FC Dallas didn’t play and Dan Crooke is MIA post-England PK “Loss” in the Euro final but Buzz Carrick and Peter Welpton are here to talk all things FC Dallas. There is plenty of transfer news with the window open… all of it outbound. Is anyone coming in? Buzz has an in-depth training report, including some changes being considered for the portland game. Plus some All-Star talk, some North Texas talks, a Hedges/Martinez injury update, and more!
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Music by Pappy Check.
I’m in the LuciOut# crowd now because the only two sensible alternatives for how FC Dallas should handle the rest of the season won’t happen if Luchi remains as the coach.
1) If you fire him now and bring in a proven manager with big league experience from either MLS or another league now, you might be able to get enough out of the roster to make the playoffs. The new manager would need to be given the freedom to play whatever formation he sees fit and use whoever he wants, but he would be limited to the player pool he has now. Luchi has not shown the ability to turn this group around and most likely no newcomer would either, but if making the playoffs is a priority this is the only sensible step to take.
2) Fire Luchi now, and appoint a caretaker manager for the rest of the season with the clear understanding that player development and evaluation are the primary objectives – not results. I can get behind this as a fan because its (hopefully) building for the future. I’m ok sucking for a season or two if it enables the team to assemble a core group of players that can be counted on to legitimately challenge for silverware in the future. My fear is that if you retain Luchi he will continue to prioritize results over development and play veterans that won’t allow for the development of that future core and you’ll simply end up wasting the rest of the season in a fruitless search for an improbable run of results that will get them into the playoffs.
I like Luchi’s coaching ideas – he seems very cognizant of the modern tactical game, and i became convinced in 2019 that Luchi-ball was a good goal for the entire organization to pursue. But it seems to me that something happened after 2019 that made Luchi and the FO pivot away from the Luchi-ball concept. The veteran players they have acquired don’t necessarily fit that style and Luchi has progressively become more reactionary and results oriented in his choice of playing styles. If Luchi and the FO is no longer committed to Luchi-ball then he should go since there is no longer any reason for him to be the manager in that case.