I'm surprised that nobody has posted a thread about the coach yet, but it seems appropriate now that the season is over. How would you guys rate his performance? I think that he's done an excellent job with respect to personnel selection. The players he found during the offseason have played very well for us, especially the guys selected to solidify the defense. - Carlos Valdes was a great acquisition. Valdes has been excellent paired with Danny Califf. Our two CB's have allowed among the lowest number of shots on goal in the league. - Brian Caroll has been very effective at keeping pressure off the back four and breaking up our opponents' attack in the midfield. - Faryd Mondragon really shored up our leaky goalkeeping. Zac MacMath has shown that he's an excellent keeper as well; he really stepped up when Mondragon was injured. - Sheanon Williams was acquired last year, but he's improved to the point where he's among the best wingbacks in the league. Klinsmann is a fool for not calling him up. - Roger Torres has really improved this year with increased playing time. - Paunovic was a good acquisition and is able to play a number of different attacking roles. He is decent defensively as well. - Ruiz, during his time with the club, was putting the ball into the net when nobody else was. It's debatable whether introducing him into the lineup screwed up the Mwanga/LeToux chemistry. The results have certainly been much better than last year. We lost far fewer games, and only lost at home once during the regular season. On the other hand, we have a lot of trouble attacking. Most of the time the attack consists of dumping a long ball to LeToux behind the opposition's back line and hoping he runs onto it to score. While this plays to LeToux's strength of making runs in space, it's not going to work against a team that doesn't play the high line, and it certainly doesn't work against a team that is bunkering. I don't think Nowak has any clear idea of how he wants the team to attack, because he was rotating the formation and the attacking personnel every week. For a coach at his level, this is really unacceptable, IMO. The lack of attacking chemistry means that most of the time when the team goes forward, the players just end up being dispossessed in the final third because they do not know what to expect from their teammates. As a result, the players stand around instead of making intelligent runs or quick combination passes. This confusion was readily apparent in last night's game, and it's something that we've seen all year. Nowak is heavily involved in aspects of the club other than just managing the team, so it's unlikely that he'll be going anywhere anytime soon. While I think a coach ought to be given at least three years to execute a plan, the results during this playoff run were not at all encouraging. We'll have to do far better next year against teams that will almost certainly be stronger than those we faced this year.
Now if he could just figure out how to use said personnel in a semi-consistent manner, we might be on to something.
While I like some of Nowak's decisions on player acquisitions, for sure, at the same time I find some of his decisions quite questionable. They need more skill going forward in the attack. If Torres cannot for some reason go full 90, then you need to sign an additional player who can create from the midfield, maintain possession, and distribute in the attack over the course of an entire match. I'm still baffled by Nowak's decision to protect Seitz and not Salinas. Finding a consistent strike partner for Le Toux seems to be a real problem for this manager. That should be a priority for them this offseason. Consistency up front is important for chemistry in the attack, but the constant shuffling of starters to pair alongside Le Toux does not lend itself toward that goal. Generally starting games so defensively and utilizing kick ball tactics can only get you so far, as we have just seen. To use a famous quote, "you play to win the game!" You can only win games if you score goals. Bringing on attacking mids like Torres and Adu, who create chances and stabilize midfield possession, so late into matches really ties your own hands behind your back in terms of generating offense. These things need to be cleaned up by Nowak if this team is to succeed next season.
For most of the season, I didn't have many issues w/ Nowak... but he F-ed up vs. Houston both games, imho. The Migz debacle at home is self-explanatory, really. But I think he's got some 'splainin' to do for the away game as well.i I don't have an issue with the lineup to start at Hou, assuming Paun was good to go (and he didn't look too slow to me), but I always fear for our attack when I see Le Toux out wide, and I really question the TRIPLE sub use in the second half. Whole line changes like that might work for the Flyers, but I think the team just never got any real momentum back after that, too many players trying to find the game, find their new spots, etc. I think the subs in and of themselves were fine in terms of players on and off.... but spread them out...
