The next coaching axe falls in ATL: Atlanta United part ways with Gonzalo Pineda Jonathan Sigal Monday, Jun 3, 2024, 11:58 AM Former Rev Rob Valentino takes over as interim.
Arthur Blank continues to get it all wrong ever since Tata left. And his history with Falcons coaches is nothing to write home about either.
When they were a very successful expansion team their supporters only knew success and boy, were they ever cocky and insufferable. Now they are dealing with the reality that no team rides high all the time and are being brought back down to Earth.
Peter Vermes is next. They've had a good run with the guy, but boy, do they need a change. As for Porter, if last week's result turns out to be just a dead-cat bounce, I think he may be done too.
I disagree that he may be done. In my mind, this situation is not Porter's fault. He's actually making progress with what he has to work with. This week it will be even more of a challenge with no Esmir and no Chanca, but last week showed me that Porter will be given the time to turn this around. By, time, I mean, he'll get at least one more transfer window and possibly one whole season and off-season.
And facing a team that has greatly troubled us in recent years. Anyway, you could be right. But personally, I'm not seeing much improvement in the team. They got frankly lucky against Nashville, and I don't expect a good result this weekend. But certainly, even with a bad result, Kraft could be like, "Stay the course!" And the fans can continue to gnash their teeth.
It's easy to be super frustrated and gnash teeth, for sure. Still harder to put frustrations aside to be analytical and notice subtle improvements that appear to be solidifying the team. I'm trying to hang on for dear life until the next transfer window. I know we will find great difficulty in scoring against Pink Cow, but I can see us preventing them from scoring as well. Maybe a nice, big fat nil-nil is in the offing for this Saturday! Such entertainment!
The decision around Porter's future with the club sits with Onalfo. The Krafts in all likelihood will not get involved.
I don't think Jon K. is going to shell out a new multi-year contract for another new coach while eating the rest of Porter's without calling Onalfo on the carpet - or even canning him (Onalfo). I really don't think Onalfo gets to fire a coach months into a multi-year deal w/o ownership's okay.
Short of a public off-field incident or proof he's lost the locker room, Porter's not going anywhere yet. Let's see what he does in the summer window as we look ahead to '25.
Onalfo isn't going to look to fire Porter in year one because that's more indicative of his own poor job performance than anything else. Porter is going nowhere; our only hope is that Onalfo is fired.
I agree. Also, we have the new recruiter who came over from LAFC. He's proven, so I'm encouraged by that.
Revs one of 3 teams (with ORL and SKC) to get an F: MLS midseason grades: How your team is doing halfway through 2024 Matthew Doyle Sunday, Jun 9, 2024, 08:31 PM
The Noel Buck comment strikes home. This time last year it felt like this was a team that was getting things right both on and off the field. They had sold on Buchanan, Turner, Buksa and Petro was in the works. They had young players getting significant minutes and looking like they deserved it. One could imagine Buck, Esmir and maybe Panayatou being sold on. They were winning with a ton of the current players and looked pretty good. They were in second place. It seemed like a well run organization [apparently with a HUGE harassment problem?] So, while it may not all be on Porter, the Porter Era is growing synonymous with NOT winning, NOT having rising youth, NOT having previously productive players perform well, NOT being a successful organization on any front. That can't all be chalked up to Brandon Bye and Borrero injuries. And while one head coach seemed to be able to get a good performance out of the players, two others have flat out failed. I'm supportive of BA but even I don't think he is walk-on-water good at coaching. Something is bleeped-up.
It's becoming evident to me that Porter is a system coach who is imposing his system. This is a tough task. It's beginning to show fruit, however. We will struggle to win this season (short of a major offensive signing) but we will win some more matches. The new cake is only about 1/4 baked in my mind right now.
But you have to find a system that maximizes the talents of your players, not the other way around. When we went on our cup run in 2002, we had 5 solid players for the back 4: Joey Franchino, Douda Kante, Rusty Pierce, Carlos Llamosa, and Jay Heaps. With injuries and card accumulation it worked out that they all got lots of minutes. If it ain't broke, don't fix it, right? When Dempsey joined the following year, Nicol knew he had to find a way to get him on the field, so he adjusted to a 3-5-2, which disrupted the back 4 that did well the previous year. He changed the system to fit the players, not forcing parallelogram-shaped pegs into octagonal holes.
If I could have repped this 100 times I would have. They're exceptions, Mourinho going to Abramovich with a list of players and he opens his wallet, but 99.9% of the time as a coach you have to figure out how to best use the players you have. It works the same way as running a business or organization. You need to maximize the ability of what you have in front of you. It's not your f'ing system. It's your ability to lead and produce results.
Precisely. Porter is the opposite. He'll change the players to fit his system. Unfortunately this will take much longer than change system to fit the team, but it could prepare us to have a vehicle that could go the distance. Anywho, it's what we have, so I'm embracing it. What choice do I/we have?
We played a back four in 2002 and 2003. Dempsey was drafted in 2004. Kante fell off a cliff in 2003 and Llamosa suffered what was essentially a career-ending injury before the season started. Switching to a three-man back line was more about fitting the defensive pieces we had together as it was about getting Dempsey on the field IMO.
If the players don’t know the system after practicing with this Staff since January, the system is either too hard or the players are too stupid. What’s going to happen when, in an offseason, 30% of the players change? Should we expect the first half of every season is going to consist of the new bodies learning the system? This “system” has the following players, once arguably productive under another coach, looking like they should be in a 3rd division club: Polster, Kay, Harks, McNamara, Buck (the further down the list the less they play). Romney who was arguably a stud is a shadow of that. Kessler seems to be a shadow too. Do we really imagine a Kraft owned team is going to put together a significantly better collection of players? Aside from Vrioni, the Gil(s), Borero, and Chancalay strike me as this team punching above their weight in the foreign roster spots. The system has broken the players and I don’t think he’s going to be able to replace them all.
All of this is subjective and arguable. All I see is their last two losses being disappointing because they played well; and our last two games are wins. I see progress. I guess you don't.