Coaching Angst - ZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Interesting article in the Roar today ... fits this thread ...

http://www.theroar.com.au/2013/02/12/fergusons-sacking-makes-it-four-from-ten/

Ferguson’s sacking makes it four from ten

With the finals fast approaching, almost half the coaches that started this A-League season have either been sacked or quit their positions. It’s a testament to how difficult the job has become in this competition.

First to go was Ian Crook at Sydney FC. The likable Englishman said the task simply got the better of him and had become a “burden”.

Next went Rado Vidoši? at Brisbane Roar. Considering his predecessor’s unparalleled success, the position was always going to be something of a poisoned chalice.

With Crook now technical director at Football NSW and Vidoši? shifted to a similar role at Brisbane, it seems neither was really ever suited to the top job. Perhaps both gentlemen would have been wiser to remain assistants. Not every manager is best utilised as a head coach.

Third, and perhaps most unexpected, was John Kosmina’s walkout at Adelaide. While the full story is yet to be revealed, Kosmina was clearly disturbed by what he called “the whispers in the corridors.” And now, after a terrible run of form and the loss of several players, Ian Ferguson becomes the latest victim of the A-League coaching merry-go-round.

This season has surely been one of the most turbulent in the competition’s history. Have we ever seen four clubs lose their coach in just one season? And with Wellington Phoenix in free-fall, don’t be surprised if Ricki Herbert is the fifth to go.

Of course, coaching is a hard task no matter the league. But as the standard of play increases, coaching an A-League side has become much more difficult in recent years.

The fact that there are many willing coaches vying for just ten positions means it’s a buyers market for clubs. Either perform or you’re out.

And as the competition has become more embedded and clubs have started to build their identities, the pressure to get results has intensified. Indeed, social media and the proliferation of A-League focused websites has made the job more scrutinised than ever.

You’ve got feel for those who, for whatever reason, don’t succeed. The nature of the competition actually makes building a successful squad very difficult. Each coach is asked to perform with just 23 players on their roster, only five foreign imports and a strict salary cap.

Which means that keeping the squad fit and injury free is basically integral to success. This season Sydney FC have been unable to settle on a backline due to the ongoing injuries of Pascal Bosschaart, Fabio and Adam Griffiths. Their dismal ‘goals against’ tally illustrates the problem.

By contrast, the Western Sydney Wanderers have been almost untroubled by injuries, and have gotten the most out of their foreign legion. It’s a credit to their rookie coach Tony Popovic.

And while the Mariners’ might be considered “boring”, we all know that stability is the key to success. Graham Arnold has added greater tactical awareness and style to the ‘no-frills’ foundation established by Lawrie McKinna.

But the standout, as expected, has been Ange Postecoglou.

After a few hiccups, he has moulded the team into a highly efficient unit, and gotten the most out of individuals like Mark Milligan, Billy Celeski and Leigh Broxham, who have all previously shown glimpses of their potential without ever really performing consistently.

You’ve got to wonder about the Ange Postecoglou factor. At the beginning of this season, we were promised passing combination football by nearly all the A-League coaches, including notorious long-ball managers Ricki Herbert and Ian Ferguson.

Ange has raised the bar, and many are struggling to keep up. He presence looms large over the entire competition.

Still, Ian Ferguson can hardly feel hard done by. His side may have almost won the grand final last season, but they’ve never looked like a truly dominant side. Their late run in the finals masked some serious deficiencies.

It’s not as if Ferguson didn’t give it a go. As Vince Rugari mentioned a few weeks ago, his squad was perhaps the best on paper in the league.

You can’t fault his recruitment. But that’s just part of the story.

In truth, the manager has become the arbiter of success for A-League clubs. Aside from a few absolute standouts, most players in this competition are pretty much of similar standard.

It’s the coach who can turn them from underachiever to standout performer. Just look at the transformation of Mark Bridge and Michael Beauchamp under Popovic at Western Sydney.

As for Perth, it’s not all bad news. With Ferguson gone, Perth Glory old-boys Alistair Edwards and Gareth Naven have been given an opportunity to turn the club’s fortunes around.

As a one-time city councillor for Cockburn in Perth’s southern suburbs and a former striker for the Glory during the dying days of the NSL, Edwards is a logical choice in the west.