I for the life of me can't figure out why more blame is not being placed at Nowak's feet. Game 1 1. Migs debacle at home. 2. 3 Man/5 Man defense 3. No pressure on ball like you guys have played all year. Game 2 1. Moving Le Toux away from forward in game 2. 2. Paunovic starting when he looked really rusty. 3. Waiting until 66th minute to mix things up in Houston. I am truly glad we didn't have to face you guys firing on all cylinders thanks to Nowak. I think the 2nd half in Game 1 and Minutes 66-84 or so in Game 2 shows that Houston would have been on its back feet if you guys decided to play what had gotten you here. Instead Nowak tinkered away your chances including specifically the terrible lineup/tactics from the first half of Game 1. Regardless, you guys are loaded and young and will be back next season with a few tweeks.
I was hoping the scope of the discussion would be larger than the playoff games, but I agree that the lineup decisions against Houston were quite foolish. The 5-3-2 at home vs. Houston was atrocious. Still, the 1-0 away loss @ Houston looked a LOT like what happened in North Jersey, Vancouver, LA, and Portland. In Dallas it was worse, because we lost by two. In Columbus, we lost 2-1; we were a bit lucky with a Paunovic header. We have had big problems scoring goals, particularly away from home. I think a lot of that has to do with the coaching.
Last year, I thought Nowak was great. This year, I'm wondering if he's gone senile. The last three games especially were just horrible displays of coaching. On one hand, a coach needs to be stubborn. On the other hand, a coach needs to be able to recognize when he screws up and take some responsibility for it. Maybe I missed it, but I don't recall Nowak taking blame for anything. Just because we're horrible on set pieces (both sides of the ball) doesn't mean that Migz shouldn't take heat when his marker is the one that scored. He's been awful all year. He shouldn't see the field ever.
I will never be his biggest supporter here, but I'm willing to give him the benefit of the doubt through next season. Ownership love him, and he's been more positive than negative for the body of work overall. He just drives me up a wall on gameday. I don't know what bothers me more: His lineups or his propensity to favor guys who have played for him before. Passing on guys because they haven't worked for you in other times? Not so much equating to "advance scouting" in my book. He did show some adaptability toward "emptying the bucket" at various times this season. I'm simply left with the hope that one more roster transfusion can get this group to the point where the staff can fade into the background during matches.
A lot of what he does I don't understand, but I see three possible explanations beyond stupidity and insanity: 1. Right now he's trying to teach more than win and he's hoping the players will learn to adapt without his screamed directions and late subs 2. The players are young and inconsistent and one-dimensional and he's constantly trying to adjust to their mood swings, self delusion, or whatever 3. He knows we have no players who can score agains a packed in defense and too many who can't defend against set pieces so against some teams he just tries random stuff hoping it will work So I'm giving him the benefit of the doubt and slamming my head in to the table.
In general, we see 14 of the plaers for about two hours each week during the season. The coaches see all the players for forty or so hours each week. Some of what we see as crazy has to be related to this. But, yes, some of what we see is just plain crazy.
The issue with starting Migs (out of position not-with-standing) is well beyond that. Starting Migs means you have one less attacking mid on the field, which does not help an already limited team in terms of scoring. Playing him so deep means you stretch out the midfield, which opens up space for the opponent to maintain possession and passing lanes through the middle of the park. In addition, it hampers the linking ability between your midfielders and forwards (since you now essentially have less players in the midfield along with larger gaps). The overall tactic was the issue, in my book.
One of the things that really bugs me about Nowak is that he loves to start his players out of their natural positions. This includes using players that are better played centrally (Adu) out on the wing, using midfielders as defenders (Garfan, Migz, Naka), and possibly the most damaging, using strikers (LeToux, McInerney, Paunovic) as attacking midfielders. Paunovic is really the only one that can be played effectively as an AM. LeToux and McInerney are good at making runs onto the ball in space, and Mwanga is (usually) good at beating defenders one on one. These guys are really not playmakers, but Nowak seems to think that throwing strikers on the field generates more offense by default.
