Anthony Hudson - Technical advisor

I was a supporter of Hudson when AWs coach. However blind Freddie can see he's struggling big time in Colorado. 

Seems a lot of feedback that he has struggled to win over, some of the older established players he inherited. On field discipline, has been a massive problem with lots of red cards - a sign of an unhappy group. Different to AWs setup, where with the players he was popular - seen as an improvement on the Herbert regime.

Other players at the Rapids that he bought in like Smith, have openly continued to back him.

I guess whether he keeps his job, will depend on -

Results must improve last few weeks of season.

Does he convince CEO/board that he can turn it around, with 100% control of new signings and getting rid of the players he doesn't want?

Also think a very senior experienced respected player like Tim Howard will get a say in whether Hudson stays or not.

There is another factor, in that they are still paying the old coach as well and will be paying him until 2019, so if they let go of Hudson, they would be paying Pablo, Hudson and a third coaches salaries.

This is an excellent summary of how fudgeed the Rapids are right now...

The future is far, far away.

Reckon this could easily describe him time with the All Whites.

Interesting indepth read. No mention though of length & value of Wynne's contract.

I presume DP, is MLS speak for marquee? Interesting that a keeper (Howard) takes up one of their 2 DP spots.

Given the Rapids limpness in attack - that's not ideal. Also note CEO/GM says they won't use their 3rd DP spot. So Hudson (or new coach) has a budget to work within.

Interesting that Smith & his CB partner Danny Wilson are considered 'underwhelming'.

Also note that many of the better MLS sides (Atlanta, Dallas, Kansas, LAFC) have a strong Latino influence esp at the attacking end. Rapids have virtually no Latino players. No idea why. Huddo even speaks a little Espanol from memory.

Anyway I'll guess, that unless Rapids get hidings in all their last few games Hudson will keep his job for 2019. He can then jettison some players, and sign new ones, ie get the team he wants mostly. If they are still shark mid next season he'll have limited excuses.

The fact Colorado are still paying wages of the previous coach, is a big lucky break for him.

Interesting that Carl Robinson at Vancouver has just been sacked after nearly 5 years. Pretty young also at only age 41.

What is the Spanish for fraud?

Princess Cristina

Colorado have offered absolutely nothing this season. Worst attack by far in terms of goals scored, and attacking play in general - anyone who has watched a Rapids game this season can attest to this. Defensively very poor which is not what you want to be if you have an almost non existent attack. Having watched a majority of Rapids games this season (On Duke, as well as online) it seems that almost every match there is a feeling amongst the players of, 'if they concede 1, they'll concede plenty' which rings very true about this team/club in general. Heads drop and they almost give up the ghost straight away. Over the course of the season you might expect this a couple of times as teams do have off days and not much goes right, but this season for the Rapids I'd say maybe 7-8 games (possibly a couple more) I've seen where they've gone down and haven't offered any fight whatsoever.  

I've read a lot about Hudson being kept on because they're still paying out $$$ on the previous manager's contract, but that must just grate anyone who supports/follows the Rapids, because they've effectively fudgeed up twice and now they've cornered themselves into keeping an out of his depth manager, at the helm for the next campaign. It does not bode well for next season already.

And these last 7-8 games they've played, including their current match against LAFC. Nothing short of abysmal. Players don't seem to give a shark, formations, shape and discipline have gone out the window. There just seems to be an air of disinterest at Colorado at the moment - whether Hudson's lost the dressing room remains to be seen, but effectively their record this season of 6W 6D 19L (just lost 3-0 @ H to LAFC) is just really really poor. He's had his time for bedding in, but he hasn't shown any adaptability to change his approach when times have been tough, has lacked trying to instil a culture of working hard or winning and just seems to be all bluff and bluster when he talks to the media. Very tough step up from the All Whites job, but to be honest he just doesn't have what it takes to manage at this level, as he's clearly out of his depth.

Moving in the right direction though 

Fixed

Now his worst record by far, he got to 45 games before he had 21 losses with Real Maryland but only taken 34 games at Rapids. Also if he loses the next game, he will be the first coach/team in MLS history to have two eight game losing streaks in one season. 

If they still have the old coach on the payroll then they should swap him for Hudson.

I just posted on Hudson in the Tommy Sith section....sorry didnt see this section. 

Hudson is a coaching fraud. The AW's played some really terrible football under him. He degraded the value of the AW shirt by handing out 50+ ???? caps. The side was worse when he finished than when he started. The Con cup was a disaster.

Another one of Martins screwups

I've personally never had anything against the guy. Sure he wasn't my cup of tea when he had the All Whites job, he seemed to have had a lot of 'pet projects' that didn't really make sense during his reign, and well, I guess don't look any better in the cold light of day, especially now that he's moved on to Colorado. 

