Jesse Marsch: CanMNT manager

[Bigandy]

7 minutes ago, frmr said:

Yeah watching this I don't know how anyone wouldn't be cautiously optimistic about this hire. With all due respect to the members of this forum, I don't think anyone here is smart enough to know if this wouldn't be a good appointment at this point. Just knee-jerk reactions like when Herdman was hired.

This! 

If we had a lower end EPL player, we would be so excited on him. Marsh is equivalent in a coaching capacity. The USA, South korea, leeds, liepzig, southampton, etc. all seriously wanted him. Thats around a mckennie type resume.

It's also really lazy to say that marsch is a narrow tactician and Canada is wing heavy/centrally light. 

Lets say we go 4-2-3-1. Davies/millar/buchanan can operate as narrow wingers in half spaces. Millar especially. This also allows our fullbacks to underlap and keep buchanan wide on the ball side. We will also likely play some very aggressive counter attacks. I don't think our personnel out wide will be nullified. 

Then look at our midfielders. Staq in the pivot is excellent and will continue to be. Kone covers ground and can play AM in a narrow formation better than a wide one as we will likely just do short passing rather than lock picking. Then we have choiniere to run forever or ali to run alot and also be a bit of a lock picker.  

High line? no issues with bombito and cornelius.  Perhaps they arent good enough CB's to defend against argentina but thats more because the quality of players of argentina and less about a high line. 

Marsch is in a category that only David, Davies, Larin, buchanan and maybe staq are currently at or higher. We know we cannot get an elite "pep" coach. Then there's one step below and then theres marsch. Does anyone think we could realistically get a coach better than marsch's level? 

[Gian-Luca]

22 minutes ago, WestHamCanadianinOxford said:

Whether it's PR or not, mentioned it before the MLS in terms what we are building and the "special" moment we are in.

 

Doesn't he know who's paying him😉?

He mentioned the CPL early on as well, after he mentioned MLS, says he is working with both, will even attend CPL matches. Sounds like he will travel a lot but will be based in Toronto.

[Obinna]

51 minutes ago, Gian-Luca said:

 

The silver lining to having a high profile American coach is that we get double-coverage. We're already seeing it now with him naturally appearing on both the Canadian (One Soccer) and American media (Golazo, etc.) circut.

That in turn will put more eyeballs on Canada, which is a good thing. 

[Gian-Luca]

Blue executed Marsch's contract in 2 days, apparently, which is pretty fast given all the parties involved.

[Watchmen]

51 minutes ago, Gian-Luca said:

He just said that the squad will be much larger than normal for the two upcoming friendlies.

"The Canadian Tire Larger Squad".

[Canuckia]

29 minutes ago, frmr said:

Yeah watching this I don't know how anyone wouldn't be cautiously optimistic about this hire. With all due respect to the members of this forum, I don't think anyone here is smart enough to know if this wouldn't be a good appointment at this point. Just knee-jerk reactions like when Herdman was hired.

Obviously we won't know how his ideas play out until they play out. I'm just feeling good about his approach.

[Joe MacCarthy]

Regarding staff: He mentioned keeping Biello around and fitness coach Pierre Barrieu.

[Joe MacCarthy]

He also spoke of having three or four staff and an additional three or four rotating coaches (goalkeeper, fitness or CPL, MLS or younger age group staff).

Along with Pierre Barrieu, He also mentioned Ewan Sharp also from Leeds as possibilities.

[Unnamed Trialist]

5 hours ago, YorkRegionFan said:

I guess we will be waiting for Rick Westhead to jump in with his 2 cents worth.

He should point out that the World Cup 2026 ends in mid 2026 and that we are overpaying Marsch for the first 4 months of this year and the last six of 2026. 

Though that isn't quite in the line of picking around in your own puke for bits of sausage that he has us accustomed to. 

[WestHamCanadianinOxford]

8 minutes ago, Joe MacCarthy said:

He also mentioned Ewan Sharp also from Leeds as possibilities.

Coach/video analysist.