We can freak out or we can keep things in perspective. There were a number of times before the Madrid game when I questioned if we were really good enough to be at the top of the table. Despite the disappointment, this season was a bit of a surprise. For a second year team, we did well particularly if you consider the team got younger with last year's off season moves. Not playing to our full potential over the last four games leaves a bad taste in the mouth, but let's not overlook the games when Nowak made aggressive, attacking substitutions to go for the win instead of bunkering for the draw. I thought a lot of the lineup changes were to match up against the opponent but some choices left me scratching my head. In Peter we trust? He's safe as long as we improve half as much again next year.
Very questionable decisions, but with where we ended this season it would make zero sense to call for his head.... that being said, I'm starting to think he is a better GM type then actual tactical coach....
I really hope this is the case. Really really. One of the things that he has decided to do is to rotate his offensive five. He did it last year and he did it this year. Anyone who plays for him with this team has just have to accept and adopt to it. IMHO, that is not Adu's problem, but we can agree to disagree on that. It is encouraging to see him doing different things from his time at DC. He used to run his starting 11 into the ground and he has not done that with the Union. He has also become better at substitutions. Not perfect, but much improved.
Respectfully put, one goal on one play does not negate the overall pattern of being dominated in the possession department and having a shell of a midfield connecting passes over the course of an entire half.
I'm not as hard on Migs as some, but in this case I think I have a good reason to deflect some criticism against him. Migs' marking on that goal was awful, to be sure, but what's more worrying is that not one dynamo player was marked on that play. Migs marking was terrbile, no doubt, but if literally no one is tight to their mark I'd have to say it's probably a coaching issue. And, as an aside, I thought Migs has been decent at centerback. He's been calm enough on the ball, and his ability to actually make a decent tackle or make an important clearance is almost comical when compared to how poorly he's done in the midfield this year. He would be a decent backup centerback if not for his 150k price tag. I like him, but we should start looking at picking up a CB in the draft or grabbing someone from HCI to play alongside Tait, and getting rid of both Migs and JDG as soon as we have serviceable backups.
In my mind, I had this chalked up to losing Keon unexpectedly at a really awkward time. Hopefully Keon, Mapp, and the Farfans (if we get a LB) will be enough out on the wings, and Adu can ply his trade in the middle. This brings up a concern of mine, though: is anyone else thinking that we probably can't play any combination of Adu, Torres, or Paunovic in the middle at the same time? They all seem like, when played in the midfield, the type of player who's looking to run the offense, and I think having more than one in at a time won't work for anyone.
What's even more comical is that we had Tait and Gonzo at CB, but neither played a league minute this year. We know that Nowak never rests his back line, which really became an issue later in the season when our defenders looked exhausted after playing all those minutes without a break. Harvey was subbed with some regularity, but that and his trade only shows us that Nowak must have had a pretty low opinion of him. I can't remember Garfan ever being subbed while at LB, and he was far worse defensively than Harvey. There's absolutely no reason that JDG could not have started a few games. He is a serviceable defender. I've never seen Tait play, but you would expect him to see minutes at some point. Even Langley had minutes this year. Playing a different formation with different personnel every game is a coaching problem, IMO. Playing them out of position is a problem, too. It indicates that he either has no idea what he's doing up front or hasn't decided what he wants to do there. You can't really expect the players to adapt to this, which is why the offense is so inconsistent. That being said, I'd agree that Adu has problems as a player that have nothing to do with lineups or formations. The team was substantially improved this year, but I think we could have gone farther with better game day coaching.
I don't agree that Garfan was far worse than Harvey defensively. I actually think they were about a wash defensively. I watched Harvey a few times with Vancouver and he was dreadful. It does surprise me that Gonzalez never saw the field. Tait was injured and only with the team for a short time so I didn't expect him to see the field, but it was odd that we never saw a natural center back in when Valdes or Califf couldn't go.
Tait wasn't here nearly as long as JDG; the former was only signed in mid-September. Plus, wasn't he sidelined with a supposed ankle injury in the last few weeks?
Piotr's tactical ineptitude combined with his classless handling of Le Toux's final contract year and his prioritization of profit over producing an ever better and more competitive side leaves me to wonder if perhaps his suitability as a manager should once more be called into question. For the first time since this club's founding, I seriously question the U's priorities as a club.