Photo credit: John Todd/ISI Photos
Well, that was quite a week.
So the search begins for the next San Jose Earthquakes head coach. Matias Almeyda, who arrived to great fanfare and promise, never lived up to expectations, and he and the club have parted ways. The then reigning CONCACAF men’s coach of the year had his moments, but the results were on the whole poor. And now the Quakes will try again to find a leader that can make them a winner.
The, perhaps, unenviable task to find that coach, now falls to general manager Chris Leitch, who has intimate knowledge of every facet of the organization, both from a player’s and an executive’s perspective. He knows the culture and ethos within the club, and most importantly, the parameters within which he can operate set by owner John Fisher. Leitch is much more pragmatic than his predecessor, Jesse Fioranelli, and he embarks on a hiring process that will be completed methodically and meticulously.
“We are going to begin our search, immediately, right now, to find our next head coaching staff,” Leitch said on Monday after making the Almeyda dismissal official.
In an all-hands-on-deck response to the coaching change, Leitch promoted Earthquakes II head coach Alex Covelo to an interim role with the first team, bringing with him assistant coach Luciano Fusco. The legend himself, Chris Wondolowski, and former assistant coach Steve Ralston were added to the squad, rounding out a group that has plenty of Quakes history and knowledge.
“I do feel really good about this interim staff that is in place,” Leitch added, “A really good mix of experience, so they’re going to have a great opportunity to show what they can do with this team in the short term.
“So, I don’t know how long this is going to take, but obviously we are going to be starting right now.”
So what does Leitch want to see in his new hire? After all, this is likely to be the most important decision he will make in his time as GM, and he’ll need to get it right if he hopes to be aboard to make other big decisions down the road. The San Jose gig is going to be challenging no matter who gets it, so Leitch is already prioritizing a quality the last two coaches, Almeyda and Mikael Stahre before him, did not possess.
“MLS experience is important,” Leitch emphasized. “This league is very unique compared to other leagues. You have very distinct seasons, your traveling can be a monster. Roster size, salary cap, competition rules and regulations, multiple competitions, so there’s a myriad of reasons why MLS experience and understanding of this league and having intimate knowledge of it gives you a competitive advantage.”
Back to the basics, and less swinging for the fences with the Next Big Thing out of South America or Europe. Leitch has already paved the path for his next hire with some of the roster moves he made since taking over the GM role. Trading for Jeremy Ebobisse, acquiring Jan Gregus and Jamiro Monteiro in the off-season – bringing in guys with MLS know-how and jettisoning players – Almeyda’s players – that never fully adapted to the league’s intricacies. Having a coach who’s, perhaps, laced them up on the field as well as paced the sidelines in his formalwear, all but eliminates the learning curve foreign coaches suffer upon their MLS arrival.
But Leitch did not stop there. Like any good hiring manager, he’s crafted a job description that all but the best will satisfy, though many will be eager to take on the challenge. The stubborn and egotistical need not apply, but neither can it be someone who’s learning on the fly. And starting with a well of MLS knowledge, the Quakes next coach has to be ready to adapt to their opponents and not cling to a single system of play.
“I also mentioned good tactical acumen and flexibility,” Leitch said, “because I do think whether it’s on the road or at home, in certain game moments or times of the season or certain parts of how you’re transitioning your roster, a coach may need to tweak or play in maybe slightly different ways. A coach that has the ability to do that, I think gives a club the ability to have the best chance week to week, understanding some of the variability.
Almeyda was famous for doing things his way, and expecting the players to execute it. He would often contradict himself by also saying that he wanted his guys to play with passion and not be afraid to express themselves, but that caused all sorts of problems when mistakes were made. It became a common refrain in post game comments, that victory was only an avoidable error away. What wasn’t in place was a Plan B for when Plan A didn’t work. Leitch is not looking for a new head coach that is going to insist on a pre-existing system and style of play.
Covelo, whose first game in charge as interim manager saw a mostly second-team squad defeat Bay Cities FC 5-0 in Tuesday’s U.S. Open Cup tournament match at Pay Pal Park, has already embraced this requirement and spoke at length on Thursday about what tactical flexibility meant to him.
