach)
I don't have any real knowledge of this, but if you want the exact timeline, it looks like Crocker was in charge of Southampton's academy system from 2006 to November 2013 (before leaving for the FA), while Pochettino was Southampton's manager from January 2013 to the summer of 2014.
Rice not playing where he plays for Arsenal? I'm getting deja vu. England player could have ‘stopped’ Oyarzabal winner as Mills explains Rice theory – exclusive (msn.com) in both goals England have lost the ball in both build-ups and got caught out in transition so we must keep the ball better,” Mills exclusively told Football365 ...... ...... “I think Declan will look at himself and be honest that he didn’t perform at the same level that he has been for Arsenal last season,” he said. “I think he has played a little further forward for Arsenal which has benefited him, maybe in the next tournament we will have that holding midfielder, like [Kobbie] Mainoo which will give Declan a chance to play that bit further forward and be more aggressive on the ball to dominate possession
So if reports are to be believed, the below have had at least feeler conversations about the position. Luis De La Fuente Pochettino Southgate Of those three I think Southgate is most likely. His track record and his relationship with Crocker.
Gary Lineker on Southgate: I'm getting more deja vu. Gary Lineker fires back at claim he's the reason for Gareth Southgate quitting England (msn.com) I think he's been the right person to bring the nation together in terms of the football team," he said on the podcast. "And, now, maybe it's time for someone else with a more modern, attacking style of football. Because I think the game's gone away from being successful if you're really defensive."
The staff may be more important right now. Is there anything existing of value? Will the new coach be provided the resources to hire the best people for the job? How far behind is the US from the rest of the developed world? Berhalter 2.0 seemed to acknowledge these issues by hiring 3 European coaches and replicating with BJ's the NFL style sideline coaching tablet. However, learning on the job leaves the US less prepared to play against the Colombia's, Germany's, Netherlands', and Japan that execute on tactics to attack our weaknesses and withstand our strengths. Reporters have seen Pulisic play with Dutch players, while Premier League coaches are questioned with analytics derived set piece strategies. Both Earnie and GGG were fixated with 1998 and generic management activities (KPIs, retreats, conferences, executive communication training, etc); their modern sports management and coaching seemed quite lacking. Does Batson and some board members attempt to overhaul & modernize the system based on a successful college program? Did the current management methods properly manage a 60 man senior team plus the rosters to fill all of the under teams? Forcing title-contending players to miss 5 league matches for a poorly prepared 'c' team tournament does not indicate well-thought planning. As they hire the new coach, is the plan to limit responsibility to only the 'A' team? Will Crocker's responsibilities include player pool and scouting of opponents? With players spread out over 10 leagues in Europe plus 3 in North America, will he mostly manage it from Europe and expand Gooch's role? The calendar, scheduling players' time, and travel is a mess; is there a way to consolidate while finding a way for non- A team players to travel to watch the play speed of the A team and their top competitors?
The technical director at England also overlapped with him at Tottenham and they were closely together there and a had a good relationship. And I think he takes the England job before the US one.
YOU don't mind Cherundolo but the entire fan base will. They'll be bitching for years that we hired an MLS yes man, a puppet etc. All you have to do is check on social media and they are already complaining about Cherundolo when nothing has been announced yet.
Yeah Arsenal see Declan Rice as an 8 and it’s where he was so successful for him. He can play 6 if needed but he’s not as good a player from that position. This is why Southgate was bemoaning the loss of Kalvin Phillips. Not because he’s a world beater but because they were lacking a player who played like him to play next to Rice. And I don’t know if Mainoo is that player. People seem to think Adam Wharton might be but I haven’t watched him enough.
I think this is why it really matters the source of a report. Specific reporters have a track record of being credible and those are what I’d pay attention to. And there will be leaks, especially from the agent side. I also think we are probably still fairly early in the process.
I don't think this ESPN+ article was posted yet here. Ryan O'Hanlon looks at the criteria Crocker used in the 2023 job search and takes him to task for just focusing on a bunch of corporate buzzwords rather having more performance-based criteria. But he also makes the case that it's really hard or even impossible to actually quantify the effect that a coach has on team performance. So, I don't know what we're left with. I guess making a semi-educated gut decision?
