This is also on Pat, sorry has to he said. He hired the guy and now less than a year later he's fired, on Labor Day of all days, lol.
Honestly, from a different point of view, this is no way on Pat. Nagamura got his opportunity from Pat no doubt and yet here we are again as our players performances are again a last place team in the West and this has cost the rookie coach his job. This firing is specifically on our players this season. Said pros who really just laid down some nights, even at home! Then on the road our guys would play just to be out there, then surprise themselves by finding an early goal cuz we do have some guys that can play this damn sport yet then, you guessed it, laying down somewhere around the 65th minute and on. Finding a way to let the lead slip as they ship goals in the second half. I will say what I have said all season, that Nagamura did have the oddest tendencies with starting line up selections all season and even more odd substitution picks. Often not getting guys ready on the sideline before they enter the match, ready. Or just playing guys who are way outta their depth for where MLS has grown into as a solid, professional soccer league.
I love Pat Onstad, especially his transparency, but truth be told this has been a pretty terrible first year in the job for him. The coach he hired didn't last a year. Thiago was, by his own admission, a mistake. Zeca, a player he stated he'd followed and tried to get at Columbus has fallen so far out of favor he can't get on the pitch. Sebas is extremely underwhelming for the money spent. Herrera is a high profile player but really not clear at all how he fits this team. So on and so forth.
He realized it was good money after bad to keep him and the rest of the SKC second liners. Probably also saw season ticket renewal rates as well. Can’t wait to hear all of the “we can’t fire another coach this quick” brigade whine and moan. What did Nagamura show that made anyone think he was the answer?
https://www.houstondynamofc.com/news/houston-dynamo-fc-part-ways-with-head-coach-paulo-nagamura? "we are excited about this opportunity for Kenny. He is a talented up-and-coming coach who worked his way up through our coaching system and he will lead the team for the remainder of the season.” translation after several of these blown 1-0 leads we're gonna see if bundy can can do any better. either that or we'd encouraged this in a youth movement direction but paolo said he could walk and chew gum same time except he can't and one of his better looking players last night was the HD2 kid. so since this is mathematically cooked we'll have the HD2 coach up, and start playing kids (except roster compliance was september 2 so there are limits eg castilla palomino to how youth-y this can go anymore. raines was technically up on a weekend loan.)
there was nothing that Nagamura showed on the sideline or tactically that made me think he was a good coach. I suppose he could make up for that by being a great training ground and player development guy which wasn’t apparent as well. onstad has to own part of this. He’s been in MLS management a pretty long time now and he signed off on Nagamura. His Steve Clark signing looks bad as well Glenn did an interview with Tab Ramos last week, was interesting what he said he learned and what he would do different and mistakes he made in Houston
tactics are unclear, selection is dubious, but more importantly the sheer amount of "reverse comebacks" from 1-0, "upsets," and sweeping SJ but trailing them in the table hint at some degree of underperformance. the coaching is odd and the results poor. that one is easy. GM to me requires more subtle understanding. the lead executives aren't soccer people which means pat is one of the more senior soccer people. when they want heads to roll pat (and jordan before him) get to frame how well they have done their job when discussing who needs to be fired. they take advantage of their intermediate role translating for non soccer people. i don't think you'd get away with this, this way, in a sport like football, where, say, the cowboys' owner played college football, and many people in executive jobs played some level. harder to bullsh*t owners and staff who have their own clue. i am glad we are not taking 2 years to do the obvious at coach but institutional growth seems to be limited to youth/HD2 and the willingness to churn the coaches faster. the GMs still can use the HC as a cushion while doing bad work, the tactics/identity remain silly and not fitting to an underdog, and we will have to see this offseason to what degree we are willing to churn recent mistakes or whether we still pretend we have the people and are failed by coaches. on a good day i think this was 7th or so. but the firing announcement is pat's spin that "we made 10 changes" when in reality he made like 20 decisions and if only 10 changed the team that was his fault. to me it will be telling how much churn happens. how many mistakes THIS YEAR we admit making. if we don't admit mistakes any more than jordan did then we're screwed.
i mean, in terms of last night, clark per recently was like feet in concrete to react laterally, HH was out hurt, sebas was largely anonymous, parker hurt himself making fairly normal athletic plays, hadebe came on and helped give up both goals, coco is overrated, vera doesn't do much, DQ was off the bench and is hit and miss, adam doesn't defend, and fafa has underwhelmed. the core is a mess. heads need to roll. thus far my impression is only DQ and sebas are on slippery thin ice. sebas has been set up to take the whole fall. DQ is being offramped. needs to go much further. if they nibble around the edges and blame the coach then the same will happen over and over.
somewhat concerned that if pat is protected and bundy given a sincere chance, followed by another full dress search, that we repeat this same stupid mistake of a GM spending a month and a half making personnel decisions before we have a coach hired. i appreciate bundy's winning history but if they wanted to sincerely try that, it should have been weeks ago where you could assess 10 games or so. like barrett got to coach long enough you could look at they were better drilled but the coach couldn't win a game. personally put on your big boy pants and spend what it takes to get a name brand in here before we make one personnel decision. no search. no GM/HC split brain.
"identity" needs to go. defense from a 433 is idiotic. the tactical carpet needs to match the drapes. personnel-formation-tactics. this needs to quit being a fashion follower and whatever they want to do needs to work in summer.
Thanks for the tip that Glenn had Tab back on. I read the article about him in the Athletic which was interesting as well but I’ll see if I can find him on Glenn’s show.