Marsch has mentioned elsewhere that video stuff is really important and that comes from the Red Bull system. 

Sharp was with Armas in Toronto, so not sure he has great memories (COVID times to be fair.)  

But got a chance at Man U when Rangnick had his cup of coffee there. 

[Unnamed Trialist]

3 hours ago, WestHamCanadianinOxford said:

So it does happen then. 

You tend make these definitive statements reflecting your opinion and a very narrow view of football sometimes.

Instead the reality is: Center backs are allowed to make underlapping/overlapping runs in some systems, managers use fullbacks as centre backs, you can look to set up defensively sound with 2 strikers. All these things happen in the varied world of football but you try to mock them or "we know" the opposite. 

As you just pointed out, there are instances where is adding a greater quantity of defensive players is prefered, even if the quality (a judgement call, at the end of the day) of a given player is lower.

Plenty of systems ask the DM to drop back into the middle as the CB split for example. Meaning you can do without an extra CB if you have players nearby who can help. Weirdly, that is how Mascherano ended up playing CB for Barça one of the most astounding positional changes of the century imo. So even players you would think are not the profile (Atiba was proven, Kone could learn it, both with the height and strength) can learn to help cover at CB. I am sure most fans of most clubs know the guy on the pitch who can do it in a pinch.

In any medium advanced system, players have to be shifting positions in function their teammates' movements constantly. It is only the lower levels, or the players with weaker IQ, where some CB freaks out because he is a bit too high up, and instead of continuing to pressure and working with those there, knowing his spot is covered, just ignores the entire play, turns his back to the play and runs back to his designated spot. Unfortunately this is not uncommon in MLS.

Edited May 16 by Unnamed Trialist

[WestHamCanadianinOxford]

1 minute ago, Unnamed Trialist said:

Plenty of systems ask the DM to drop back into the middle as the CB split for example. Meaning you can do without an extra CB if you have players nearby who can help. 

In any medium advanced system, players have to be shifting positions in function their teammates movements constantly. It is only the lower levels, or the players with weaker IQ, where some CB freaks out because he is a bit too high up, and instead of continuing to pressure and working with those there, knowing his spot is covered, just ignores the entire play, turns his back to the play and runs back to his designated spot. Unfortunately this is not uncommon in MLS.

All that can be true. 

But it is also true that teams, some at a very high level, play 3 at the back looking for defensive stabilty, among other reasons. And some are successful, some of the time.  Nothing is absolute except the result in football.

[Ozzie_the_parrot]

1 hour ago, Gian-Luca said:

He mentioned the CPL early on as well, after he mentioned MLS, says he is working with both, will even attend CPL matches. Sounds like he will travel a lot but will be based in Toronto.

Key snippets you are missing out is that he talked about meeting Joey Saputo in Bologna late last year and how MLS clubs in Canada appear to him to now be working together more than was the case when he coached the Impact. That made it sound like this didn't all suddenly happen overnight.

[Unnamed Trialist]

36 minutes ago, Ozzie_the_parrot said:

Key snippets you are missing out is that he talked about meeting Joey Saputo in Bologna late last year and how MLS clubs in Canada appear to him to now be working together more than was the case when he coached the Impact. That made it sound like this didn't all suddenly happen overnight.

You realise Marsch has been living in Italy with his wife, I don't think he went especially.

In any case, I agree that perhaps there are conversations going on at certain levels, more than what we might imagine. But brokering the MLS owners philanthropy, because it is unusual, is still a merit on Blue's part, I would say.

The only possible problem with it, mid to longer term, is that if it is not renewed, and we want a new manager, we'll have to go back to offering quite a bit less. That may not be odd, since many clubs change managers and they jump around in salary, back and forth. 

 

[Joe MacCarthy]

This should be my last bitch on the subject (maybe not) but I got the impression that they went after him and the decision had been made and the hiring process was a charade (my interpretation).

I am coming to the conclusion he may be the best hire but have to wonder what Kuntz or Bobby S brought to the table and was that after the decision had pretty much been made. 

