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Report: Revs set to name Brad Friedel as new head coach

A U.S. Men’s National Team legend is set to take over the New England Revolution.

According to Goal USA, the Revs have hired Brad Friedel as the club’s new head coach. The job will be Friedel’s first professional club head coaching job after previously coaching the U.S. Under-19 Men’s National Team.

The report adds that the Revs also reached out to former USMNT boss Bruce Arena about the job while New York Cosmos head coach Giovanni Savarese, U.S. assistant Pat Noonan, San Jose Earthquakes assistant Steve Ralston and U.S. U-18 boss Omid Namazi were also considered.

Friedel, who was originally linked with the Revs job via an ESPN report, retired after the 2014-15 Premier League season, capping a 20-year run through Europe that included stops at Liverpool, Blackburn Rovers, Aston Villa and Tottenham.

According to Goal, an announcement could come as soon as Friday.

Comments

  1. I think it’s fantastic New England is hiring a Brit. MLS needs more culture and non-American managers that have played at the highest level.

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  2. Just at a guess, I think he’ll do a lot better than people expect. Dude has big-picture ability and can orate like nobody’s business…the leagues he played in will command him personal respect from the players, and his ability to speak and command the room will lend him even more. If he has even the slightest sense of tactics he’ll do well…and he comes across as more than big-picture-oriented enough to bring in assistants who do tactics well. Plus he certainly comes across as a decent, fair-minded, highly intelligent dude; I doubt he’ll go alienating the locker room for lack of interpersonal ability or a lack of a moral compass.

    MLS’s lack of relegation and (cough) the Crafts’ lack of ambition in regards to soccer means he’ll almost certainly get at least a year to learn his business. He may have to grow into the job but just to judge the dude himself you’d certainly THINK he can get there unless the job just snowballs on him.

    Just sayin’.

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  3. As a Revs fan… this will not be popular. He has ZERO professional coaching experience. We just fired the last former player with zero experience and he was a disaster. Plus we had a goalie turned coach before… Walter Zenga and he was a disaster too. The Revs GM, Mike Burns, should have been fired years ago. He has been GM since 2011 but with the club in other capacities since 2005 (no talking about player). Since becoming GM he has done little positive for the club. He can’t hire quality players and the ones we have, mostly want out. He was responsible for hiring Jay Heaps, another coach with ZERO qualifications and we have missed the playoffs two years in a row. Only one road win this year, and that was after Heaps was fired.

    Now he hires Friedel, his old roommate and buddy from the NAT days. No professional experience and a goalie. How is he going to coach the attack? Are the players going to listen to him? We were so hopeful that we’d get a coach that could turn this sinking ship around but instead, another buddy that probably won’t challenge Burns inability to sign quality players. It is hard to be a New England fan and watch the same crap year after year. Give Friedel 5 years max they he’s fired too. By then, Ill be too old to care

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    • Sadly, I agree with you. Certain coaches bring in known benefits (Arena/Vermes types are great organizers and known winners; Tata/Klinsman great recruiters; etc). Friedel brings nothing to the table. Most goalies aren’t famous for their tactical acument, he doesn’t have strong recruiting connections, and he doesn’t have any track record of being a brilliant recruiter, organizer, talent-identifier, tactician, etc.
      He could surprise us an be wonderful, but I doubt it. This feels more like a traditional Revs decision of “who do we know that is cheap, decent, and won’t be too upset when the Revs management continues to not care/invest?”

      Like most things Revs over the past 5 years… “meh”.

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    • Agreed. I just don’t get it. Some guys you can bring in with no experience, and they’d work (I think Taylor Twellman would make a good coach). But with Friedel, I just don’t see it.

      I said this several months ago – it shouldn’t just be “Heaps Out”, it should be “Burns Out”, too. As GM, he needs to take responsibility for the product on the field as much as the coach, and I think he is what is really holding this team back. He doesn’t get the players we need or can afford (yes, you can say the Krafts are holding the team back, and while more investment would be better, I think the Revs could field a decent team as is), and he’s the one in the position to hire. And he seems pretty reclusive – President Brian Bilello (the man who needs to fire Burns) at least engages with the fans and makes it seem like the team is trying.

      In three or four years, it’ll be “Friedel Out”, and we’re right back to square one.

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    • Regarding goalies, Sir Alex Ferguson was a goalie and he did pretty well. Bruce Arena was also a goalie. Goalies are kind of like catchers in baseball in that they see the whole field, learn the offensive capabilities of opponents and have a big say in their team’s defense. Catchers often make good managers, too.

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      • Gary, Ferguson was NOT a goalie, he was a forward. I would argue that goalies do not, on average, make the best coaches (although I think Arena was a a good coach). Form my limited experience, central midfielders make the best because they have to learn to see the whole game.

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