The New York Red Bulls have announced the hiring of 57-year-old Swedish coach Hans Backe as the team's new head coach. A long-time confidant of Sven-Goran Eriksson, Backe most recently worked as head coach of English League two side Notts County, a job he quit after just seven weeks.
Richie Williams and Des McAlennen will remain with the Red Bulls as assistant coaches.
A veteran of the Scandinavian leagues, Backe has previously coached at FC Copenhagen and Aalborg BK in Denmark, as well as Swedish side Hammarby, SV Salzburg in Austria and Panathinaikos in Greece. He won four Danish titles with Copenhagen from 2000 to 2004.
Backe has worked closely with Eriksson on multiple occasions, including with Manchester City and as an assistant coach with Mexico during Eriksson's failed stint as manager of 'El Tri'.
What's the SBI take? Backe's resume is a strong one, but he also hasn't had a legitimate head coaching job in five years (unless you count the Notts County fiasco and an extremely brief spell with Panathanaikos). He has no working knowledge of MLS, which makes for a bad combination when coupled with general manager Erik Soler's limited knowledge of the league. Backe isn't the worst hire in the club's history, but the hiring can't be called a home run either.
Perhaps the most redeeming aspect of the announcement is the fact that Williams is being kept on as the team's lead assistant. As the only authority figure with any knowledge of MLS, Williams will wind up taking on a very important role in helping Backe and Soler adapt to MLS. Williams should also benefit fro working under a coach with Backe's experience, and he could also find himself in charge of the club yet again if Backe falls flat.
What do you think of the hire? Stunned? Impressed? Disappointed? Just glad the wait is over?
Share your thoughts below.
jesus… when is Williams going to ditch NY? He doesn’t get the head coaching position, and could coach any number of teams in the league with some success and get paid more. Now he is going to be the ‘puppet’ assistant coach…
Just tell me Agoos no longer has any input on the team and this will be a great hire
@Coach,
Actually the Scandinavian leagues is more alike to MLS in terms of style, size, and, to a degree economic limitations. And as you mention, like MLS, it is not world beaters or in the same class as the leagues to mentioned.
It cannot compete with the other European leagues in terms of buying talent, and like MLS, they also have to try to get affordable good players and work with what they have. Also, Scandinavian leagues are feeders to EPL and other physical leagues.
He has had success in Denmark and you do not win 4 cups if you are a mediocre coach, so he HAS to know something about soccer and getting the most of his players.
I see his hiring as an opportunity to inject a new approach to MLS in terms of player development and game tactics and I do really hope more of them could come.
Cheers
Hey DC Josh
Assuming you are NOT being sarcastic I will answer your questions?
The new guy knows the SCANADANAVIAN league not the UK, Brazil, Mexican,Portuguese Spanish Italian or German..etc that’s a huge difference. The Scandanavians are hardly world beaters or in the same class as the aforementioned..
The Head Coach has a whole lot more to do than what you casually claim to be.. Anong them to also MOTIVATE the players and with his track record..? Not sure that Henry or Angel for that matter would be overly impressed. Also has to understand the peculiarities of MLS and get the team to gel. We need a TEAM not a bunch of local and foreigners with diff skill levels all thrown together .As an OUTSIDER with 0 MLS experience who knows?What about nourishing and developing youthful raw talent? The list goes on and on..
Will he even bother to listen to his Assistant? Remains to be seen? RW has a limited but proven track record so I am thrilled that somehow they kept him? If he has the character without the huge eggo maybe just maybe a partnership could work? Early days yet?
I am NOT that optimistic.?His claim to fame seems to be he is Eriks old pal?
Wow, can you say xenophobia?
He is more accomplished than any other coach in MLS right now.
Poor Williams. What does he have to do to get the head coach position.
“The House that Agoos Built”
are you crazy, this is a great choice. A coach who knows nothing about MLS or American soccer. Name one time that didn’t work out
Where are you Ives? Don’t just write a few paragraphs and disappear. I enjoy hearing from my fellow fans, but I (and I think many others) really come to the site to hear your take. We enjoy the initial article, but enjoy your responses to the comments just as much. Don’t let success take you away from what separates you from the many soccer forums out there. Take part in our conversation.