Southgate's record in the Euro and World Cup: results in regulation play Against elo-top-10: 3W2D5L Against elo-top-5: 0W1D3L For comparison, Spain had 4 wins against Top-5 competition in this past World Cup. England have had some very fortunate bracket placement during Southgate's tenure.
Take into account: 1. the coach's record, especially in cup competitions 2. compatibility to the pool of the coach's preferred formation and tactics 3. if USSF are still desperate to have the team play a certain formation and style, then the coach should have similar experience. 4. salary demands 5. a willingness to live in the US, though USSF should drop the requirement to live in a certain city. Start with a pool of Nancy, Schmetzer, Cherundolo, Moyes, Renard, Benitez. Take things from there.
Ding ding ding, lazy numbering in my posts, but this was what I was trying to put across in my posts: Reasons why England made these 3 runs in 4 tourneys: 1. This is the best generation of English players ever. 2. They had easy paths in 3 of the 4 tourneys. 3. The proof is in what happened the second that England had to play an elite world power instead of the Sweden's, Ukraine's, Slovakia's, Switzerland's, Senegal's and Colombia's of the world. They lost, every single time (except Germany in '21, and most consider Germany '18-'22 the worst Germany of the past 75 years). Not any evidence he was a genuine difference maker, at all (other than perhaps mentality in extra time and penalties where they outperformed previous standards)...those prior England teams in the knockouts lost to West Germany ('90), Germany ('96), Argentina ('98), Brazil ('02), Portugal ('04, and '06), Germany ('10), Italy ('12) (the embarrassments are separate: failing to qualify or get out of the group in '88, '92, '94, '00, '08, '14, losing to Iceland in '16)....There's literally only one tournament knockout historically, Iceland, where they had a wtf failure....so what happened since then, is very much in keeping with what happened before Southgate's hiring: England always loses when they play to a legit power, just like before. The illusion was created by the ease of the path's in '18, '21, and '24. In fairness to them, I also genuinely think they were good the past six years, and that Southgate almost certainly harmed rather than helped their cause in '21 and '24 at the very least (losing to France wasn't a lock, but was pretty close to one after France's disastrous Euro '21 performance 18 months earlier).
Taking pot shots at corporate speak is easy clicks and points but it obfuscates the reality: hiring the right coach is hard with the exception of a small number of no brainers. Key elements like man management can vary from player to player. The no brainers are rarely truly interested, and everyone is going to come with some warts. Make sure that the coach aligns enough with long term strategy that you aren't yo-yoing left and right, make sure they are committed, and make sure they have a reasonable plan for your pool. The thing I truly have no idea about is that some coaches really struggle to adjust between club and international and some do not. How you judge that if they have no experience is more or less beyond me.
It's quite something to start the case against Gareth Southgate by complaining about the upgraded talent when he was involved for several years in the development of that talent! He was "director of elite development" for 18 months from 2011, whatever that means, and the U-21 coach for three years from 2013, where he coached Kane, Stones, Loftus-Cheek, et al. I don't know who else came through the England youth system since I was just looking at their Youth Euro 2015 roster. Maybe by coincidence they just had a golden group of great players maturing at the same time. Since England has been befuddled for decades by Premier League dominance not translating into national success, though, it's fair to credit Southgate a bit for the talent at his disposal. The rest of your points are valid concerns shared by most of us, even as silly as it is to hear howling from those already convinced he's unambiguously awful.
Yeah, it's hard. Otherwise I'd have a much better record of evaluating soccer managers. I thought the best piece of advice in O'Hanlon's piece was about fighting against one's biases when it comes to hiring somebody. Having said that, there's something I call "collective bias", i.e. the culture of a particular organization. Does it work to hire the "best" if the best candidate would never fit into the culture of the organization he will be joining? My answer to that question, when doing some hiring at the company I worked for, was "no". The best candidate would simply be seen as not being the "best" after trying to navigate the peculiarities of the organization I was hiring for. Crocker is in a bit of a bind. His best hire would be a tinkerer like Nagelsman if he had time on his side. Unfortunately, the bureaucracy was obsessed with Berhalter after the WC fiasco. We badly needed to start tinkering on Jan 1 2023; instead we got the Berhalter MMA in a must win game in Copa and were deservedly grouped. We have 2 years - let the tinkering begin !!