Let’s hope he is given the time to make his own impression on the squad beyond this season. The interim manager role does nobody any favours.

We’ve seen our fair share of marquee players in the A-League, with varying degrees of success. But considering the difficulty of the job and the closeness of the competition, is it time for an A-League club to hire a marquee coach?

It will be interesting to see if the Adelaide & Perth assistants get the gig fulltime, or one of Culina, Bleiberg or Merrick turn up.

I don't think there's much doubt here that Ricki has done an awful lot of good for the Phoenix and has been through some fairly shitty years .He's had to put up with some crap that other coaches in the A-league haven't had to.

But the fact is that this has been a very disappointing system by anyone's standards.No whether that's the owner's fault , Ricki's , or the players , I don't know. The owners provide the wherewithall for us to have a team , Ricki provides the player recruitment /tactical coaching and the players provide the skill  , and dare I say it , balls and willingness to fight. So it appears as if I'm exonerating the owners. I'm not- I think the responsibility for this season is shared around all 3 groups. Owners for mixed messages , Ricki for fuck ups in player recruitment and coaching ,players for lack of testicular volume and , in some cases , lack of ability to play at this level.

IMO , the best run NZ franchise in an Aussie comp is the breakers. Supportive owners ( who appear to be fairly non-intrusive) , a coach who seems to have his shit together , class players and , very importantly, a stong GM. That's a simple framework but it's brought back to back titles and a long unbeaten run this season.   

Sacking Ricki may be the obvious thing to do ( and in other leagues around the world , would undoubtedly already have happened).But it won't fix the other glaring problems.He may no longer be the right man to coach but he's got a shit load of experience that we throw out at our peril. Morrison came out the other day and said that Ricki's safe until the end of the  year , then subject to a review. Also that he's got a job regardless in the organisation.

The owners need to have one voice so we don't get mixed messages  , and the Doom doesn't pick up on this. They need to appoint a strong  , capable GM who has experience of running a successful sports franchise. Doesn't have to be football , but would be nice.This positions needs to sort out the sports science , medicine and other issues that a successful club needs to run well. The coach position needs to be looked at  as part of a structure which includes assistant coaching ,scouting network etc.A  The coach needs to have a firm idea of how he believes the game should be played , and with budgetary constraints has to be allowed to bring in players who can do that.  

The club just seems to be a mess from top down. Fix the front office , then a trickle down occurs.Owners , take control.Let the egos have their say ( their money so they have a right to do so) but appoint a spokesperson who represents you all. Appoint a capable GM and don't emasculate them. Be open about assessing the coaching position but don't promise long term deals if things are going tits up.The club may not survive another season like this.Do it once and do it right.This is all fixable but requires vision and balls to make a few potentially hard decisions.

We as fans / supporters deserve a lot more  from our club.   

The Breakers bought the best players in the league. If we were to do that, we would win the league too. Our owners have made it quite clear that they are not going to spend shitloads on players, so the Breakers model will never work for the Phoenix, while Welnix are in charge. 

NBL Player points system... (their version of a player cap)

http://www.nbl.com.au/salary-cap-player-points 

Only partly agree  , Patrick. Cedric Jackson is reportedly the best player in the ANBL. But the rest of the Breakers?- I suspect not. So I don't thnk they bought titles- bought a bloody good player and built around him. But they seems to have a strong structure. And I also don't agree that buying the best players is any guarantee of a title success ( doesn't hurt , obviously).  I know Wellnix won't bring in a marquee- but imagine the learning opportunity for Fenton , Boyd etc if they did.

Now I do agree with you 'bout Wellnix. All of my bollocks above can't/won't happen under the current Welllnix model. This is where I think they need to look at why they are in this. Don't get me wrong , I love having a team in Welly to follow and I'll keep going with Jr no matter how crap they are. But surely a successful football team here would do far more to promote the game to a wider audience than the current dross we're currently served.More commercial options for the owners too , I would suspect without actually knowing. My question to them-how's your current model working out?

Bruton was clearly the best player in the league when he signed even at advanced years.  Brasswell was the best import (at you expect decent money), then Jackson. 

Chuck in Penny, Corleto, Wilkinson and a couple of others I can't name off the top of my head and they regularly have a starting five better than any other side in the league.  They are also helped by the fact that the best kiwi players aren't all overseas like NZ football as the opprtunities are more limited.