That still bothers me, but I will sing Kumbaya and get on with it.

It also sounded like he has got a fair amount of work in already so...

LOOK OUT HOLLAND!

[InglewoodJack]

Great interview, excitement level quickly rising for JM. Only concern is when he started talking about our defensive depth and brought up all those MLS guys- hoping that’s not a sign to expect MLS-heavy(er) squads moving forward. 
 

Feels like we’re headed in the right direction. Can’t wait to see his first roster release.

[Obinna]

Just now, InglewoodJack said:

Great interview, excitement level quickly rising for JM. Only concern is when he started talking about our defensive depth and brought up all those MLS guys- hoping that’s not a sign to expect MLS-heavy(er) squads moving forward. 
 

Feels like we’re headed in the right direction. Can’t wait to see his first roster release.

No concern from me. That's the reality of the pool in that position. It's almost all MLS. 

I suppose if I am looking for a concern (and maybe this is what you are getting at), there was no mention of LDF and JKL.

There was also no mention of MacNaughton, so maybe he was just listing people off the top of his head, rather than explicitly indicating who the choices will be under his tenure. 

[Canuckia]

8 minutes ago, Obinna said:

No concern from me. That's the reality of the pool in that position. It's almost all MLS. 

I suppose if I am looking for a concern (and maybe this is what you are getting at), there was no mention of LDF and JKL.

There was also no mention of MacNaughton, so maybe he was just listing people off the top of his head, rather than explicitly indicating who the choices will be under his tenure. 

I wonder if he was just dropping those names as examples for the American audience of the show.

[InglewoodJack]

19 minutes ago, Obinna said:

No concern from me. That's the reality of the pool in that position. It's almost all MLS. 

I suppose if I am looking for a concern (and maybe this is what you are getting at), there was no mention of LDF and JKL.

There was also no mention of MacNaughton, so maybe he was just listing people off the top of his head, rather than explicitly indicating who the choices will be under his tenure. 

For me, it's more the omission of Cornelius- maybe Marsch is an MLS believer for life, and thinks it's a higher level of comp than mid level euro leagues like Sweden or whatever so a Waterman or McGraw is better than DC- didn't even think of LDF, but you have to think that his premier league ties mean that he's probably a believer (lots of Fullham fans think LDF needs to start as of next season from what I've read). I do think he was probably naming guys off the top of his head- Hiebert was the second name after Bombito he mentioned, and it's not like a bench CB is going to suddenly get called ahead of a ton of other guys (I hope). Not too worried or concerned until we see the actual June roster drop. He also mentioned he thinks he can still use Johnston as a CB/RB combo too, so the back 3 with AJ won't be going away any time soon.

 

Semi-related, but 2025 is going to be huge for our CBs. We have Bombito who will hopefully move in the fall, Cornelius who could also move, but if he doesn't, he'll likely be gearing up for his second champions league season,  we have LDF who should start playing, I think JKL has to be close to getting minutes since he made the bench for Bristol pretty much every single match day this season. Our MLS CBs are either in tough situations (Miller, especially ZMG), on a bad team (Waterman), severely injured (LMN) or primed for a breakout (Hiebert), so our depth chart could very much change very quickly over the next year or so. Not to mention whatever happens with Johnston- second half of this Celtic season is probably the best he's ever looked, and we might get into a situation where he's too good to bench, and too strong an RB to play out of position. Lot of good competition coming up for our CBs.

[Kadenge]

18 minutes ago, Obinna said:

No concern from me. That's the reality of the pool in that position. It's almost all MLS. 

I suppose if I am looking for a concern (and maybe this is what you are getting at), there was no mention of LDF and JKL.

There was also no mention of MacNaughton, so maybe he was just listing people off the top of his head, rather than explicitly indicating who the choices will be under his tenure. 

