OK, I'm going to try to make this work this time. Imagine this.... You've got the team you have to work with. What do you do? Do you make trades. How do you get the team in better shape? What will you first 11 look like? How will you deal with someone who mistakenly misses a team meeting.
I refuse to let them hire me (or any of you)... INSTEAD, I'd convince Checketts that the best thing he can do is find a solid European coach - find someone in the Championship or even Division 1 that has spent plenty of time developing talent through a youth system and also had to work with a very constrained budget and has shown they can do a lot with a little. We don't need Mourinho, Wenger, Sir Alex... They have skills suited for another type of business - i.e. they guy best to run a mammoth, well-established Fortune 1000 company is not necessarily the best (or even good) at running a small, entrepreneurial company on a limited budget. RSL/MLS is more like the latter than the former... We need someone who (in no particular order): 1) is grounded in solid team soccer (players skill development, team tactics, etc) 2) can cultivate (and identify/evaluate) new talent 3) work with a limited budget to find talent 4) put the talent together in the BEST combination of that talent 5) provide leadership that motives, inspires players to perform at their very best On an MLS budget, we might be able to get a Scandinavian coach (ala SGE in his early days) or Dutch or English or French... but someone who is not in the top leagues yet.
Good answer. Very constructive, but for a momement assume that you really are the best qualified to coach the team. Some variation of the bird flu was spread from the World Cup and all the available European coaches were quarentied causing the US to close its boarders to European coaches. (Strange virus, that bird flu. Only affects coaches in this state.) What would you do team wise?
Without wasting too much time on this..... ------------Garlick Cabrera--Pope--Akwari---Torres -----------Sequira-- Klein-----------------Johnson/Jimenez -----------Balouchy ----Watson/Williams ----------------Cunningham I would press the living shit out of the opposition. The offense would run through Balouchy in the middle and play down the flanks through Klein or Johnson/Jimenez. If your workrate is poor (Williams anyone?) You're off the fecking field. I would zonal mark with my back four (except on set pieces) and try to keep them as high on the field as possible playing the offside trap. That's just a start. I understand this is a sarcastic question.... Your point being that there isn't enough talent on this squad etc.... But who do you blame for that? I wouldn't bring a dmid onto the field for a striker when I'm down 3-0 either to "shore up" the game.
first of all i would hire a good Strength and Conditioning coach, and get these players into top fitness. Second i would either use Sl7vk formation or go with a 3-2-1-2 ------------Nolly ----Cabrera--Pope--Akwari ------Cutler------Sequeira-- Klein-----------------Johnson/Jimenez -------Balouchy/Williams------ ---Watson/Johnson---Cunningham
While I'm not a big fan of Talley or Torres, how is Akwari better? Why would you go with him? Absense makes the heart grow fonder I suppose but he wasn't very good last year. His marking is poor and he's slow. He can barely get by in the middle. He's definitely not going to cut it on the outside.
Shrewd move. You're hired. But we go seperate ways here. I have no problem with a foreign coach, but it would have to be a Yallop, Nichol, or Clarke type, not somebody plucked from one of the leagues you mention. You'd have a hard time getting people with the qualities you mention to leave a Scandinavian, French, Dutch or English league to come to the US in the first place, and I don't think it would be worth trying to convince them. You mention a young SGE, I'm not sure I'd take the real thing. If we get our wish and RSL beats Red Bull this weekend, NY may try to prove me wrong sometime in the near future (although if they do make a change they might hold out over the summer to see what happens with Arena), but history has shown big name foreign coaches have been failures in MLS. MLS is what it is, and though it is growing and becoming a better league, it still has pecuilarities that outsiders have a difficult time dealing with. I completely agree with your list of coaching qualities, but to get me on board you'd have to add an intricate knowledge of the workings of MLS. Maybe, just maybe, you could get away with one of the types you mention if you get a longtime MLS assistant, a Brian Bliss type guy, as his number two, but then you have the whole personal dynamics questions and that can be a pretty messy situation if you force a number two on a new guy coming in. Which is why I would have to think very hard about whether or not I could hire anybody without MLS experience, either as a player or assistant. I'm completely against the whole retreat thing in almost every case, which definitely keeps the options smaller, but I feel pretty strongly about that qualification. I don't think somebody like Bradley comes along every day.