Remember just about every other club in the league (and the league) has been within inches of folding in the last five years.  They are well funded compared to the other sides in the league.  The Phoenix are not.

And Pledger plays like he has 2 left feet made of concrete. An offseason at Pete Newells Bigman camp in Hawaii would do him no end of good. Abercrombies jumper is suspect beyond 17 and the release is very slow making it and easy spot. Corletto has been patchy and Bruton is like the old bear that rears its head every once in a while to show the new kids who plays this game. Hudson has come along better than what I expected but for mine, he was a poor recruitment. Pledge should have been left where he was and stuck with Wilkinson. At least he could spread the floor.

Jackson is the difference maker pure and simple. 

Sorry, i stumbled across your forum by accident. I was looking for the yellow fever Phoenix fans forum. 

But good to see you guys doing so well, I was up in Auckland for the game against the Perth wildcats, was good fun. 

 Smart arse.

Yep , way off topic ; sorry , my fault. Should have been way more succinct-sacking Ricki without addressing other issues is likely to be a waste of time.

She`s off contract and available !!

 Hate to bring it up again but to pass off the breakers as simply being succesful by buying the best is selling them short in some of the other things they have done.Dont care if they do have the best roster in the league what they have done to win away is down right bloody impressive there schedule makes ours look like a cakewalk

Got to the stage where i just want the bloody season to end so we can into what looks like it could be a very interesting off season.

QFT

Doloras and Co. think there is no coach better than RH on planet Earth that would want/take the phoenix job. Bollocks.

I say bring in a new manager and he will build a new squad. No point Ricki signing players if a new manager is coming in. 

He'll be like "wtf ? I want to build a spaceship, but the guy i replaced only left me hammers and screwdrivers ! OMG. Where's my frickin laser?"

see what i'm saying ?

No. Not even slightly. I do however want whatever you're on. 

If I get you right, you're saying that we should hire a new coach with a laser? I agree, but it's perhaps irrelevant.

There is a potential spanner in the works (since we are talking tools)

In my opinion, they need to get the coaching situation sorted first, and quickly. The coach, whomever it is, needs to build their own squad with either a mix of Phoenix free agents or others.

A: Ricki may want to re-sign some players and release others

B: New guy may want to re-sign some players and release others

C: It's foolish to sign players without a coach because you remove the new coaches ability to build his own squad.  Also some players may not want to play for the new coach and some players may not want to play for Ricki.

D: Players that are off contract will want to move quickly to secure their own future. Doing so removes the ability of the Phoenix to re-sign them while they are sorting their coach.

This could turn into a clusterfuck and judging by how management have handled things this year, the propensity for that to happen is higher than normal.

So you'd rather ricki be gone, than our team doing well? 

Doesn't sound like you're doing much supporting. 

What I'm saying is, a new manager will most likely release the majority of the squad and sign other players that fit with his philosophy.

If Herbert now, re-signs some players and signs new ones, when he gets sacked/walks out (mark my words he will) he will leave behind players to a new manager.

My point is, the new manager will not want the players Ricki signed on. So it's a fuck load of fuckup. 

This is what I tried to say. But I think you guys know what I meant. I know you know. And I know that you know I know but are playing games with me. Playing the stooopid. Ha! Doesn't work on me.

Short term pain, long term gain.

Yes, Wellnix should know what they are doing by now. At the very least be looking for realistic options to compare.

That wouldn't be good for Ricki

That's such bollocks and why this place is turning into a pile of utter dribble most of the time. People are allowed to support the team in any way they like and who are you to tell them how they should support the team?

I'm not. I'm suggesting that I personally don't see how hoping the team loses is very supportive. 

I do apologise for saying anything, as it was a bit of unfair personal criticism directed at ballane. It also took the thread off topic. 

I just couldn't believe he had said such a thing. 

I suspect Cooke monster is about to become cult and predictable poster

breakers win cos they have the best of both worlds - they have good funding, a great coach, and very good players

comparitively the nix have average funding, an ok coach, and at bess average players

if we sack ricki in the off seasons - which I think would be the smart move, and then allow a new coach to bring in the 5-6 quality players we'll need to replace the off contract hacks - we may actually stand a chance of playing some decent winning football next season.