Anyway, love the site; hope to see you on it.
As for the hiring, if the assistants hadn’t been retained this would have been much more worrying. As long as Hans is willing to leverage their experience I think he has great potential. Looking forward to seeing the team, with some new players & a new coach, in the new stadium. It’s a good time to be a MLS fan.
+5
Exactly. And retaining Williams, who has much more credibility in the organization than any other assistant has on any other MLS staff, solves any of the potential negatives in going foreign. New coaching blood (and from a league not dependent on superstars and megabucks) is precisely what MLS needs.
Hey RB fans
Surely we all saw this coming..It’s called Nepotism. Erik simply chose a pal of his with the feint resemblance of being a coach. Sorry for being skeptical but typical of RB with that Austrian flavor we are NOT going to make it in 2010 with this dude. Austria is running this team and to hell with the fans? His track record is pitiful to be honest? The only good news is RW hopefully with a lot more $ to compensate his pride will soon get a third stint (no doubt his final stint as head coach) in about 90 days. Keeping Des was a good move too No mention of Ahole Agoos? Please tell me Ives he is taking out garbage, painting the lines at DC’s field or something like that?
If it were my choice I would trade for Peter Novak >A rEAL coach with atrack record But ahh didn’t we do that to get the clown JSO so what could be worse? Anyway too late the dye has been cast and at least we have a great new stadium after waiting 12 years and oh yeah I forgot no parking??
Coach K
Hopefully he doesn’t walk out on the Red Bulls. I feel horrible for the Red Bulls squad who have endured inequity with the poor management by their superiors. They deserve better than they’ve received and I hope they can turn things around this season. Keeping Richie Williams on is only a good thing and I foresee him becoming a great coach in the future.
Don’t understand the complaints:
GM: Takes care of player trades, business – NY’s new guy is knows different leagues inside and out and has a very broad knowledge of soccer.
Head Coach: Develops a team and controls the 90 minutes – this guy’s resume shows he can do that.
Richie: Develops the players and is able to perfectly explain the different rules – perfect for that.
So you get a GM who can do his job, a coach who can do his job and an assistant coach who can do his job. Burn the bridges after the halfway point not before you realize what’s across from it.
If I were a NY fan with a new stadium, new structure of the team, new players, great position in the draft, fresh and a winning coach, kept one of the best if not the best assistant coach, I’d be stoked!
If RBNY lose a couple matches I except to see a “SHUT UP HANS!” poster somewhere in Red Bull Arena.
Speaking of which, does that place have a nickname yet?
Not having coached since 2005 is not a good indication that he’s in touch with the game. Do you know how involved he’s been since he left coaching? If not, how can you be pretty sure of anything? 4 years is a long time.
Bringing up Klinsmann is silly, since he obviously has a lot more familiarity with MLS than the vast majority of foreign options.
Never saw this one coming…
if he gets us a road win this season he might just become a legend here in NY
Quit his last job after seven weeks. And, to quote the article, “Backe has previously coached at FC Copenhagen and Aalborg BK in Denmark, as well as Swedish side Hammarby, SV Salzburg in Austria and Panathinaikos in Greece.”
Sounds like the model of stability that RBNY so desperately needs. Bet he’s gone by June.
Wouldn’t a “mini- Scandanavia” be an improvement?
good point, indeed. it’s not far from the draft, though, either. i was thinking more from the perspective of the potential player being drafted. Not always the best impression when the team drafting you may not have a head coach in place.
On the other hand, getting the right fit as coach is much more important to me in the long run.
Everyone sing along:
“Hans Backe, baby, Hans Backe,
Baby, your heart give me, give me
Your heart give me, give me.”
It says that Moyes knows how to sell a few shirts. I hope our poster boy gets a chance to prove himself though.
Curious to know if you have personal experience with his teams — your name looks Danish or Norwegian. (I’m a Norwegian-American myself.)