I like this, particularly the youth move. At this point, RSL should be focusing on the future. Giving younger players experience, as long as the lineup is peppered with vets that can encourage and teach the youth, will be valuable next year. Beside, I think this is a strong team. You will see some good victories with this 11.
Gk: either Nolly or Garlick...but giving Nolly some time to continue to progress... D: re sl7vk's comment, I would probably go with the same back four, but I would not play them very high...too slow as a group and no make up speed on the outsides. M: due to the lack on speed in the back, I think we stay with the twin d-mids. But I allow Klein and Ballouchi the opportunity to come more to the center. I do not let Williams play in the midfield...ever. Plan on Williams being a 55-60 minute player at most...make sure he knows it...pull him as soon as he starts walking at inopportune times. F: Cunningham up front with Williams, Johnson to sub. With that all being said, if we play a team whose outside backs are not great, Atiba up front with Cunningham...Klein and Johnson outside. Due to the lack of speed in our D, I do not go with full pressure all over the pitch (gap is too big between D and M, unless we press forward and then we give up balls over the top)...Force/invite the opposition to play to their outside half and then bring the numbers. On the win look to exploit Cunningham down the line. All this assumes that I believe Williams is actually fit. If he is not, he is playing reserves until he gets fit.
I think the tendancy with a slow back four is to sit them far back, but this in my opinion is disasterous. How many times do we face 1 v 1's from breakaway strikers vs having guys carve up our middle while our defense sags further and further back. Play them high and play the trap. A well organized back four with decent timing can make up for their total lack of speed with some savy. Frustrate the pacy strikers by having that flag go up 12-15 times a game.
With salary caps and over MLS wages, Talley and Torres aren't necessarily bad as MLS starters. I vascilate on these things but I'm leaning more torward it being about chemistry and how players work together. There may not be muc of a need to shake up talent much on the team (trading AW for a natural LM would be nice) so much as anew coach, better tactics and a fresh start.
So you get a new coach. In this thread, that's you. What do you do with this team? Or do you really believe the new coach will, simply because he's not Ellinger, will be the difference? Even if a new coach doesn't mix up the line up, it seems he's got ot do something: bring in a drill seargent; offer a bonus of every running step that each player makes; hold love-in sessions so the team truely bonds. You hit on better tactics; name some. But try to address the issues as a new coach would; without laying blame on the old coach. In this thread, Ellinger is gone so we don't have to talk about him.
Good thing you didn't waste too much time on this.... What a frightening scenario. You’ve got a rookie, Balouchy, running the attack. He didn’t produce much in the way of stats in college and is now expected to launch this offense. You’ve got Johnson/Jimenez on the flank, another couple players with little experience and no record of performance. I predict an ugly, ugly, ugly season.
any body who will come in and coach this team will bench Brown and Talley. I have no doubt about it i just think Ellinger doesn't have the respect to bench these guys these 2 are obvious oh yea ans Williams(lazy). .................Garlic....................... cabrera pope torres Kline cutler douglas watson or johnson baluchy cunningham kreis. This line up will get us into the post season!!!!!!!!
uhmm. . . 1 plus 3 plus 4 plus 1 plus 2 . . . let's see, carry the 1. . . yep. 11. A disadvantage in those 12 man leagues, but otherwise ok.
On a (negligably) more constructive note. Given the talent on the team, (or lack thereof) the most important coaching is about getting the most out of the talent we have. Williams needs to be on a short leash. Akwari needs to play only in cases of broken limbs (plural). It frustrates me to read the article in today's Trib about too much talent in the front when our backline is so full of holes. In my opinion a coach needs to adapt and bend the traditional rules a bit. Like the Phoenix Suns, just get the best guys out there. Matchup problems go both ways, exploit them. I know soccer and basketball are different, but why can't we have a small, fast guy accustomed to playing offense play a little d? Sure there will probably be a learning curve, but c'mon it's gotta be better than the 4 we're throwing out there. Going back to the basketball analogy, why couldn't the Jazz starting five be Williams PG, Kirilenko SG, Harpring SF, Boozer PF, Okur C? edit: p.s. the Jazz thing is meant only to illustrate the Soccer point, not to hijack the thread. . . it's a hypothetical.
You are right, I blew right past Douglas... Guess this must be Douglas Sequeira. Fortunately I did count "garlic" as a player, otherwise I'd have had 'em playing with nine.