Thordarson's sacking justifiable but premature

Nobody reading this will need to be told that Teitur Thordarson <a href="http://www.canadiansoccernews.com/content.php?1750-Teitur-Toast">has been sacked</a> by the Vancouver Whitecaps. The 59-year-old Icelandic boss was canned earlier today in favour of director of football Tom Soehn, who takes over as interim head coach. Soehn has a US Open Cup and an MLS Supporters Shield on his resume but last stood behind an MLS bench in 2009, when he led DC United to a rare non-playoff appearance. He is not a popular man in DC United circles even today. His appointment is bound to be questioned.

So will Thordarson's firing. There have been mumblings that he might have lost the dressing room, that he was too tactically rigid. I wrote a couple of weeks ago that <a href="http://www.canadiansoccernews.com/content.php?1703-Is-Teitur-Thordarson-s-position-under-pressure">the front office never really seemed to believe in him</a>. A record of one win, six draws, and five losses isn't impressing anybody and has Vancouver second-last in Major League Soccer, although a relatively good -4 goal differential suggests that all is not as bad as it looks. The Whitecaps team which got a draw against the Eastern Conference-leading New York Red Bulls Saturday looked pretty good, but they didn't have the heat of a team trying to save a beloved gaffer's job.

The team is off to a bad start; no follower can deny that. But twelve games into a season is remarkably early to make a coaching change. Maybe, long-term, Thordarson was not the best choice to run this team, but sacking him now was the wrong decision.

[PRBREAK][/PRBREAK]

The easiest accusation to level at Thordarson, and one I've seen more than one fan shout out, is that he's too loyal to his old players rather than the new MLS talent Soehn has necessarily brought in. I'm afraid it'll take a bit of an information dump to clear that up. Below is a list of players brought in before Tom Soehn arrived in January of 2010, when Thordarson and Bob Lenarduzzi shared responsibility for player decisions, and a list of players brought in afterwards by Soehn. I apologize for the mediocre format of the table: you try to make a table look good on this website sometime! Blake Wagner is almost a borderline case: he joined the team less than two weeks after Soehn did, but he still counts in Soehn's column.

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<td colspan="2" bgcolor="#6BB9FF" style="border-style: solid; border-width: 0px;">Teitur Thordarson's Players</td>

<td colspan="2" bgcolor="#6BB9FF" style="border-style: solid; border-width: 0px;">Tom Soehn's Players</td>

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<td style="border-style: solid; border-width: 0px;">2011 Minutes</td>

<td style="border-style: solid; border-width: 0px;">2011 Minutes</td>

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<td style="border-style: solid; border-width: 0px;">Davies, Philippe</td>

<td style="border-style: solid; border-width: 0px;">Akloul, Mouloud</td>

</tr>

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<td style="border-style: solid; border-width: 0px;">Janicki, Greg</td>

<td style="border-style: solid; border-width: 0px;">Boxall, Michael</td>

</tr>

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<td style="border-style: solid; border-width: 0px;">Khalfan, Nizar</td>

<td style="border-style: solid; border-width: 0px;">Brovsky, Jeb</td>

</tr>

<tr>

<td style="border-style: solid; border-width: 0px;">Knight, Wes</td>

<td style="border-style: solid; border-width: 0px;">Camilo</td>

</tr>

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<td style="border-style: solid; border-width: 0px;">Nolly, Jay</td>

