JK

[ZooCougar]

JK turned 50 today, yesterday was the three anniversary of his hire, but it feels like he has been in charge forever.

Been kind of homer for the guy but the World Cup has been over for a few weeks and I think I have a more sober take on his performance so far.

Bottom line: JK is an outstanding recruiter and he is a big personality that has elevated the team even further into the national picture. It wasn't like the dual nationals materialized in thin air since we failed to qualify for the Olympics. His clout in Europe allowed us to finally tap into that neglected resource. In that regard he has done great.

Even if he was wrong to leave Donovan at home, that's missing the bigger picture because tactically we were lacking something. That was the gig in Munich and that has manifested itself here. He came in and promised attacking and beautiful passing but we are still practicing choppy counterattacking soccer. Add to that, the team looked totally disorganized against Germany and Belgium. Portugal was the most complete game.

Sticking Dempsey up top totally neutered him. Pushing Bradley forward also didn't work.

What he really needs is a Joachim Lowe sitting next to him.

As a technical director I am less worried. It was JK's initiative that reformed the Germans. He should be capable of having an impact with our development. We still have a system that has youth club teams empahsizing more games over more training. And the reason for that is that the coaches of these teams are getting paid for games.

We also have an economic problem, the better the player, the more time and money families have to invest in commitments to their clubs. In Europe, games and tournaments are not as heavily emphasized and clubs pick up the costs. In fact the better youth players in Europe probably don't have to spend more than a dozen Euros a year in nominal insurance fees (I actually checked into this).

This is upside down and JK has to find a solution to this issue because it limits the size of the talent pool and the players need to spend more time training and less time playing.

 

[SubbaBub]

JK turned 50 today, yesterday was the three anniversary of his hire, but it feels like he has been in charge forever.

Been kind of homer for the guy but the World Cup has been over for a few weeks and I think I have a more sober take on his performance so far.

Bottom line: JK is an outstanding recruiter and he is a big personality that has elevated the team even further into the national picture. It wasn't like the dual nationals materialized in thin air since we failed to qualify for the Olympics. His clout in Europe allowed us to finally tap into that neglected resource. In that regard he has done great.

Even if he was wrong to leave Donovan at home, that's missing the bigger picture because tactically we were lacking something. That was the gig in Munich and that has manifested itself here. He came in and promised attacking and beautiful passing but we are still practicing choppy counterattacking soccer. Add to that, the team looked totally disorganized against Germany and Belgium. Portugal was the most complete game.

Sticking Dempsey up top totally neutered him. Pushing Bradley forward also didn't work.

What he really needs is a Joachim Lowe sitting next to him.

As a technical director I am less worried. It was JK's initiative that reformed the Germans. He should be capable of having an impact with our development. We still have a system that has youth club teams empahsizing more games over more training. And the reason for that is that the coaches of these teams are getting paid for games.

We also have an economic problem, the better the player, the more time and money families have to invest in commitments to their clubs. In Europe, games and tournaments are not as heavily emphasized and clubs pick up the costs. In fact the better youth players in Europe probably don't have to spend more than a dozen Euros a year in nominal insurance fees (I actually checked into this).

This is upside down and JK has to find a solution to this issue because it limits the size of the talent pool and the players need to spend more time training and less time playing.

Good at recruiting.
Good at development.
Bad at roster selection.
Good at tactics. (Put the best team out there, but see above)
Good at match management.

Sounds like he needs to not have 100% say on call ups. Other than that, they should do what he says.