Domènec Torrent Appointed NYCFC Head Coach (June '18) / Mutually Agree to Part Ways (November '19)

What Are Your Thoughts on Torrent as NYCFC Head Coach?

  • Quite Really Pleased

    Votes: 8 20.5%
  • Really Pleased

    Votes: 13 33.3%
  • Pleased

    Votes: 16 41.0%
  • Neither Pleased or Displeased

    Votes: 1 2.6%
  • Displeased

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Really Displeased

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Quite Really Displeased

    Votes: 1 2.6%

  • Total voters
    39
By that measure, though, why not just throw a dart.
You have to evaluate the available options each time.
I'm not suggesting throw a dart. I'm suggesting having a process by which you evaluate all available talent without eliminating whole categories of options (e.g., anyone within the CFG system).
 
Well, what are we judging the hire on? Pep himself is a tinkerer. And he’s not great at it. Nor is he great at winning latitude to be a tinkerer.

All of that is documented.

Soooo... and I’m serious, give us the road map to actually get good.

Because I think you misrepresented about 6 things there. So there’s that. But I like the positivity.

Why are you licking CFG chode just to say in way more words than necessary that they made a shit hire? It’s re-dic
Road map: I'd be much more accepting of tinkering with strong communication. It's the combination that's fatal. The road map is simple. Hire a good coach. Hire good players. Build a positive culture and effective strategy (part of hiring a good coach).

Licking chode: I did say this was a bad hire. I have no idea what you are referring to here.

Misrepresentations: Again, I really have no idea what you think I misrepresented.
 
Road map: I'd be much more accepting of tinkering with strong communication. It's the combination that's fatal. The road map is simple. Hire a good coach. Hire good players. Build a positive culture and effective strategy (part of hiring a good coach).

Licking chode: I did say this was a bad hire. I have no idea what you are referring to here.

Misrepresentations: Again, I really have no idea what you think I misrepresented.
Important to remember: I drank a lot enjoying the UCL results and mostly have no idea what I was on about. Soooo...probably not going to make sense here. You win some, you lose some. Sometimes you do both. Lolololol.
 
As has been said, the hiring of PV was a valuable Lessons Learned. By hiring a young CFG protégé you are essentially eliminating the possibility of continuity. You are guaranteeing a short-term resume builder, with almost no chance of a prolonged stay. To make matters MUCH worse, given the conflicting season schedules, if the manager is successful, the final year of the stopover likely becomes a half year - a fucking mid-season hard-stop, flushing away a promising season and any hope of trophies, success or glory while also setting the team back to square one. If there were a narrative to suggest that we are an after-thought or a sister club, sacrificing the success of our club for the benefit of the manager/convenience of CFG confirms the story. While the particular choices may have been misses, I will take an MLS lifer type like JK or a mid/late career manager type like DT over a 2.5 season visitor every time.
 
Are the reports about the Red Bulls talking to Thierry Henry to take over as coach for real? I'm putting this here instead of the RB thread because I'm mostly interested for the contrast with us. Both teams had coaches leave midseason. RB worldwide orchestrated their situation and had a coach familiar with the team ready to step up. Armas made tweaks that actually made them better in the second half of 2018 than they were under Marsch. And now after just 6 games of a slow start to 2019 they apparently are looking to replace him. If that's true, I'm not sure that's so much better than the very long rope that Torrent is getting. Unlike Dome, I think Armas has earned a full 2019 and if they dump him it seems panicky. Plus Henry doesn't have a coaching record that inspires confidence.
 
Are the reports about the Red Bulls talking to Thierry Henry to take over as coach for real? I'm putting this here instead of the RB thread because I'm mostly interested for the contrast with us. Both teams had coaches leave midseason. RB worldwide orchestrated their situation and had a coach familiar with the team ready to step up. Armas made tweaks that actually made them better in the second half of 2018 than they were under Marsch. And now after just 6 games of a slow start to 2019 they apparently are looking to replace him. If that's true, I'm not sure that's so much better than the very long rope that Torrent is getting. Unlike Dome, I think Armas has earned a full 2019 and if they dump him it seems panicky. Plus Henry doesn't have a coaching record that inspires confidence.
Especially considering the position Armas has been put in for this season. Arguably their best player is now in Europe, Kaku doesn't want to be in NJ, and they still have an open DP spot.

I love to rag on NJ, and I really hated Marsch (though still think he's a hell of a coach), but I kinda feel for Armas if he is really feeling this pressure.
 
Eh. It was a fun 2+ years. He improved the team. But he won nothing, and left in circumstances that made it harder for the club to replace him than it should have been. He did not train a replacement and took all his assistants with him, leaving just ancillary guys like the goalkeeper coach. The resulting hire wiped out everything Viera started. That is an empty legacy. No hardware, no foundation for future success. No, he didn't pick Dome. CFG and the front office are more to blame than he is. But when CFG hired Viera, and did not make him train a replacement and did not convince him to stay through 2018 they laid the groundwork for their own failure. So he was a failed hire. The goal is not to finish second twice, play pretty football, win nothing and then fail to improve.

Put it this way. If you could guarantee all of the following would you sign on? Our next coach gets 1.8 PPG for 2.4 years, but the price is we win no playoff rounds, no USOC games, no conference championships, no SS, never qualify for CCL, and the subsequent coach gets 1.4 PPG until he's fired, and also wins no trophies. Would you make that deal?

PS: That's better than what we just went through for the past 3+ years.

