Players not happy with Mitchell?

[VPjr]

quote:Originally posted by BringBackTheBlizzard

...and yet when he was appointed at the senior level most people said give him a chance.

I, for one, was 100% against DM getting the job. I always felt he was the wrong choice and it offended me that he got the job before his U20 squad had even competed at the WC.

In my opinion, the people who did support his selection were naive or overly optimistic. I sometimes believe that people severely underestimate how important a quality, experienced coach can be to a team's success. I believe that the "experts" on the CSA board definitely underestimated it. I acknowledge that they faced fiscal constraints at the time they were hiring for this position but if anyone thinks the CSA scoured the world for the best candidate their limited budget could buy, they are fooling themselves.

I'm sure DM is a nice enough guy. People who know him personally (which I do not) have nothing but good things to say about him as a man. These very same people have told me that he is out of his league as a coach at this level.

I won't try to speculate if the players like or dislike DM. Some players will always have issues with their coach. I think what is happening is that many of our NT players work day to day for highly regarded coaches at their clubs. I'm sure they see up close the stark difference in quality between their club managers and the MNT coach and it would be natural to be discouraged when you know that your coach, who is an important part of any team, is not up to the quality you are accustomed to.

if DM is not fired before the team leaves for Mexico, it will tell me everything I need to know about the real ambition of the CSA board, especially the "friends of Dale" (i.e. Vic Montagliani et al) who engineered his appointment to the job in the first place).

Dale must go, right away. Since his appointment, he has a record of 3 wins, 4 losses, 4 ties (our wins came against the powerhouse sides from Martinique and SV&G). More importantly, the team has never looked as fluid, as organized and as offensively potent under DM as they did under Stephen Hart at the Gold Cup. The choice is simple... Make Stephen Hart the head coach (and I will admit that I used to think SH was not critical to the success of that Gold Cup squad but I was wrong)

[superbrad]

If we are going to have any chance at the miracle comeback - I agree. They must do something drastic and the coach is the obvious choice. I haven't always agreed to outside help - but it seems these players need someone with real experience to at least give them some confidence and self esteem. That is what is really lacking. The CSA needs to smarten the f#$$ up. They got the order of all these games all wrong. Jamaica should have been in Montreal, Mexico in Edmonton in the summer (would have been full and 70% Canadian) and Honduras in TO in October. I got hooked in the '94 qualifying run. I'm vowed to go to every Canada game when they make a World cup. I'm getting older and less tolerant to alcohol so they better turn it up a notch to keep me interested in this run.

[BearcatSA]

quote:Originally posted by VPjr

Dale must go, right away. Since his appointment, he has a record of 3 wins, 4 losses, 4 ties (our wins came against the powerhouse sides from Martinique and SV&G). More importantly, the team has never looked as fluid, as organized and as offensively potent under DM as they did under Stephen Hart at the Gold Cup. The choice is simple... Make Stephen Hart the head coach (and I will admit that I used to think SH was not critical to the success of that Gold Cup squad but I was wrong)

I have advocated going with Hart in the immediate interim simply because, unlike Mitchell, he has a winning history with this team and on short notice he is the best option for now. I'm not willing to hop on his bandwagon for the longer term, however: I don't recall him having a signficant pro coaching c.v., I don't think his game management skills are any great shakes (i.e. his subs and tactics during the Guadeloupe match stand out) and I think he benefitted from the lower expectations coming into last year's Gold Cup, where we came from under the radar, so to speak: it's different when the expectations are signficantly loftier and the stakes are much higher. But players are creatures of habit and familiarity and when you bring back someone who they have had success with in the past, in the short term it might re-kindle that little bit of confidence we need to get our mojo going again.