yes but the guy has a sort of mythical status and thiago as he sez has already played under him.

i mean potential kickbacks aside.

--

also for some lighthearted bullshit (per cheeto's request)

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/v...ry-trick-video

at the same time, mourinho never played at a high level and he is a great coach. but im just being bitch at this point.

hey, at least mourinho played pro!

but it's the other one, from spurs, who never played, what's his name?

at least he grew up thick in in though.

villas-boas.

I've always said that a great player doesn't usually mean a great manager.There's more than a few average layers who went on to be great managers.

Ferguson
Mourinho
Moyes
Wenger (you can't deny he's a great manager)
Bob Paisley
Scolari

and so on, and so on.

right, all that is true, but you need experience and exposure and a deep understanding of things. in the case of bob bradley (which is what i was talking about) the guy grew up in the US in the 50s/60s, played high school + college, went on to manage his own college and eventually joined the MLS. no international exposure, no high level experience because there is little of it here, etc. he strikes me as a good and decent man, just lacking exposure to the rest of the universe. look at his bio here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Bradley#Early_life


it's not that he lacks brains or something, it's that the culture and tradition of football in the usa didn't really exist when he was growing up. there were no football stadiums. there was no 500 tv channels of international sports. compare him vs. villas boas who at age 16 was hanging out with bobby robson and working for porto. i mean, come on!

That analysis doesn't always work though. Eric Spoelstra, the coach of the Miami Heat never played professional basketball, indeed only college, and instead of taking offers to play in the Euro-leagues he became a video analyst for the Miami Heat. He became their assistant coach under the legendary Pat Riley and then later took over the head coaching spot. When he took over, the team had just fallen to an NBA worst 15-67. The immediate year he made the playoffs, hasn't missed them since, and went on to win back-to-back NBA Titles and has had three consecutive championship appearances. So in all actuality, there are some potentially great coaches out there who never played pro..

As to Klinsmann? I don't think its his experience as player that helps, its as you said, being "maybe one of the greatest coaches on the planet" part that is winning games ;)

great coaches do not need to have been pros. Not all players can make a great coach either, not Larry Bird, not Clyde Drexler, not Jordan, not Magic, not Pele, etc....

but dude, america has probably the biggest basketball culture on the planet. people grow up immersed in it, children dream of being the next michael jordan. they live and breathe it. playing college here is better than playing pro elsewhere. washed out or sidelined players here go abroad and become local stars-- wich is the opposite with european and south american futbol players who come to be washed out here. why must you be at times so muleheaded? wishful thinking does not give american "soccer" a long story and tradition and mass appeal-- give it time to grow and maybe, but right now it's not up to par because it lacks deep roots.


he's not one of the greatest coaches in the planet but he's probably the greatest the us men's team has ever had. forget comparing him with other coaches, say, other german coaches, even other german coaches of his generation-- but he's played more and in more places than any american player or coach, and has seen and lived pretty much anything you can see and live in this sport except for stabbing followed by decapitation, which makes everyone else around him lok like a damn neophyte-- even the best american players (demonyo already explained why he's not "world class") don't measure up to his achievements.

now, the issue for klinsmann is if he can translate all that deep fucking knowledge and experience into being a good coach-- that's a different achievement. so far the numbers show he can coach better than past american coaches and that is really good news. plus we slowly are having better players who are learning from the pros iabroad. so it's not just raw talent but talent that's being professionally developed by experts who learned football from the womb. so it's building up, thank fuck.

took california wines a few decades to start beating the french.football is gonna take a little longer.

Oh Lord have His mercy how terrible a coach Magic Johnson was. Me? I like Eric Spoelstra style of coaching. It is minus the platitudes and butt-slapping speeches that most "former-star player coaches" rely on. The dude brings in spread sheets, print outs, and stat analyses to his practices. You can literally SEE visibly that he coaches like a video analyst, but it works. The guy draws of frighteningly innovative and complex plays, and has gotten his three stars to be shooting the more efficient in their careers, and all three also leading the league at efficient shooting at their respective positions. Those guys game into the roster as best in the league, and Spoelstra's analytical mind made them even BETTER!

What I see Klinsmann doing for the USA team is more in the increasingly complexities of the play-making, as well as just tightening down on the fundamentals. What is funny, is EVERYTHING I have ever yelled at the TV about during previous US games, Klinsmann has now already readjusted away. We dribble patiently, not those hail mary lobs down the field. we play slow, smart, and focus on planned attacks, not those chaotic run around the field and hope for the best style we played before. Our defense is a bit less staunch as it was, but that is because our players are thinking smarter at both ends of the field. We used to focus on defense because we couldn't score, now we score AND defend. Klinsmann is just doing those smart and simple things we always neglected. Further, his reputation and charisma in the locker room is fantastic, guys BELIEVE in him, trust him, and are excited to try his new implementations. Guys are playing to step up and EARN their spots, and its for the coach.

The USA team needs to be more complex. when I watch international matches I see other countries using high-level shit, and the USA looks like a jr varsity team. I think it is because the USA team does not play together enough.

it's because the usa team has been so far for all intents and purposes a junior varsity team grown out of a junior varsity culture. :/

but the real pros are coming.

btw many years ago i had high hopes that freddy adu would be our first superstar. unfortunately it did not happen. but some other 14 year old scouted by milan or barcelona or manchester united will eventually do it. more like a 12 year old. 10 maybe.

Adu discovered the joys of wanking his pecker and all hope was lost

Tito is leaving Barça. Luis Enrique most likely to take over.

That in particular is what has changed. US has switched to a more sophisticated Euro-style of play and it is getting results!

Vilanova steps down as Barcelona coach after cancer relapse. No replacement yet named

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2...-tito-vilanova



Sad for anyone, obviously, but somehow especially tragic for a man who I'm sure most who contribute to this thread would consider to have been about as close to living the dream as we could possibly imagine.

oh damn, that's harsh, best wishes to him.

The question now is who will replace him?

Villas-Boas is apparently the bookies favourite but also hearing Puyol might step in as interim player-manager.

See four posts above.

Ah, never saw that. My apologies. Don't know much about Luis Enrique's management career but looking him up now, it seems weird that he literally only took over at Celta Viga a month ago.

Looks like it's gonna be Tata Martino after all.