Huge win for the Bradleys today as Stabaek beat Sandjeford 2-1 to move one spot out of the relegation zone.
If they win in their final game next week, they stay up.
Ah... I know he was old news in MLS terms, but I do wonder what would've happened if we'd had a good GM and not given Bob both sets of keys. We might at least have gotten two good seasons of winning, Ala LAFC. But his player acquisition and roster judgment was just abysmal.
Yeah, I’m with you here. We began being abysmal right away at the top of the first season because of his roster decisions. It was as if the sporting director Bradley gave the coach Bradley no chance.Originally Posted by jloome
Another one on Manning. Not understanding/seeing (major) details like this has been the difference between being good and being bad.
Last edited by los sonadores; 11-27-2023 at 05:30 AM.
Stabaek sure does seem to love the Bradleys…
Check out this tweet at [URL]https://twitter.com/MenInBlazers/status/1728845723486351481[/URL]
Hmmm… wonder if their supporters will get banned for storming, and lighting flares on, the pitch?
Last edited by Mr. Inbetween; 11-27-2023 at 01:53 PM.
Yep I've definitely always maintained Bradley the GM was much worse than Bradley the coach.
I think he had two huge obstacles in his way here from the get go, neither of which will exist in other roles. 1) He was put in a GM spot, and proved to be completely incompetent at that - that never should have happened. Our roster construction, use of funds and use of cap space under Bob was up there for the literal worst in the history of the league - I'm not exaggerating when I say that, I mean in the leagues history I'm not sure there's been a spell where so much of it was so poorly managed and so many really, really bad decisions were made
and 2) His son was the captain, this was just always going to be a terrible situation even if both handled it perfectly (And they didn't, I'll always go back to that attempt to blame Pozuelo for his sons error - Jesus Christ. If I was in that dressing room that one would have had me calling my agent the next day) it was just never going to work in the dressing room. Even if no bias existed, players would always perceive some, it's human nature. It was just a stupid dynamic and never should have been allowed to happen. I think his son as a coach is a completely different story and would play out probably fine, maybe some potential for issues, but nothing like having him as captain
So it wouldn't surprise me if he went on to have success elsewhere, he has a solid resume, but it also doesn't change the fact that we 100% needed to get rid of him and the situation here was untenable and most of the blame for that falls on Mannings shoulders. Just a bad situation all round.
Last edited by JoesphNdo; 11-27-2023 at 10:46 AM.
I'm not sold on Bradley the coach because his style of play has not evolved.
Would work fine in lower leagues where play hasn't really evolved either.
I think his system, which LAFC still uses, works in MLS if you have a team of players with exceptional work rates. But as several of his former players, including Heath Pierce, have noted, it burns players out within two or three years at most and they tire of the relentlessness of it.
I don't think it's suited to MLS or below, it's suited to a top-level team... with exactly the right players, because it's a complete tactical shift away from traditional shape, to utilitarianism and using whatever space is available.
It's sort of a slightly modernized version of total football; control the ball in the opponent's end, pin them in, interplay and switch positions as needed to create support triangles, ping the ball into dangerous areas of the box via short passes and short crosses from the top corners.
But it's unrealistic unless you have a very high energy team. It was utterly unsuited to the Italians, who want to slow everything down and pass it around until movement can create an opening.
I also think it's undone by more disciplined teams who hold shape, as the pressing aspects aren't committed enough and the defensive line is too high most of the time to defend quick switches of field and breaks.
Often, when it is successful, it's hiding its flaws via individual effort because it requires top performers to work at the best of times. So you get a lot of games like Seattle-LAFC on Sunday, where LAFC had 30% possession and one good chance, basically, but still won.
MLS looks like a fast, free-flowing game. But that's because there's very little shape discipline and because most of the energy is spent trying to create isolated breakaways. In higher leagues, they're actually quicker and more more intense, but it's largely reserved for time in possession and defending against it in a block, as a unit, rather than running the length of the field.
In Norway -- and a lot of Europe -- players have higher work rates over the balance of the game, which suits what Bradley Ball offers. They aren't always playing transition football, so they can dedicate more energy to quick interplay and more intensity while in possession, and defenders have to be very quick, positionally in tune and solid. They have to close quickly, they can't mark guys off from ten yards away.
It's evident even watching the 35+ Barcelona trio at Miami that they're thinking, moving and acting more quickly than the defences they're facing. MLS teams look great in transition, where speed and skill on the ball to deliver a long pass count for a lot. But they look terrible when bunkered or playing as a team shape, slow and with too much defensive space afforded to attackers.
It's why guys like Giovinco, Bouanga and Acosta do so well here: they're small and/or quick and can beat more than one guy on the dribble. In an environment where almost no one marks tightly or presses consistently throughout the game, they have twice as much time and space as they would in Europe to make a skill play or move the ball into space.
It's also why slower, older guys suffer in MLS. Their intelligence to see ahead of the play isn't of much use when few teams hold shape.
And it's why Wilfried Nancy is being so successful. He's hybridized a mix of the two; they do use the break and speed, but mostly just to set up in their opponent's end, where they then move the ball much more quickly, confidently and aggressively than other teams.