Are the reports about the Red Bulls talking to Thierry Henry to take over as coach for real? I'm putting this here instead of the RB thread because I'm mostly interested for the contrast with us. Both teams had coaches leave midseason. RB worldwide orchestrated their situation and had a coach familiar with the team ready to step up. Armas made tweaks that actually made them better in the second half of 2018 than they were under Marsch. And now after just 6 games of a slow start to 2019 they apparently are looking to replace him. If that's true, I'm not sure that's so much better than the very long rope that Torrent is getting. Unlike Dome, I think Armas has earned a full 2019 and if they dump him it seems panicky. Plus Henry doesn't have a coaching record that inspires confidence.

Maybe it's just semantics, but I don't think the failure to have a transition plan in place when Vieira left means it was a bad hire. It means CFG were (are) disorganized and not managing its coaching situations well. It was clear to anyone that Patrick would eventually leave. That doesn't mean bringing him in was wrong - it means you have to plan for his eventual departure. CFG has many teams under its tent. It should have been easy to identify a successor and groom him to take the job. Maybe that guy was Dome all along, but it sure doesn't seem that way.

Contrast CFG and NYCFC with the Red Bulls and how they've managed the coaching jobs in NY and Salzburg. They realized what they had in Marsch, set up a plan to keep him in the organization, and identified his successor. As a result, coaching changes have run smoothly in both NY and Austria (notwithstanding the crazy rumors about Henry).

The failures involving Vieira were not in the hiring, it was in organizational management and planning.
 
Are the reports about the Red Bulls talking to Thierry Henry to take over as coach for real? I'm putting this here instead of the RB thread because I'm mostly interested for the contrast with us. Both teams had coaches leave midseason. RB worldwide orchestrated their situation and had a coach familiar with the team ready to step up. Armas made tweaks that actually made them better in the second half of 2018 than they were under Marsch. And now after just 6 games of a slow start to 2019 they apparently are looking to replace him. If that's true, I'm not sure that's so much better than the very long rope that Torrent is getting. Unlike Dome, I think Armas has earned a full 2019 and if they dump him it seems panicky. Plus Henry doesn't have a coaching record that inspires confidence.
What, dropping 90% of your first team because they don't like your tactics and playing a bunch of bench players and youngins while in a 20 game losing streak isn't a good coaching strategy?? Only logical reason I can see for RBNJ hiring Henry would be to hope they double their actual attendance due to having a big name that played relatively well for them. His resume has nothing positive when it comes to coaching.

Especially considering the position Armas has been put in for this season. Arguably their best player is now in Europe, Kaku doesn't want to be in NJ, and they still have an open DP spot.

I love to rag on NJ, and I really hated Marsch (though still think he's a hell of a coach), but I kinda feel for Armas if he is really feeling this pressure.
Armas should be given more time. It will be interesting to see Marsch as the head coach at Salzburg. For his sake I think it would be best to get a year assisting Nagelsmann, but I guess the Salzburg spot opened up and they decided to give him that.
 
Maybe Armas was good enough to keep a good thing humming (ie be a stand-in Manager but really is competent as an assistant) but he doesn’t have the charisma or deep tactical/roster understanding needed to start a fresh season? Maybe he’s not able to see how to replace Adams, not as a 1-2-1 switch, but how to reallocate tactical resources and field responsibilities to make up for it?

So if that’s the case, last year was “easy” for him as it was his wheelhouse of ability, but 2019 is out of his depth. Contrast that with Dome who can’t keep an engine running and the following year can’t even get the engine to turn over - he’s still pumping the pedal and flooding it.
 
What is likely to be a bigger contributor to New Jersey's struggles this year?

1. Poor performance by the head coach, who led the team to 12 wins and 39 points in its final 18 games last season after having been promoted from within the club.

2. Losing their all-star center midfielder, who is now anchoring the midfield for the third place team in the Bundesliga.
 
What is likely to be a bigger contributor to New Jersey's struggles this year?

1. Poor performance by the head coach, who led the team to 12 wins and 39 points in its final 18 games last season after having been promoted from within the club.

2. Losing their all-star center midfielder, who is now anchoring the midfield for the third place team in the Bundesliga.
It’s not an either/or or one is bigger than the other. Last season was easy for Armas as he only had to stay the course. This year is above his ability since he is coaching as if Adams was replaced 1-2-1 when he doesn’t have a like-replacement, and Armas has not figured out how to redistribute responsibility and roles on the field to accommodate. So while Adams loss is huge, Armas hasn’t effectively adjusted for it.
 
Put it this way. If you could guarantee all of the following would you sign on? Our next coach gets 1.8 PPG for 2.4 years, but the price is we win no playoff rounds, no USOC games, no conference championships, no SS, never qualify for CCL, and the subsequent coach gets 1.4 PPG until he's fired, and also wins no trophies. Would you make that deal?

If you came to me with that offer after watching our first season with Kreis, then yes, I would snap your hand off, and you'd be mad to say otherwise.
 
Maybe Armas was good enough to keep a good thing humming (ie be a stand-in Manager but really is competent as an assistant) but he doesn’t have the charisma or deep tactical/roster understanding needed to start a fresh season? Maybe he’s not able to see how to replace Adams, not as a 1-2-1 switch, but how to reallocate tactical resources and field responsibilities to make up for it?

So if that’s the case, last year was “easy” for him as it was his wheelhouse of ability, but 2019 is out of his depth. Contrast that with Dome who can’t keep an engine running and the following year can’t even get the engine to turn over - he’s still pumping the pedal and flooding it.
When you put it that way, it makes me glad that Dome tried switching things up earlier in his tenure.
 
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When you put it that way, it makes me glad that Dome tried switching things up earlier in his tenure.
Not sure Dome is competent to do either - he was a horrible caretaker and he’s failed miserably to mobilize the team this year, and his ability to judge talent/ability is completely bankrupt since he pushed so hard the take that we didn’t need a true CF/striker because his system would play to the strengths of our dozen wingers.
 
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