<td style="border-style: solid; border-width: 0px;">Cannon, Joe</td>

</tr>

<tr>

<td style="border-style: solid; border-width: 0px;">Teibert, Russell</td>

<td style="border-style: solid; border-width: 0px;">Chiumiento, Davide</td>

</tr>

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</td>

<td style="border-style: solid; border-width: 0px;">DeMerit, Jay</td>

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<tr>

</td>

<td style="border-style: solid; border-width: 0px;">Duckett, Bilal</td>

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</td>

<td style="border-style: solid; border-width: 0px;">Dunfield, Terry</td>

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</td>

<td style="border-style: solid; border-width: 0px;">Harmse, Kevin</td>

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</td>

<td style="border-style: solid; border-width: 0px;">Harris, Atiba</td>

</tr>

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</td>

<td style="border-style: solid; border-width: 0px;">Hassli, Eric</td>

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</td>

<td style="border-style: solid; border-width: 0px;">Koffie, Gershon</td>

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</td>

<td style="border-style: solid; border-width: 0px;">Leathers, Jonathan</td>

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</td>

<td style="border-style: solid; border-width: 0px;">Morfaw, Alexandre</td>

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</td>

<td style="border-style: solid; border-width: 0px;">Nanchoff, Michael</td>

</tr>

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</td>

<td style="border-style: solid; border-width: 0px;">Rochat, Alain</td>

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</td>

<td style="border-style: solid; border-width: 0px;">Salgado, Omar</td>

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</td>

<td style="border-style: solid; border-width: 0px;">Salinas, Shea</td>

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</td>

<td style="border-style: solid; border-width: 0px;">Sylvestre, Brian</td>

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</td>

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</td>

<td style="border-style: solid; border-width: 0px;">Thorrington, John</td>

</tr>

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</td>

<td style="border-style: solid; border-width: 0px;">Vagenas, Peter</td>

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</td>

<td style="border-style: solid; border-width: 0px;">Wagner, Blake</td>

</tr>

</table></center>

The Whitecaps have played 1080 official minutes this regular season (12 games * 90 minutes), so out of the players brought in by Teitur Thordarson only Jay Nolly and Wes Knight have played more than half the total minutes they could have this year. Greg Janicki is just a minute away from the magical 540 minute mark, so we may as well count him too. Knight more-or-less only played during injury crises, however, replacing Jonathan Leathers, Shea Salinas, Davide Chiumiento, and (indirectly) Russell Teibert. His hefty minutes total comes largely because he only missed two games this year entirely.

This doesn't prove that Thordarson was a good coach, but it does suggest that he was a fair one: not stuck in the past constantly running out players who have been loyal to him (ask Philippe Davies sometime how that's working out for him). You may debate whether Joe Cannon should start over Jay Nolly, but it is a debate and Nolly has his defenders. It's not blind loyalty.

The other great rap on Thordarson was tactical rigidity. Sure, Teitur has mostly run a 4-4-2 in his time with the Whitecaps. There's nothing inherently wrong with the 4-4-2, no matter how "boring" it is, and he's made adjustments to it. This year, his wingers have been playing almost as high as the forwards, allowing Vancouver to exploit the offensive talents of Shea Salinas, Davide Chiumiento, and Russell Teibert. He's also switched entirely out of the 4-4-2 on occasion, both within games (a 4-3-2-1 at the end of the Voyageurs Cup first round's second leg against the Montreal Impact, or the 3-5-2 which led to Davide Chiumiento's equalizer against San Jose). He played a 4-3-2-1 with veteran Martin Nash in the hole for most of last year's USSF D2 playoffs. Thordarson wasn't afraid of new formations: he simply thought a 4-4-2 would give him his best chance. Maybe he was wrong, but you can't honestly say he wasn't flexible. This isn't Football Manager: in real soccer, if you constantly juggle your formations, you wind up with players who don't know where to go and aren't sure what to do when they get here.

I don't want to paint Thordarson as the perfect coach. His preference for Nolly over Cannon is controversial in Vancouver (and is probably a main reason Mike Salmon was let go along with Thordarson). Davide Chiumiento, a key player, obviously wasn't pleased with how he was being deployed. I'm one of those who thinks that a 4-3-2-1, rather than a 4-4-2, is the best bet for this team. And I certainly have favourites who I'd like to see get more time in the lineup (Janicki over Akloul? And why isn't Teibert being played until his heart explodes like a jackrabbit's?)

In any case, this hardly seems the time to sack Thordarson regardless of your opinion of him. The Whitecaps are beginning a three-game road trip to Chivas USA, Real Salt Lake, and Seattle. It's no exaggeration to say that this may make or break their season. But instead of flying to Los Angeles on Tuesday and coming into the Chivas match with the familiar boss, they'll be learning a new system on the fly. They'll play six of their next seven games on the road, trying to figure out the Soehn approach while moving between training grounds and hotel rooms at least once and sometimes twice a week. Had they waited until after the Nutrilite Canadian Championship second leg on July 2, the team would have had a calmer travel schedule that will see them play four games at home through August 7 and none further east than Colorado. There'd have been plenty of time to mount a playoff charge; more games than Soehn gave Thordarson this season to prove his mettle. The team might have looked a little out-of-shape for the Manchester City friendly but if the Whitecaps brass are planning around that then they should all be shot.

It looks like Tom Soehn is running a risk just to get rid of an experienced coach a few weeks early. That isn't the kind of thing any fan, however anti-Thordarson, should endorse. If Soehn thought Teitur incompetent, the proper time to fire him was before the season. As soon as Thordarson was given the reins for 2011, the club ought to have let him manage for a decent number of games or, failing that, at least sacked him when it could do the team least harm.

It's a shame for Thordarson to go out in such a short-sighted manner, for that was never how he coached. Thordarson seemed to know his job was in jeopardy. Saturday against New York, Teitur could have hurried Jonathan Leathers into the lineup despite his calf injury. He could have started Joe Cannon to try and curry favour with the boss. He could have given Shea Salinas ninety minutes even though Thordarson himself said after the match that Salinas clearly isn't fit for that long. He could have hurried in promising young players still nursing minor hurts like Michael Nanchoff and Alexandre Morfaw. Instead, he coached like he was looking to the future instead of just trying to save his paycheque. You might have disagreed with his approach, but even at his last gasp he never stopped putting the team first.

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Thordarson's sacking justifiable but premature

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