He's basically turning them into a next level team not on the talent but but eschewing the lack of tactical discipline common to MLS in favour of something harder to deal with, which is fast transition as a TEAM, rather than forwards running against the backline.
Last edited by jloome; 11-28-2023 at 11:36 AM.
Yeah. It feels one dimensional. If you have the better roster it can win but if you don’t, he never adjusts.
He’s the “always rock” guy in rock-paper-cisors
Check out this tweet at https://twitter.com/WakingtheRed/status/1729674204197363844
Note to the entitled: this is how you qualify for a MLS HC job (or nats job). Actually climb the ranks and put in work.
Shame our club pushes out good people in favour of the underperforming and dim.
^I don’t think this is right… Dichio walked the plank because of the failures of the Academy here.
It was in 2021 that people started counting the number of CMNT players that we had had through the doors here as youngsters… there was an Alistair Johnston story in particular, around that time, where Alistair just ripped everyone involved at TFC for how they ran their program…
“What the world needs is more geniuses with humility; there are so few of us left.”
I think whatever failures there are with TFCA, they go well beyond Dichio.
And still continue long after he left.
^^ + ^ Agreed
“What the world needs is more geniuses with humility; there are so few of us left.”
Anybody remember when the last one of these "All for Ones" was? I guess they had nothing good to report before, so here they are trying to restore some hope in the franchise. Let's see what happens.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I68HJv6gQeA&t=70s
this is not what happened at all… him leaving had all to with the FO, from manning down to Bob in the way the club was being run and the realistic opportunities he would have here at the club
If results mean something, then Dichio at the academy is not a success.
Sing his name for what he did
Hope he does well and learns and moves forward
The academy kids with him here did not do well
Not sold on the idea that Dichio would be a good MLS head coach. Loved the player, but it may be for the best that he'll be coaching in USL. I hope he does well.
I don't think it was a mistake to not promote him (mind you who they got instead was a terrible mistake).
Being a good MLS coach today means a lot of focus on tactics, formation, building the right team, analytics, individual and team development, and such. It takes an analytical mindset, regardless of one's personal style of coaching.
Hmmm....MLSE paying to make sure the preseason training pitch is good....
Check out this tweet at https://twitter.com/BMOGrounds/status/1730350803565584691
I'm very impressed with what Tim Bezbatchenko has done in Columbus with a fraction of the budget TFC has. In my alternate ideal universe Manning goes on to other things after the 2017 Cup win and Bez becomes our team President instead of heading to Columbus.
MLS is a tough, physical league, that emphasizes speed, and features plastic fields, grueling travel, extreme weather, and incompetent refs. - NK Toronto
Check out this tweet at https://twitter.com/ayik_daniel/status/1731371689986937315
By my count that's 5* cup appearance squads he's built in 8 seasons. I just laugh when people try to argue he was bad at this point, his record is incredible, any argument against is so utterly ridiculous it's verging on self parody. He was a huge huge loss for us but I'm delighted for him, I'm hoping they take it all this season. I truly hope we had no chance to keep him because anything else would be a catastrophic reflection on our front office.
*You could argue against 2019, but that's the bones of his squad
We went with the old horse, who should be sent to the glue factory, rather than the young one because we thought he was inexperienced (and was considered a protege of the guy the board couldn’t handle personality wise).
Bez was on a bit of a cold streak by the time he left (Aketxe, VDW) but I still think the primary thing that pushed him out of here was his new boss and the sense he wasn’t going to get the upwardly mobile opportunities he wanted.
That's my worry, and a suspicion I've had, though truthfully we'll likely never know. We were sold the idea that he just wanted to leave to go home and never wanted to stay, but we were sold that idea on other big figures who left who later went on to contradict it (Like Vanney, Pozuelo and I believe Delgado and some others) so that could mean anything
Either way, the operation of this club since it's height will be taught in business and sport studies institutions on 'what not to do with a successful enterprise' for decades to come
Last edited by JoesphNdo; 12-04-2023 at 10:14 AM.
Agreed. It does make for an obvious case study. Hard to believe how much of an outlier we have been given the resources afforded to the club and some of its natural advantages.
For anyone even half paying attention the events around here should ring alarm bells.
this is the craziest part is they created false narratives to paint beloved ones as the bad guy while they raised their equity in the eyes of supporters- this alone combined with the hardball negotiating tactics with the vets reeks of arrogance at its finest.
Bez talks in detail about how he built Columbus into a winner. Detailed and a worthwhile read.
https://www.mlssoccer.com/news/cucho...ney-to-mls-cup
I really hope he thinks he has unfinished business here and comes back at some point
“We understood that it was going to upset the fans, but sometimes that's why we're in this seat, is to make those difficult decisions,” Bezbatchenko said. “We're hopefully seeing around the corner a little bit and people will understand once they see the full picture.
I'd give anything for Manning to think like that, anything! Difficult decisions that upset the fans in the short term but produce long term pay offs!? It seems so alien here
New thread for generalhttp://forums.redpatchboys.ca/showth...er-discussion) banter.
MLS is a tough, physical league, that emphasizes speed, and features plastic fields, grueling travel, extreme weather, and incompetent refs. - NK Toronto
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