What stands out for me however, is the guy has such an undeserved arrogance - as in, you'd think he'd have a bit more to back himself up from the way he talks and interacts with the media, his team etc, but if you stand back and take a deeper look at readily available facts and statistics, you can tell he's just blowing a lot of hot air.

The thing now is, he can't hide. The MLS runs 30-40 weeks a year week in, week out, of being under constant scrutiny from fans the media and stakeholders, back and forth debate pretty much every day about whether you're good enough to keep your job and you're pretty much forever in the public eye. This is the biggest thing he'll be trying to counter at the moment as when he had a bad week or result/s with the AW's it tended to be out of the spotlight pretty quickly. The same rule doesn't apply in a 34 game season. 

If he can get to the off season (looking likely, surprisingly) and build another team for the next MLS campaign, then good for him, but he'll be on a very short leash if the Rapids start next season poorly.

No one can argue that Hudson was not everyone’s cup of tea as AWs coach.

However to say he left the national team in a worse state, is a blatant untruth. He had a bigger budget than Ricki for sure, but you just can’t compare the unholy mess post Mexico, to how Hudson left the national team setup post Peru playoffs. That’s playing with history.

True but that’s the only thing he’s got over Ricki (and I was no Herbert fan).  His stats for us were generally pretty poor.

I still chuckle when he tried to play the "you know who I am?" card with marley on the gate and still got told he had to pay for a ticket! have the photos somewhere, was piss funny. Then he got into an indepth football discussion with a guy recently out of jail. that was even funnier.

https://theathletic.com/576600/2018/10/12/rapids-r...

Behind a pay wall, but from little bit that is free to read, would guess that Hudson will be keeping his job for season 2019.

A sure fire way to dampen the fans anger for a moment, or to make them feel the season hasn't been a total failure - is to give a young local kid a start.

https://www.coloradorapids.com/post/2018/10/14/hom...

Sarpreet Singh anyone.

The amount of butt hurt people following Hudson's career and dancing on his grave speaks loudly to how he made people feel. It seems he was very triggering, frequently turning fans into crazy ex-girlfriends. 

Personally I've never understood it myself, he never bothered me, just struck me as an ambitious guy trying to be successful. It seems he isn't up to it, and won't be successful, but that doesn't make me hate him and want to disparage him at every turn. 

Looks like he's just another guy out there who thinks he's better at his job than he really is, like so many other football managers. 

Basically, this. 

Though I think that the reason people are annoyed is because they believe he has faked his credentials in order to get jobs; which seems to be the case (edited wiki and all)

The fact is; it would've been good for NZ football if Hudson succeeded at Colorado, and if Wynne/Smith/Colvey did well. Too bad it hasn't worked out.

Just about right. A lying con-man.

Think between the two of you have sort of summed it up. He did some rather foolish things (esp the wiki stuff if true), but he was definitely respected by the AWs group, and that includes the more hard bitten pros like Reid, Smith, Wood, M Boxall who have all been round the traps.

He also handed out a few cheap caps - which upset some - but he hugely improved the depth of the AWs, by giving younger players exposure to international football (Emblem started that process for sure). That was a bad failing of Herbert at the end, not giving younger players international game time earlier. Suddenly having to start total novices (Roux, Tuiloma) against Mexico and plucking J Christie out of obscurity.

He may yet be at the Rapids next MLS season, though don't think Colvey will be.

Still query how this has become confirmed knowledge.  As a lot of people have said, sure the environment was better and the team was better prepared, but that was at least in part because the budget got massively upgraded under his (and Andy Martin's) watch.  

Mind you, Hudson was not the first AW coach to make claims of what he had done and achieved  etc. There have been quite a few in the past, some big names as well.

Hudson was basically Joe McGrath in disguise!

When did Hudson resign? Nov/Dec last year?

Just go back through this thread, post when he resigned for a couple of months. Pretty much every AW who then retired from international football (Dura, Falloon etc), or returned to NZ for the summer break (the US based guys like Marinovic, Boxall etc) gave little media bites praising Huddo. The Euro based guys also chipped in.

Undoubtedly AH benefited from a bigger budget, and also not juggling two coaching hats like Herbert. How can you fully prepare for WC playoff series v Mexico, when also in the midst of preparing for 2013/14 pre season with the Nix. Lunacy. Lastly missing Confeds Cup in Brazil that year was a huge blow.

However don’t forget AH had to fiercely agrue with Martin to get what he wanted. Even taking that little spat into the media to help his cause. He and Martin weren’t pals.

Some AW player needs to reveal all in a book one day.

There were more than enough direct quotes from the players to confirm that knowledge, it was very clear. 

https://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/football/world-game/...

