absolutely agree, philosophical, always playing for the win, willing to try different things, able to get the best from his players, no time for prima donnas. he's also had to manage a lot of roster churn this season, which is always a challenge. considering this year was a write-off, austerity mode '21 and so on, here we are with a 12% chance of making the playoffs, and climbing! okay, so that part's not so great but it's been a lot more fun than I expected and if Chofis can keep scoring at this pace, who knows?
If Leitch becomes GM, and Matias and Leitch mutually agree for him to finish out his contract at least, it would be interesting to see what Almeyda can do with some roster acquisitions that Chris helps to make. Hopefully Almeyda wouldn't put up a fuss to lose Fierro, Rios, Alanis, Vega, and maybe Abecasis. That's over $3 mil I believe. I feel like there are some good pieces to build on with this roster: Nathan, Chofis, Cade, Judson, Jebo, JT, M. Lopez, The Beas(t), etc., and heck another year of Salinas? I don't see him slowing down. Don't see why you wouldn't retain him at $280k.
I agree with all this but might be more inclined to keep Abecasis and maybe Alanis. I fully expect Chris to be our next GM and I expect Almeyda to be here next year. I have confidence CL can get a whole lot more bang for that $3 million (assuming Fish doesn't just pocket it), CL has to be careful to evaluate players for injury potential but hopefully he's had plenty of time to think about this and is ready to hit the ground running with signing ideas.
Thanks for that, and catching my mis-typing. Matías said that he could NOT communicate with the assistant coaches nor players during the game. So I took him to mean that he was not allowed to. I’m fine with that. And it been allowed, he could have just used a cell phone. It seems to me that if a coach is suspended, he shouldn’t be able to sit in one of the executive suites and talk to the assistant coaches on the sideline. That’s a lot like not being suspended. Whatever the case, he couldn’t talk to his assistants during the game. Also, I thought he was at least a little drunk during the post game press conference. Many other people in the chat forum thought so also. I’m still not convinced that he’s a great coach, and I also think (this bit is important) that Fisher is only willing to spend so much on the team. So if he spends a lot of the coaching staff, then there is less for players, or academy facilities, or scouts, or some thing or other. So I want to see us hire a less expensive coaching staff who are from MLS and have respect for MLS and MLS players. I think that would give us more money to play with. Go Quakesfans!! - Mark
CL will look for players inside MLS to at least firm up our depth if not start. If CL gets to make the call, I think that MA and all of his staff and most of the guys he brought in will be gone. CL will want faster players, no doubt younger players, and he’ll get either Ian Russell or some other USian coach to run the team. I expect us to go to a 3-5-2 as our main formation, switching it up occasionally to a 3-4-3 or a 4-3-3. The man-marking stuff will be a thing of the past. And we’ll be more attack minded. That just me guessing, but I’m comfy writing what I guess in public. Go Quakesfans!! Go Chris Leitch!! - Mark
I hope you're wrong on Matias. He has another year on his contract, I see no reason why the Quakes would break it. My guess is they work together, hopefully build on the attack minded soccer we're seeing now.
Yeah, i agree, I’m not arguing that. I’d just like to know how many times he’s getting carded each season. He looks pretty calm to me, so sometimes I wonder if PRO referees are “out to get him”. I don’t see him getting in the face of the 4th Official, the AR, or the center. I suppose @bsman knows what’s going on down there but can’t tell us!!
IMHO the only player that really needs to go is Rios. He would have been great in MLS but my guess is he's just not in his prime anymore. Of course we have a number of players in the 'overpaid' category. Only replace them if CL can identify a sold replacement. I'd be sad to see Fierro go - the last couple games have not been his best. I'm hoping to see him hit his peak before a decision needs to be made on him.
Fierro and Alanis are serviceable players (Fierro serviceable at best) but at ~$800k they are essentially DPs that have been bought down. We can and must do better if we want to be competitive.
The problem is that Fierro, Rios, and Alanis have been playing at about a $200K-$400K level but are paid $800K each. I really don't think CL will have much trouble finding replacements for them that would be much more impactful yet be paid half of their salaries.
A look back..... October 8,2021 marks the 3rd anniversary that Matias Almeyda was introduced as Quakes new head coach!
One of the worst nepotists I hope to ever see coach in the MLS! I would not be sad to see him -- and his friends -- exit San Jose at the end of this season.
A Reno 1868 fan said Almeyda decided to attend a game in Reno one time and was apparently very upset with head coach Ian Russell because his assistant's son Galindo-Cruz was not in the starting lineup.
By definition: the practice among those with power or influence of favoring relatives or friends, especially by giving them jobs. Way too much of this going on with our current player and coaching roster! Some deserving, some not so much, or not at all!
SoccerIsOurLife just posted the formal definition of nepotism via Oxford I believe. Apparently it includes "friends" as well as relatives. Webster has a narrower definition.
Well, i swear by dictionary.com… But maybe the definition is changing because in American entertainment, everyone is related to everyone else. Carrie Fisher had a video somewhere of all the people in Hollywood that she was related to.
Well it doesn't matter so much what we call it - we know what it is. I remember initially folks were kinda fine with Matias signing players that used to play for him or with him because "they know / are used to his 'system'". I was never too bought into that - I don't think his "system" needs months and months to master. After all, how can a player like Nathan walk in and immediately rake while a player like Fierro, who played under Almeyda for a few years(?) struggles to make an impact. Or it's OK that he's signing crony player X because he knows the player well. That hasn't really held water over time either because most of the crony signings have been disappointments. So he may know the player well but he didn't always gauge how well they'd do in MLS all that well. We should not be paying nearly $1 mil for both of Fierro and Rios for example.
OK, I take your meaning, and yeah, far too much “Friend of Matías” going on in our team. Go Quakesfans!! - Mark
Seems to me that half of the roster deals with Almeyda’s friends, former players and/or acquaintances. Luciano Abecasis, Javier Eduardo López, Eric Remedi , Cristian Espinoza, Carlos Fierro, Andrés Ríos and especially Daniel Vega. Seems to me nepotism or rather 'the practice among those with power or influence of favoring relatives or friends, especially by giving them jobs' is very much in play! Call it whatever you want he toally gave cake jobs to his buds who aren't producing..
but then we won't have a team president, a GM or a coach, or his cadre of assistant coaches or all his Friends of Matais, and the whole entire Chivas Lite USA Part Duex experiment will be seen as a total bust and the rebuilding years will begin at the hands of a less experienced coach, assistants, GM, players... ...that's a whole lotta rebuilding. Good thing we have 2012 to reflect on.
We are already in rebuilding mode and can't win with a coach , president or GM and a non existent owner so who cares? If we have to suck anyway, let's do it with younger players and let them grow!