I liked how ES played, and I thought they looked much better than before, even if the results didn't show it. There's only so far you can get when your talent is on a downward trajectory. He deserves a look.
"The US is a very young team and inexperienced which they showed at times but they still played above their head" After the Ndland loss and a lackluster group performance (SOG? GF?) it was remarked that this team had more players by far in top level clubs, compared to previous USA teams, yet they underperformed previous teams. I don't see how you could claim our team played "above their heads". That would be especially true when you consider how much more talent we had than Wales and Iran, measured by club affiliation.
Not sure what everyone expects of the USMNT. They were never as good as you think they are , were eliminated from the last tournament only 4 years ago , made it to the second round this time going undefeated and outplayed mighty England. For a US team in the WC dating back to 1990, that is usually unheard of. Even when they made it to the quarterfinals in 2002 in Japan-Korea they lost their last first round game to Poland. Most pundits never picked the US to make it out of the group so in that sense, yeah, they played over their heads. Do they still have a long way to go to make it to the next level? You better believe it because currently, they are nowhere near competing with the world's best. The US needs to improve at every position but mostly at scoring goals if they want to make to to the quarterfinals and beyond.
Well, that's easy. What was expected (in general, not by me) was that a team with more players playing at top clubs including UCL, would perform better than previous USA teams which never had such illustrious club affiliations in such numbers.
I think it's immaterial as I don't think he's looking for the job, but Mourinho would be close to the top of the list of managers that I have no interest in.
Klopp isn't the straight-up asshole that Mourinho is, and his style of play jibes more with our strengths than Mou's. Pep.... Pep's a better individual, too, though I don't know that he would have much to give to our side. He's only ever managed overly-talented front-runners. There's a different art to managing a mid-level side (in our case, we're a strong mid-level side, particularly looking forward to the next cycle), an overwhelming favorite, and a minnow. Hervé Rennard is getting plaudits for doing well with a minnow, but that's not who we are, most especially not at home. But we aren't exactly France or Brazil or Man U or Barcelona or FC Bayern, either...
I think we need to pump the brakes on this being the most talented team we've had, at least a little bit. The pool is larger and more talented than ever, but the team itself has plenty of guys who are only bench players at their big clubs.
They really don't have starting players playing in top UCL teams though. I mean not when you analyze each player. I watch a lot of Serie A and Dest is on the bench at Milan. Weston McKennie is on Juventus but everyone wants him out because he can’t adapt to the rigors of the Serie A or a team like Juve. He has also been injured and the rumor is he could very well be transferred in January. Pulisic is on Chelsea but plays as a substitute. Matt Turner is on Arsenal but I don't think he has played yet. Yunus Musah is on Valencia but they aren't a top team, The others aren’t really on top teams that I can see. None of these guys aren't really playing on top teams... Tyler Adams - Leeds United Tim Ream -Fulham Haji Wright -Antalyaspor Antonee Robinson - Fulham As far as Americans are concerned and comparing to past WC rosters, you can say they are good players but in European circles, most of them are average or even below par at best.
Pep had actual conversations with the Brazilian FA about taking their job, that is until the Brazilians learned about his wage demands… International federations cannot compete for elite managers with elite clubs when it comes to money.
I would say prior to a match with pre-game tactical moves he's pretty good. But it's during the match that maybe he isn't the best. I'm a college football fan and a fan of OU. We had lincoln riley for several years and he's now with USC. But he is much the same as Gregg. Lincoln is really good for the 30 or so scripted plays he designs to start a game. Where he's terrible is if something happens and he has to go off script. I can't even begin to list the games he was up 21+ in the first half to either lose the game in the second or end up only winning by 3. Happened to USC this year vs Utah too. Same thing. Gregg really reminds me a lot of that.
Mourinho would be hilarious just to see which player he decided he’d publicly undermine and tear apart
I'd amend your statement to read "Mourinho would be hilarious to see which MEXICAN player he decided he'd publicly undermine and tear apart." I mean that would be entertaining. Let's see if we can make this happen. C'mon, FMF, you just know you want Mourinho...
I do think the ownership were a bit hasty in firing/sacking him. However, his club had not won a single match this season, so it was hardly surprising that they let him go. They've done a bit better since he was canned, but only just.
I think Mourinho is an extreme case of this, but I don’t think Pep or Klopp have this quality for instance (in terms of teams burning out on them quickly like Mourinho), Sir Alex (has as much sustained success in one place as anyone), used to say he made a point of turning over the squad every few years because he knew things would go stale if he stuck with the same group for too long.
Roma fans were wanting Jose Mourinho out a month or two ago but then they changed their minds. He could be avaiable soon but the question is , does he want the USMNT job?
I don't think that position is very attractive. National teams coaches are mostly old guys that used to be top club coaches, but want more job security and less day by day work. They are also paid less than top club coaches. Someone like March might not take the job even if proposed. If Gregg gets decent offers it might convince Curtin or Dolo take that road, otherwise we should look for retirement age guy like Shmetzer.
A guy who despises young players and has a million mile long track record of pissing everyone off by blaming everyone but himself for his failures. Hire him and his tenure ends in an explosion of harassment lawsuits from staff. yikes!
Let's just stop thinking about Mourinho. For national teams the coach has to play on the emotional side of the players for motivation and I don't see him doing that. For club soccer, yes there is the emotional aspect, but it's more about working to get the job done. Day in, day out, week in, week out. He's not the leader you'd follow to battle another country. Oh, he also strikes a lot of people as a jerk.
Our players won't be that young for the next cycle. He wouldn't have the same time to grate on people, and his pragmatic approach is well suited for the short time-frames allowed for international windows. I think someone like Pep would be an awful international coach because his methods require too much training time to fully implement in the 2 week windows you get.
I watched nearly every VfB Stuttgart match played under Matarazzo and he didn't do defense well. If you have to score 4 or more goals to win a match, you are set up for failure
Marsh is one that I don't think will take it even if offered. Hasn't had a complete season at Leeds yet and the fans like him there. Love him when they're winning. He's building his legacy at Leeds, bringing in Aaronson and Adams, and leaving now would be seen as, dare I say, an act of a traitor. And for US Soccer management, why would you remove an American who is managing at the Premier League? It's great to have an American there. Leave him be. I don't see it happening with Marsh, unless Leeds gets relegated and he is fired. There is a non-negligible probability of that happening.
Though he also got the team promoted from the 2nd Bundesliga and had a good first year in the Bundesliga. I think he did a good job given the talent at his disposal. He’s also one only 3 US born managers to coach in a top 5 league. I also like that he came up under Nagelsmann. He’s as good as an American option as there is. Hard to compare against international options without knowing what they are.
One of the problems no one is really talking about is the sample size of games (3-5) at the end of a 4-year cycle is incredibly small to really take credible measurements. 1 brain fart, stupid red, crazy bounce, etc can be the difference between moving on and getting bounced out. How insane is it that we spend 4 years gearing up for maybe 5 games?