I'd say Colorado Rapids are words that are surplus to requirements in this headline.

What player ever criticises their coach in public?

Theres a difference. Criticising a coach in public is very rare, however praising a coach in the public is not common. The fact that a number of players spoke out positively, both publicly and privately, about Hudson, speaks volumes.

There is no debating he has had a shocking first season in Colorado, however the hatred from many towards him on this thread is a little over the top IMO. Call him a con man as much as you want, but he almost got us to the World Cup with arguably our best player barely hobbling around the pitch. That Peru playoff was 10x better to watch than the Mexico one

I was pleasantly surprised at how well we did against Peru but I don't think that gives him a free pass for all the other stuff.

And ultimately I think the disconnect between how he presented himself and how he talked about the game vs what happened on the pitch is why people don't like him(combined with the self-promotion stuff). People generally don't like people who obviously bullshark. Maybe he was different with the players but his public persona (which he seemed to enjoy cultivating) was very unlikeable.

Those praises also usually come when the player is asked about them. So they are hardly going to say anything other than something positive. I can't recall any unprompted twitter or IG posts by players after he was announced as the Rapids coach.

For all his talk of positive, attacking football, he's never delivered it. Anywhere.

It's also interesting to note that the three best teams in the MLS spent less money than the rapids did. And they has the 6th worst points per dollar spent, 4th worst wins per dollar spent, and 2nd worst goals per goal spent. 

went to check why AH could be embarrassed and got 

For sure Hudson shouldn't have talked up an attacking passing game when it wasn't happening. I had no problem with him though blooding so many youngsters, as AWs badly needed to increase their depth. There was the odd cheap cap, but many of the kids he first picked will be in and around the AWs for years ahead. Liam Graham & Henry Cameron may have kicked on - but looks like injury has helped jinx them.

Really for the OFC Nations Cup in PNG, he had no option, as so many first choice players were unavailable. It was only from about the USA/Mexico games in October 2016 (one year from Peru playoffs), that he had near a full strength side to pick from. Even for those games Tommy Smith was still on the outer. Any AWs coach is always going to be massively hamstrung by limited games (esp against quality opposition), player unavailability, and just overall limited contact time with players full stop.

Hudson stopped all his major tinkering/experimenting (Dale Ingham as an exception) in the last 12 mths of his reign.

Sure Hudson was fortunate to have the first playoff game at home, verus Herbert being in Mexico. Also having Reid in 2017, compared to no Reid in 2013 was massive. 

However if Reid had been unavailable last year, Durante an experienced player who had been around the team a few years would have slotted in. Not the same quality of player, but as seamless a transition as you could realistically hope for with AWs. When Reid was injured in 2013, Herbert suddenly panicked and picked Jeremy Christie out of his hat! By the 2nd leg in Wellington, Herbert had virtual debutants in Tuiloma & Roux starting. Why weren’t they introduced a year prior, so at least they had some preparation for international football. The whole 2013 WC qualifying campaign had the leadership, vision & planning of the Dardanelles landings in April 2015. In other words a complete fudgeing mess.

Polarising Huddo is gone but not forgotten.

We now need some actual real AWs games, to start debating the value of the current coach.

But again, an improvement on previous results with Ricki doesn't mean that he did a good job. Our expectations should be higher than that. And again, yeah Hudson was missing players for the OFC nation's cup but Ricki was missing Nelsen and Reid for the horror in Honiara IIRC. 

And yep, some of the kids Hudson gave caps to will be core AWs players in years to come but that doesn't mean they were ready for caps when they got them or that a future coach wouldn't have picked them. Ricki might not have done enough to blood new players before crucnh games but Hudson went too far the other way.

I've said before that my expectations for the AWs are:

- comfortably beat OFC sides. Don't have to smash them but we should be able to beat them by a couple of goals at least, even away, when you look at the difference in resources and quality of players. Even when hit by several injuries or suspensions at once.

- respectable, consistent performances in friendlies

- not getting embarrassed when we do play competitive games against non-OFC sides

I think Hudson ticked the last box but not the other two. His reign wasn't a complete disaster but it also wasn't a resounding success. I think we could and should have done better across the whole time he was here and the acceptance of things like needing extra time and penalties to win knockout games in the OFCNC is an example of how low NZ football and its fans set the bar.

Hi Buffon II,

Just want to acknowledge your message, and fair play for paying up on that bet. I'll admit that from afar it seems Huddo is lucky to be keeping his job. 

Honourable donation to Fever Dreams or whatever charity you have chosen.

Cheers

Is Hudson coaching Colorado next year?

He's actually done worse (so far)!

You actually followed through on this buffon? Fair play mate, well done. 

I did mate, was only fair. Money went to a good cause as well.