You know that pragmatic streak that Vanney has? When he tries to shut down games with one goal leads with half an hour left? Olsen does that from kick off alot of the time. Even when he had Rooney and Acosta.
A gent and a scholar off the pitch but he hasn't shown enough on the pitch with DC to be given the keys here.
Look - there just isn't a Caleb Porter or Bruce Arena type sitting on the sidelines waiting for the right opportunity. Any domestic hire is gonna have flaws out the wing Wang. An overseas hire and you're rolling the dice.
Last edited by Areathrasher; 12-31-2020 at 10:26 PM.
Ben Olsen was DC United's manager for 10 years. At no time I've seen him grow tactically from when he started in 2010 till now.
He's a good player's manager, that he makes his players want to play for him. (and probably why despite winning the Wooden Spoon, he won 2013 US Open Cup) But tactically, he sucks. Think Paul Mariner level of tactical acumen.
Chris Armas... I don't know enough to say, but let's just say that NYRB wants to play kids. Cool. Armas's job was to win with the kids. And he wasn't very good at it for 2019 and 2020 seasons.
IMO internally within MLS, there aren't many Greg Vanney level of coaches out there, as in, can win in MLS and still adapt to the changes (MLS 3.0 coaches). Other than Brian Schmeltzer and Bob Bradley and Caleb Porter, maybe Oscar Pareja, I'd say other MLS managers are either a downgrade, or unproven. (Though I'd give Robin Fraser a shot as TFC manager)
“Years have gone by and I’ve finally learned to accept myself for who I am: a beggar for good football.
I go about the world, hand outstretched, and in the stadiums I plead: ‘A pretty move, for the love of God.’
And when good football happens, I give thanks for the miracle and I don’t give a damn which team or country performs it.”
-Eduardo Galeano
So a little thought expirement. Name your own shortlist. Categorize it by Domestic, Foreign, Youth Specialist and shits and giggles.
Domestic
Dom Kinnear - Has a winning pedigree. Thought of as a bit of a dinosaur now but maybe a few years as an assistant in LA might give him some new thoughts/perspective/philosophy
Foreign
Sebastián Beccacece - Not many Bielsaistas on the market. Beccacece was assistant to Jorge Sampoli with Chile and Argentina. Was amazing with Defensa y Justicia in Argentina. Hasnt knocked it out of the park since in any of his other gigs though. Will bring an attacking style. Handsome bastard too.
Youth Specialist
Bobby Smyrniotis - I mean we all know him. If the Curtis worst case scenario is true then giveth Bobby?
Shits and Giggles
Roy Keane - Fucking Keano, enough said. Bradley's hero too.
Is that fair? His team didn’t spend anything for almost the entirety of his tenure. If your highest paid guy was Zoltan Stieber or Alvaro Saborio, that's how you'd coach, too.
They were pretty successful with Rooney and Acosta. I see they were fourth lowest in the league in goals scored in 2019 but they were second in goals allowed, first the east, with only 38 allowed in 34 games. (Amazing to think we pumped 4 goals by them in 15 minutes in extra time!). Anyway, Olsen's tactics worked, the stat line doesn’t scream mismanagement...
Last edited by ensco; 12-31-2020 at 11:36 PM.
"There are some people who might have better technique than me, and some may be fitter than me, but the main thing is tactics. With most players, tactics are missing. You can divide tactics into insight, trust, and daring." - Johan Cruyff
I admit the game viewership stats for MLS / TFC are bad. But there is definitely also media bias for & against specific sports, for example even when TFC was selling well. There are certain guys who stick to certain sports (often hockey) because it's what they're familiar with, and it fits a certain easy schema in the broadcast & media universe. Like the sports radio or tv shows on RSN or TSN that you mentioned. Those guys have very little interest or knowledge to sell or talk about TFC, so it goes both ways, chicken and egg: not much is reported, so it stays small, so there's not much interest, etc. It also affected basketball for a long time -- there was much less being reported about the Raptors relative to the Leafs a few years ago even when there was already a huge and growing interest towards the Raptors, especially among a younger demographic that you would normally want to grab. Some of the old guys and old shows kinda slept on that until the Raptors were just too big to ignore.