Biello did a good job of bringing LDF to camps/games early to get him connected to our group anticipating he could be an EPL player, but unless they come to train and meet JM, which I hope, the next 5 games are a bridge too far for  LDF & JKL. LDF has 1 pro game, where he played very well vs Ipswich an EPL bound team and JKL has  a couple of appearances for Bristol. Neither has the pro experience to face any of our next 5 opponents imo.

[Obinna]

2 minutes ago, InglewoodJack said:

For me, it's more the omission of Cornelius- maybe Marsch is an MLS believer for life, and thinks it's a higher level of comp than mid level euro leagues like Sweden or whatever so a Waterman or McGraw is better than DC- didn't even think of LDF, but you have to think that his premier league ties mean that he's probably a believer (lots of Fullham fans think LDF needs to start as of next season from what I've read). I do think he was probably naming guys off the top of his head- Hiebert was the second name after Bombito he mentioned, and it's not like a bench CB is going to suddenly get called ahead of a ton of other guys (I hope). Not too worried or concerned until we see the actual June roster drop. He also mentioned he thinks he can still use Johnston as a CB/RB combo too, so the back 3 with AJ won't be going away any time soon.

More a case of the styles Colorado and St. Louis play, I am guessing. He did mention that. 

[Kadenge]

6 minutes ago, InglewoodJack said:

For me, it's more the omission of Cornelius- maybe Marsch is an MLS believer for life, and thinks it's a higher level of comp than mid level euro leagues like Sweden or whatever so a Waterman or McGraw is better than DC- didn't even think of LDF, but you have to think that his premier league ties mean that he's probably a believer (lots of Fullham fans think LDF needs to start as of next season from what I've read). I do think he was probably naming guys off the top of his head- Hiebert was the second name after Bombito he mentioned, and it's not like a bench CB is going to suddenly get called ahead of a ton of other guys (I hope). Not too worried or concerned until we see the actual June roster drop. He also mentioned he thinks he can still use Johnston as a CB/RB combo too, so the back 3 with AJ won't be going away any time soon.

 

Semi-related, but 2025 is going to be huge for our CBs. We have Bombito who will hopefully move in the fall, Cornelius who could also move, but if he doesn't, he'll likely be gearing up for his second champions league season,  we have LDF who should start playing, I think JKL has to be close to getting minutes since he made the bench for Bristol pretty much every single match day this season. Our MLS CBs are either in tough situations (Miller, especially ZMG), on a bad team (Waterman), severely injured (LMN) or primed for a breakout (Hiebert), so our depth chart could very much change very quickly over the next year or so. Not to mention whatever happens with Johnston- second half of this Celtic season is probably the best he's ever looked, and we might get into a situation where he's too good to bench, and too strong an RB to play out of position. Lot of good competition coming up for our CBs.

I wouldn't put much importance on player names that JM drops. Its very, very  early days and JM has done a ton of interviews while multitasking. His head is probably spinning. And as @Canuckiaposted JM is probably playing to his audience.

Edited May 16 by Kadenge

[Obinna]

5 minutes ago, Kadenge said:

Biello did a good job of bringing LDF to camps/games early to get him connected to our group anticipating he could be an EPL player, but unless they come to train and meet JM, which I hope, the next 5 games are a bridge too far for  LDF & JKL. LDF has 1 pro game, where he played very well vs Ipswich an EPL bound team and JKL has  a couple of appearances for Bristol. Neither has the pro experience to face any of our next 5 opponents imo.

This is how I see it, especially for JKL as he's never been called in. At least Biello would have gotten Marsch up to speed on LDF.

[Sal333]

47 minutes ago, InglewoodJack said:

Great interview, excitement level quickly rising for JM. Only concern is when he started talking about our defensive depth and brought up all those MLS guys- hoping that’s not a sign to expect MLS-heavy(er) squads moving forward. 
 

Feels like we’re headed in the right direction. Can’t wait to see his first roster release.

You also picked up on that, huh. 

[RS]

Marsch off-handedly names a bunch of MLS guys and a Celtic player when speaking about a position that's dominated (depth-wise) by MLSers.

Stop the presses.