Dome was hardly a success before he joined up with Pep, and during that time he had a team made up of average players. The only success Dome has known has been with Pep, when they've arguably had the top players in the world. Creating a game plan for all-world players is easy compared to dealing with the average joe (not
joe ) and understanding their limitations. So Dome can come up with all kinds of intricate schemes for Silva, Messi, and Mueller, and they work either because the players are talented enough to pull them off or they're just ballers and freelance so Dome still looks good. In MLS, it's harder to manage a team of Average to Above-average players, and a manager's inability to understand those limitations and what can be achieve is cast in the spotlight when things quickly go south.
So here's food for thought..... what if 2018 Isi was him over-achieving, as opposed to raising his game to a new "normal", and as an outlier of a season he's now reverting back to the mean??? Or what if Maxi's 2018 was an outlier? Or Tinny's? Medina's was wholeheartedly an outlier. What if they only looked as good as they did due the system, the sum of the whole is worth more than the individual parts, and without having a methodology that executes through very explicit if/then movements on/off the ball, these guys aren't able to execute at a high level? PV's system was very regimented with specific movement and flow from teammates off the ball to always provide 2-3 outlets that players could often pass to without looking since they knew a player was going to fill a zone, and he drilled it to muscle memory. Without that rote system, what if these guys aren't able to execute a less rigid game plan???? Not letting Dome off the hook in any way, but how do we know we didn't get Peak performance last season and the majority of the team is reverting to their mean because Domeball is so badly suited to cultivate their talent?
