MLS Management Lessons from the NFL

Eric Wynalda was quoted recently in an interview with Soccer America where he says: "As far as Americans go, there’s only about four or five of us who are qualified about understanding the dynamics of a group, understanding what it takes to win, understanding how to talk to players."

I don't know that Eric Wynalda is my choice to run an MLS franchise or direct one of our youth national teams, but his comments certainly open the door to a unique are of coaching - a manager's understanding of what it takes to win, how to talk to his squad, and understanding the dynamics of a group.

J Hutcherson writes of the validity of Wynalda's comments.

Feel free to argue the numbers, the specifics, and who gets included, but the point is valid. Over an MLS season, we see enough moments where the basic credibility of coaches across clubs deserves to be called into question. As always, this is about a level. Coaches everywhere make mistakes, and MLS doesn't have the same hook that would have a Premier League manager concerned about his job even a few weeks into a slow start. There's more to it - and by extension what Wynalda seems to be saying - than that.

Namely, that the coaches are getting things fundamentally wrong. Even with those enjoying success, those moments tend to reappear. The Chicago Bears are a good team who apparently didn't realize running the ball on second and third down against a team with no timeouts might not be the smartest move. Green Bay responded by tackling the runner, rather than opening a route into the end zone so they would have more than eight seconds when they got the ball back.

If there's a soccer equivalent, it might be the late substitution. The one that ends with the player sent out there to "give the team a spark" more often than not finding himself in the unenviable situation of becoming yet another problem. Very few MLS coaches get the timing right. More often than not, it's just another piece of evidence that the tactics aren't working.

There are other candidates, with the end result another season where there really isn't a complimentary style of MLS play. That should be of significant concern, especially since the elite leagues are currently moving away from the staid 442 in search of better options.

Historically in MLS, that's meant a 352, though very few teams have been able to operate gracefully in that setup. There's the added problem where deviating from the norm puts a target on the coach's back. In real terms, MLS has become a League mainly concerned with security. The problem is that normally means coaches and their tactics becoming placid, with the mistakes that will always follow.

You would think it would be possible for a single-entity league to get their coaches in a room and explain to them that some ideas are detrimental to what the League wants from an overall style of play and will simply no longer be tolerated. We know how unlikely that is to happen, but it's the same message that should be resonating from the team hierarchies in Chicago and Green Bay this week. At least get the basics right.