“This is the ability to understand what kind of game the opponent is going to play and try to adapt without changing the basis of how you play,” Covelo said. “You have to know when you can press higher and when you need to be more compact. And also to look for the little things tactically in the individuals.”
He, along with his assistant coaches, are all auditioning for the permanent coaching staff, and Leitch is eager to see if his in-house crew can rise to the occasion. Covelo has very little head coaching experience, save for limited time in the role in the lower divisions of Italian soccer and his most recent gig as Earthquakes II leader. But that is not stopping the Spanish-born coach from taking on this responsibility, and he’s taking the job requirement of tactical flexibility to heart.
“It is about trying to establish the opponent and seeing where their weaknesses are and your strengths are,” Covelo further explained. “You have to find certain points tactically that allow you to be flexible. We can talk about when you are going to play collectively and play higher, or medium, or lower on the pitch. If you are going to play more with wingers or more with midfielders. If you are going to play more with your centerbacks or not. If you prefer to press in the middle and allow passes on the side or not. I think those are the variables that allow you to be more flexible, but it all comes from the analysis and to be flexible to win the game, without losing your personality and basics, being yourself.”
Covelo’s first title with the Earthquakes was Director of Methodology, and relying on his own personal experience playing in the Barcelona academy, he was tasked with working with the younger and the academy players to develop a cohesive strategy. By and large, that has helped make strides in creating a winning organization at that lower level. The first team roster has been populated with some of these successful players, and Leitch, the former Academy Director, wants to see that influence continue.
“I mentioned club-centric,” Leitch said on Monday as he continued to run down his job requirement list. “I think that’s just a really important part, that a coach understands within the ecosystem of a club. For example, we endeavored to bring some young players up in order to develop some young players.”
Almeyda often talked about developing young players, but then he seemed to stifle their progress with arbitrary requirements that they be eased into the first team over 50 game appearances. It sounded like a one-size-fits-all approach that could be demotivating for a young and ambitious player. Yes, MLS is a results-based business at the first-team level, and Leitch has stated that will be the club’s focus moving forward, but there need to be opportunities to showcase younger talent, both in hopes of achieving those results and generating interest in other clubs for possible big-money transfers. The Quakes did not do that at all in the Almeyda era.
Continuing with the need for his next head coach to be club-centric, as he described it, was a desire to see that individual and his coaching staff better harmonize with the rest of the organization.
“The coach has to understand and believe in some of the club’s philosophies, as well as leveraging our support staff as well,” Leitch said. “I think we have some really good people that work in this club, and I’d like to see those talents leveraged to the fullest extent.”
The head coach can’t be on an island, not in San Jose, not within the constraints of an organization that keeps its staffing efficient. Almeyda professed an identity of “La Familia” within the club, but that did not always, like any real family, feel inclusive to all. From ticket managers, to the executive offices, to the communications staff, the Earthquakes’ new head coach will need to cooperate with them all.
Finally, and most importantly in Leitch’s search, will be to hire a coaching staff that will better embrace their role as ambassadors in the community at large. For too long, the San Jose Earthquakes have been irrelevant in the broader Bay Area media landscape, and the diehard fanbase has failed to grow consistently. Pay Pal Park provides a wonderful atmosphere for a family looking for some entertainment and excitement, but the engagements with those very same families is woefully lacking the rest of the time.
Leitch sees this, and it’s no surprise he wants his new head coach to be more involved, building up from the Quakes have as their history and welcoming more supporters into the fold. That desire leads to the last two qualities he listed as job requirements.
“Leadership, culture builder,” Leitch said. “Part of leadership is being able to galvanize our fans and our community.”
It’s a long wish list, but it needs to be. And, for his part, Leitch is moving ahead with his approach to roster building, and how best to navigate the challenges of the salary rules and the owner’s financial commitments. It’s another new era for the Quakes, and no one more than Leitch wants to see it leave the launchpad successfully and again see the fanbase and the community embrace their local team.
“Honestly, this club needs and deserves to win,” Leitch said. “We haven’t been successful in the more recent years, but this is a winning club that’s lifted multiple trophies. That’s where we want to get back to.”
