Originally Posted by
jloome
I think you stem the damage as early as possible.
I think he's wed philosophically to a style of play, and I think it's one that cannot compete in MLS anymore. In the early era, when half the starters were journeymen, the team that worked harder, pressed and controlled the ball for longer won games.
Now, teams know how to break out of containment quickly and utilize speed. All Columbus did in the second half was push its fullbacks up further to hems ours in and had the play move more laterally, including instructing Cucho and Zelarayan to move laterally and look for width.
That pushed our players further apart, which made progressive passing more difficult and exposed our lack of speed.
We did nothing.
I'm not saying he doesn't adjust, as there have been times when BB does exactly that. But I am saying that, like Jesse Marsch and Chris Armas, he is wedded to a philosophical system.
And this league benefits best from managers who adapt to the players they have, not those who try to match the roster to a style.
The Shaff decision was unforgivable on several levels. First, he was our best young prospect. Fuck all that noise about JMR and Nelson, as Shaff already had six goals for the first team, and looked dangerous whenever near goal.
Second, it appears we let him go because he refused to have his career ruined by a manager who thinks players are positionally interchangeable chess pieces. He tried to force Shaff into a FB role and Petrasso into winger. Then he cut them both. Now they're both STARTING at teams better than us.
We see this not just in his abysmal handling of our young talent, but in the fact that he uses rotations and player movement that routinely leave out-of-position players covering spots they have no business being near.
Third, he appears to have no motivational skill, and if anything, the dressing room comes out flatter in each second half than at the start of the game.
My vote would be to fire him now, to accept the signs are accurate and his style is untenable on a roster as imbalanced as ours. BRing in a coach with a multi-league winning pedigree, someone who has a history of tactical adaptation and leaving places better than he found them.
That means no MLS 1.0 coaches, even Curtin ( although why he'd leave Philly for our mess is beyond me). Curtin, Marsch, Preki... .all of Bob's "proteges" play single-system football. We can rave about how good Philly looks now, but he's been there for nine years without winning anything. It took them nine years just to get to the point of cohesion.
There's a reason none of these guys succeed in charge anymore, and it's tactical rigidity underpinned by philosophical beliefs.
To me, he has done immeasurably more harm than good. He has cost us several good young players, torn down the squad completely and we look no better.