+5 hahahaha
+3
Anyone interested in giving the man the chance to take the job before condemning him to failure???
Unless the topic is player acquisition, etc. (which is Soler’s job anyway) or perhaps the style of particular MLS teams and players (which, admittedly, Williams will know better, but which, over time, can be learned), I’m having some trouble figuring out just what it is that the new coach won’t or can’t know about coaching this team. As long as he’s realistic about what players can and can’t do — and his experience in second-tier leagues should help him to avoid the problems that someone like Gullit would have — I’m choosing to be hopeful about this hire.
Way too early to condemn a coach. Yeah, MLS is unique but I’m sure certain things were explained to him. Osorio was a bust but that was his fault, not the systems. He knew how MLS worked. He just picked the wrong personnel and had injury issues (still New York’s record was atrocious given the theoretical level of talent available).
Hans should know he can’t just go get better personnel when he wants. He’s had sucess in the past. Whether he can turn around what appears to be a cursed franchise is, of course, debatable.
Not having coached since 2005 doesn’t mean he’s out of touch with the game. I’m sure he’s been pretty active during his time away from not having coached. Had Klinsmann signed would you be saying the same thing seeing how he’s been away from the game for the past couple of years.
Ulrich, your analysis is off. You claim that the reason that foreign coaches haven’t done well is b/c there are so few of them (thus of course we’d expect American or Canadian coaches to do better).
Except there are a bunch of foreign coaches who’ve done well OUTSIDE of MLS (Bora Miluntonic, Carlos Queirox, Juan Carlos Osorio) who’ve then struggled in MLS. Most foreign coaches who’ve come to MLS, unless it was someone like Ivo Wortmann (who coached youth soccer in the US first or Nicols who coached USL ball first than assisted in MLS) have complained about the ideosyncrancies and how strange it is as a league.
And there is a lot of stuff where having some knowledge like on refs (which refs respond to yelling and which don’t, which ones you can get away with professional fouls on vs. the ones that over-react), which college coaches appraise their players talent fairly vs. inflate it, how certain fields play, the nature of traveling across the US (Danny Dichio said that was his biggest adjustment to MLS–how travel just kicked your butt b/c you weren’t talking about a 3 hour bus ride but a 4 hour plane trip plus time zones), how certain coaches operate tactically. Watching film helps. But there’s a lot of knowledge that being outside of North America, you don’t have.
None of this means that Bache will fail. But there is no precedent to indicate he’d succeed. And it also implies that NYRB management has a very closed circle of contacts (which is not good) or doesn’t understand some of the challenges of managing in MLS (which is worse). Bache may turn out to have some attributes that uniquely qualify him to raise up RBNY. Maybe he’s a tactical genius who SGE always ignored. Maybe his job hopping means he’s great at seeing across multiple cultures and the last 4-5 years where he wasn’t a head coach, he was watching tons of MLS games on FSC.
I think more likely he’s a guy who figures this is his ticket back into head coaching, that since he’s coached in Europe that means MLS will be easier, and that he’ll rely on his American guys (Agoos and Williams) to deal with all of the league specific issues (sort of the Ruud Gullit approach) which is really like saying that you’re dividing the head coach role up into a couple of different jobs held by different people (except that some of those people like Agoos and Williams won’t actually have comensurate authority).
In other news…Everton gives Donovan the #9 shirt. Does this solidify that Moyes will play him up top? I hope not..
Being a Notts County fan (as well as Red Bulls of course) I can tell you he is pretty good. He likes attacking soccer, and in the short time he was at Notts was able to bring some stability there. Unfortunately, the people who bought Notts put the team up for sale after only 6 months, so he decided to leave, but I gotta tell you I’m pretty stoked to see him land here. Hopefully he will succeed!