Cabrera got 3 years. Ramos got 2 years. Nagamura got 1 year. What is consistent here? The roster has been one of, if not the, worse roster in the league each of those years. The more things change, the more things stay the same. Hell yeah this is on Pat Onstad. 100%. I'll call for it once again. This team needs an experienced MLS-proven big-personality head coach that is THE big man on campus and can hold everyone else accountable, including Onstad. I can think of only one guy that has the personality we need that might be available, and he has some unique downside aspects to him. Namely, it would feel like going backwards. But I don't see the Dynamo getting Arena, Smetzer, Vermes or Vanney. That leaves one name: Kinnear.
I disagree! too many blown leads, too many different starting lineups, too many strange subs for it to be 100% on Pat. I say 40% Pat and 60% Naga. any other seasoned manager and most of the other names that got thrown around with this same lineup steals a point or salvages a point here or there and would have us in contention for the last playoff spot and not for the wooden spoon. i change my own mind 20% Pat and 80% Naga.
As a fanbase we sure are talking ourselves into Tata Martino without any real reporting he’s even considering coming back to MLS
The set up here, unless it changes, is Onstad and co make all player decisions. Manager plays with the team he is given. Nobody like Martino is going to go along with that.
in a table league i don't think percentages help, i think the table does. i think pat got to decide on 2/3 of the team we fielded and to sign 2 DPs. the team he put out there, IMO, ceiling of 6-7th place. to me under similar circumstances we got this up to 4th in 2017. taking that opportunity and creating a team that was always marginal does not impress. paolo then given a range of potential outcomes from about 6-14th has this 14th. personally i think GM is more important to the big picture as it sets the range of possible outcomes. HC then manages it within that range. talent generally wins out. this team is too average in too many attributes. short, not that skilled, not great finishers, not that fast, not natural defenders. i think table analysis is more useful because postseason is like basic competence to most of us and the question is are you that capable. to me with the amount we spent -- summer lull or not -- the outcome is pitiful. my concern if pat is retained as well as the HC/GM split is next year is another 6-7th place best case scenario. personally i don't get why a new regime trying to sell this is different put up with the GM bullsh*t any more than the HC. the fans want to know this is being seen clearly and then they want a result. i doubt squeaking this up to 8th next season is going to get much positive response. any structure likely to result in an outcome the fans won't appreciate should be tossed overboard. pat, based on this season, isn't any better than jordan and we were supposedly moving past that era. i would remove all doubt that if they put money into this again in the winter that the people leading it have any more clue than before. personally i think we are arrogant and have not been appropriately humbled in keeping with our long term table slot. most teams that stunk this bad this long would not just do the same sh*t over and over next time. eg fulham has an offense this time it's up. personally i think we need to go name brand and spend what it takes, and make any changes it tales, eg, get rid of GM position, we are not sharp enough to try clever things. we need to get back to basics. basics is hire a serious coach and get the f*ck out the way. i am slightly concerned the way we talked about bundy sounds like we're the same cheapskates still. implicit in any caretaker is they could blow the doors off and win the job. but they sounded a little too serious about like this is his serious chance. that sounds to me like the same cheapskates pimping optimism.
Well Bundy at least on paper has a superior resume than Nagamura did (low bars and all that!) Ideal world you probably want to have sacked Nagamura earlier in the season if you wanted to give Bundy a fair shake run. Wonder if he’s just caretaking and back to HD2 end of the season. I don’t think Nagamura was great, but I don’t think the problem principally is at the coaching level. I’ve got more fear with the GM position. Rough first year for Onstad and hopefully there’s improvement.
He has to be just a caretaker. If you hire him, regardless of what happens in these 5 games, you’re hiring someone who has a youth coaching background for their inaugural 1st team head coaching role for the 3rd time in a row. There’s no way to positively spin that.
If this is the case (it’s certainly bandied around here frequently and sounds credible) then Segal needs to consider sacking or demoting Onstad (GM, but you’re squarely here to manage roster rules) Think he’s more responsible than Nagamura for this season.
I’m not sure about that if they’re still wedded to a strong GM system. On some level you can have Onstad point to D2 and say “see, my system works, Nagamura is just the wrong guy” I don’t know. I mean do we draw someone materially better if he’s being brought in to manage a losing team and being given limited control over the roster and system?
If I had my preference, they tell Bundy he is not a candidate at this stage. No pressure to perform in these last 5 games. We want you to blood some of our youth. Quinones, Castilla, Palomino, etc, etc. Get those guys minutes, that's all we want out of these last 5 games.
My point is more that Onstad is responsible for any blame you put on Nagamura. When you have this system where the GM gets to make all the decisions, then scapegoat the coach, you have no accountability. So lets say your right. Nagamura is a coaching disaster. That is 100% on Onstad. If Segal is going to run a club where he holds multiple people accountable then no one will be accountable. The focus will not be how to win -- it will be how to make sure you don't get blamed. BTW ... I've been 100% consistent on this view for many many years. Ever since I noticed the one consistent characteristic of the most successful clubs in MLS: a coach who was also GM (or strong enough that a GM can be held accountable by the coach). Now -- one more thing. Since you think the current roster is so damn good, what player on the Dynamo roster not named HH would you take over the Seattle counterpart?
Martino doesn't become available until Nov 31 when he will be fired after Mexico fails to qualify out of their group. Actually, I think Mexico beats Poland so they get out of their group. That puts Martino available on 12/4/22 after losing the first knock-out game. If he wins that R16 game he will be named Mexico coach for life. (Which means he is fired next summer.)