Next manager after Poch

This is the internet age. No one checks their own premises in an argument any more.

 

In the land of the 3 extra touches to settle a ball teams, the 1 extra touch to settle a ball team would be king.....

It's hard to plan B when you can be let down by simple things like passing & trapping. Sit and counter breaks down when you never know which pass is going to require waiting or tracking back, or if it is on target it's going to pop-up or go 5yards away.

I hope the next wave of guys being identified in the 2030 team threads are a little better at the fundamentals than this team was, just like this team was a little better than the 2010-2018 cohort.

 

Why Pep?
Do we have the players that could implement his style? Remember, Pep underachieved at Bayern Munchen. From winning the Champions League the year before he arrived, they were unable to win again in the 5 years he was manager. Same core group plus several additions.
At ManCIty Pep has fallen out with top players from Aguero to Grealish, only to spend big on replacements.
I love the way his teams play, but is he the best man for a fairly fixed player pool?

 

Grealish is over-rated. His best season was at Notts County

 

I don’t think it’s accurate he underachieved at Bayern despite them not winning the Champions League. He also wasn’t manager there for 5 years. And the players he fell out with were more on those players and not really on him.

The argument for Pep is 1) he’s maybe the best coach of all time, and 2) he’s evolved quite a bit tactically over time in response to changes in the game and it’s that ability to evolve his tactics which makes me think he’d figure it out. He played very different at Barcelona than he did at Bayern than he did at Man City. He’s absolutely got principles he believes in but his style isn’t some fixed thing.

 

He won 3 Bundesliga titles, 2 DFB Pokal's and reached 3 Champions League semi-finals and did it with an aging team.

Sure we could pay him $10 million a year, or we could just give the job to Cherundolo, who would probably take the Gold Cup and Nations League more seriously.

Then we wouldn't be so shocked when we lose to a top 10 team in R16.

 

i agree. perhaps one 1/2 season under gerrard at villa.

 

We were the team that took one touch to settle the ball though--until the Belgium game. Our whole team was great in the two warmups and the first 4 matches of the tournament. They failed to repeat all the precise, quick ball movement that they had exhibited 6 games in a row. Belgium was the outlier--better opponent or not.

 

I have a strong aesthetic aversion to Grealish. The hair, the short socks, the body like the kid from Radio Free Roscoe.

 

Cherundolo doesn't seem so bad imo though I'd kinda wanna try a French or Dutch manager. They're coaching all over and got experience with getting midtier talent to overexceed at least at tournaments.

 

He was overrated at Wigan and Everton and he managed some of the best players in the world in Belgium.

He speaks perfect English after living in England for 20+ years and he's got a lot of media experience.

 

World's most punchable face

 

If Pochettino does move on, and we hire an interim while the Fed sorts out director positions, isn't Cherundolo the most likely candidate? It's not going to be one of Poch's assistants this time. Maybe the U20 coach?

But Cherundolo would seem a very likely interim possibility. That might get him a foot in the door even more than the Olympic job.

 

I would guess the interim would either be Cherundolo or Nico Estevez who is super familiar to USSF as a USMNT assistant under Berhalter.

 

The path is already set, I think. The only quirk with the path below would be Copa América timing with the OIympics -- if they coincide at all, then it might cost Cherundolo.

Option A.

If Pochettino moves on, it's Cherundolo as interim. US Soccer is slow as hell; they will take at least six months to replace Crocker (more likely closer to 12), and then Cherundolo will be given Copa América while the Sporting Director gets accustomed, just like Crocker. Copa will be a referendum, and he'll either stay or go.

Option B.

If Pochettino moves on, it's Cherundolo as interim. US Soccer is tired of all these foreigners leaving, and Onyewu is promoted to Sporting Director or equivalent. Cherundolo is promoted to head coach, provided he doesn't shit the bed completely.

A lot of it depends on how ambitious the federation is.

 

I do think if Pochettino says no they will take a run at Pep first no matter what. His resume is so unimpeachable that no one would quibble with his hiring and we shouldn’t have any issues raising the money to pay his salary.

Whether he’d say yes is unknown and there’s only one Pep so otherwise we probably end up the way you laid it out.

 

Pep is favorite for the Italian Job. He might be overkill though.

"The only way to get through it is as a team. Which means you do everything I say".

 

Do we know that none of Poch's assistants would be interested?

 

I am not sure it is a good idea to assume that Pep is a good fit for our pool. Is he? Patterns and plans that only work if the players can execute consistently at the highest level look like crap when the players can't. Maybe a manager that knows how to do more grinding is needed.

 

They've been with him since forever, so if he leaves, I would think the very strong assumption is that they go with him.

 

Cherundolo as an interim works for me.

 

The first coach fired from the Premier League this upcoming season.

 

I think he’s a favorite from the Italian side but unclear if he’d take it or not. And the Italians unclear if they can meet his salary demands (which I think we could get outside donors to do). More generally is the Italy job more attractive than the US job? I don’t know the answer there.

I think 1) he’d figure it out, and 2) this is a guy who has evolved his style significantly throughout his career, I don’t think you can assume the way he played with Man City would be the way he tries to play with us in four years in a World Cup.

 

I don't think the Italian job is specifically attractive. They do have more talent than their results, but I'm pretty sure Guardiola can see the lack of top end talent to really compete at the level he'd like.

Of course, the US doesn't have that, but expectations are much lower and the press much less a problem and so on. Italy's a great place to live, I'd imagine, but as we know, national team coaches can live anywhere.