I think Hans Backe will turn out to be just what the Red Bulls needs, a solid and mature proffessional with a proven record, FC Copenhagen played great soccer with Hans Backe as coach. I do not aggree with the idea that you need a lawyer’s knowledge of the MLS rules to succeed as head coach, what the coach needs to bring to the table is knowledge of the game and the ability to manage and motivate proffessional players so that they perform as a team week in and week out at or close to the best of their ability. It is very good for the Red Bulls and us supporters that Richie Williams and Des McAlennen will continue in their present capacities with the club, they are good proffessionals at what they do and they have knowledge about players here in the the US that may be added to the roster, Hans Backe has knowledge about possible players from Europe. I predict the Red Bulls will play attractive soccer in 2010 and they will be difficult to beat for any team.
Wierd hire – seems like a typical NYRB move. I thinking keeping Richie Williams around though as his #2 his a smart move.
Meh.
At what point does Williams leave the club? My goodness, the guy keeps getting passed over but sticks around non the less. That has got to be a shot to his pride at some point.
I guess Richie Williams will be taking over as the interim coach after this guy resigns…after 8 games…
I’m glad the wait is over. Let’s move on. The best bit about this news is that Williams is assistant coach. Now on to the players. Last I checked, we are not making the playoffs with a midfield such as ours…adios ROJAS.
Great. A guy who not only knows nothing about MLS, but also is completely out of touch with the world of soccer. I mean, seriously: he hasn’t coached since 2005. It’ll take him a while just to reacquaint himself with how to coach, let alone learn MLS.
I am ok with this signing, the best part is that Williams is sticking around to help Backe with the MLS game, which is very needed. On another positive, is with him coming from Scandanavia, you know the guy knows how to help bring up tallent, and that is what the Red Bulls need. What does this mean for the club, well I deffently expect atleast 4 players coming over from Scandanavia. You see it in every league, when a coach comes in from another country they almost always right away bring in players from their country. Mourinho with his Portugese players, Benitez with his Spainards, Van Gaal, with his Dutch players. It happens in every league, so Red Bulls fans get ready to see the same thing with us. I happy we finally have a head coach and the team can consintrate on bringing in players now. Now lets hope we can improve our deffense, get a good holding midfielder, if we arent going to start Stammler, and I would hope for the best OCM that wont want DP money if we are going to get Henry.
@plug,
I think that having been an assistant coach himself that would not be an issue. If that was not the case, there is no sense on the RB having retained both coaches.
Cheers
Williams does know a lot about MLS and is, in my opinion, a very fine young coach. That is not the important question here. The important question is whether Hans Backe is going to have the sense (humility) to go to an assistant coach, say “I don’t know”, and then listen to what the assistant coach has to say. If he lacks that quality, he can have the most knowledgeable staff in MLS and not benefit from them at all. Backe is almost certainly going to be another Red Bulls one-year-wonder.
What is wrong with this team? Do they want to make mistakes? Why won’t they hire someone that can actually help them in MLS. This isn’t Europe.
Classic Metrostars
It’s actually a good move on RBNY’s part. Had they let the assistants go whom both have working knowledges of the league then it would be stupid. You have a very good coach at the helm with two assistants that understand how the league works – Drafts, player acquisitions, etc… This is gonna work out well. It also sounds like RBNY is trying to change the Culture of the club which is a BIG PROBLEM. Sort of like the problem my beloved FIRE currently have.
Sorry, some early 80’s success!!!
You’re busting my balls Hans
HAHA!!! Being a long time Chicago fan (Sting, Horizon, Mustang, Power, Fire, Kickers), it just makes me laugh. Either the NY brass get it or they do not. Had it in the 70’s, nothing to show since. Enjoy the new stadium (actually can’t wait to see it) with a disorganized team and a Richie Williams who will be completely gray making way to little money for the resposibility that is on his doorstep. Richie, get OUT!!!!!!
Still, HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!!!!
Prediction on nothing more than gut and past experience:
1. Agoos screws up this draft too
2. Has is canned before the end of the season
3. Williams named interim coach, does a good job
4. RBNY hires another coach not names Willams
They only redeeming factor in all this is I get to now watch this fiasco from my season ticket 4-pack in a great new stadium!
His resume is very agreeable. We’ll see how he fits in the league. That said, what an awful English translation.
Hans Brix is going to fail.