I agree with that, and it's actually a big change. TFC used to have pretty good coverage by journalists, much better than most other MLS cities. Still didn't make it on the evening highlight shows, and TFC would still rarely cross the lips of lots of the big old sports guys. But we did have pretty good coverage of games & practices, by multiple journos, and a good number of stories published on the web and in print. I think that was because even though the TFC fanbase wasn't huge, it was very committed, so you probably got a good amount of hits and readership from a fairly small number of fans.it's one of the very few sources of information about the club
That has really receded. The last rounds of media cuts hit TFC hard, and now it's mostly wire stories from Neil Davidson being spread around, plus fairly frequent stories in the Sun.
I still think MLSE / Rogers / Bell want to make a bit of a splash with TFC. They have a ton of channel time to fill, and sports is really the only thing still important for live TV. I think they would rather show TFC playing decent footy, than poker, darts, cornhole or Slippery Stairs etc. I do believe TFC could be more efficient than in the past and still fairly successful. Lots of MLS teams spend less than TFC but have decent results. For example Altidore's expensive contract doesn't do them any good. But I just don't know if Manning and Curtis have the skills to get decent players on decent contracts. Plus now the pandemic has messed up everything, so who knows what they want to do for the next year or two, and how well things recover after that.
Last edited by Auzzy; 01-01-2021 at 01:48 AM.
“Years have gone by and I’ve finally learned to accept myself for who I am: a beggar for good football.
I go about the world, hand outstretched, and in the stadiums I plead: ‘A pretty move, for the love of God.’
And when good football happens, I give thanks for the miracle and I don’t give a damn which team or country performs it.”
-Eduardo Galeano
Let us dream big!
Ricardo Sá Pinto is available.
Armas would be better than Olsen and that's the only positive I have to say about him
Not really up on Armas, but he did alright with the Red Bull brand's D team.
Me thinks that if it was a MLS guy, it would already have happened.
I will never forget the night where they came to BMO and parked all 11 guys – including Rooney – almost on top of their own box and literally just sat there all game. ALL GAME. They were so completely uninterested in attacking that Mavinga was even making runs into their box. The crowd started booing them for it. It was one of the most ridiculous matches I've ever seen.
And we should want that guy as our coach? After that pathetic display of 'tactics'? Never. Never never never.
This whole change is very worrying. We have two overwhelming factors in 2021...Force Majeur...and the closure of the Canadian border. Who in their right mind would want this job from the outside? I can't see anyone who has options wanting to move from Europe into this mess. You don't want someone who is desperate.
It has to be a North American domestic signing. For me the real sensible option is Robin Fraser...
You know, maybe we are over thinking this. Perhaps it’s as simple as Pozuelo like coach, we like coach.
There’s no version of this team that works without him playing at his best. So if we hire a drooling idiot that keeps our MVP happy and stays out of his own way, that’ll be good enough. Then it’s just on Curtis to improve the damn roster through signings.
“Years have gone by and I’ve finally learned to accept myself for who I am: a beggar for good football.
I go about the world, hand outstretched, and in the stadiums I plead: ‘A pretty move, for the love of God.’
And when good football happens, I give thanks for the miracle and I don’t give a damn which team or country performs it.”
-Eduardo Galeano
^ Obviously that’s better, I just don’t know if we can realistically expect to get that from our list of candidates.
My fear is you get someone who thinks he’s a master tactician but is nothing of the sort. And that leaves us worse off than if we did nothing at all
Send Colorado some funny money or a draft pick and sign Robin Fraser.
Enough already!
Cherundolo in the mix now for manager apparently. Better than Olsen & Armas.
some of his coaching resume
014 Hannover 96 II (assistant) 2014–2015 Hannover 96 U15 2015 Hannover 96 (assistant) 2015–2018 Hannover 96 U17 2018 VfB Stuttgart (assistant) 2018 United States (assistant) 2020– Germany U15 (assistant)
I could live with Cherundolo. Sounds like he is up and coming with a decent resume in Germany.
Cherundulo would be a decent hire
Looks like a bit of an unknown but the playing career and assistant work leaves some room for comfort.
Would much rather take a chance on Cherundolo than go with the known quantities in Olsen & Armas.