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So we have no chance for any world success in this transition phase?

The USNT player poll lacks depth, is relatively weak and is aging. Many of our players lack the well rounded secondaries necessary to compete at the highest level. As a nation, we have failed to train elite NT players. The success of our NT lies not on one US manager, but all US managers.

The future looks brighter as more experienced managers (Isaiah included) are scouting, advising player development, and training a new crop of multi-skilled US prospects. The more educated US mangers are about training NT prospects, the better we'll be.

The NT is very much like the u21 team. The u21 team you get in there, you work with the staff that have helped put together previous seasons, and you try and create a mindset in the 18 year old crop you get. You develop that crop with those individuals while managing the assets you have in place that are 20-21, and hope to do as well as you can. Sometimes, you have enough talent and have enough strategic know-how to make it work. Sometimes even the best made plans won't work. But the whole goal is not to win 1 term and finish at the end of the two seasons, it's to see the guys you started work out. It's also to continue developing the next group in your mindset.

I'm not going to run for the NT, but i'll answer your questions as a u21 match scout and let you decide whether or not that makes a difference when picking a vote.

1) This question isn't relevant. One person can dedicate themselves for 20 hours a day and not accomplish what a group of 6 talent scouts and 2 assists would. When you have 8 or 9 people working together, thats when the best results occur. The people that lose on this should know that the only way to really move forward as a US NT is to take their several hours of time that they can dedicate to the game per day or per week and improve the man-power behind the national squad.

2) Dealing with critics is less stressful here than it is elsewhere. I'd argue that from what i saw from Issiah, he criticizes himself more than others target him. If he can remove the pressure he puts on himself and gets focused on details that are on the set of remaining games rather than the loss that happened last week or last month, he'll improve his own performance.

3) Club level success does not adequately display the best of strategic knowledge. An individual that understands the abilities and the math behind their abilities, those people will figure out the game engine and end up moving into D.II or D.III most of the time, but it may not make them successful. If they do what i do and have two 18 year olds and 1 19 year old US u21 prospect or NT prospect in the wings, it's gonna be hard to be a top BB guy. Using that as a tool is again not necessarily going to give you the right answer.

4) It depends on the Gameshape management of those involved. I think if you have great GS management, then overcoming the 60-70 TSP disadvantage as a squad is not impossible. I also happen to think that our guards outclass most nations, making it easier to play a different set of strategies and furthermore make it more difficult for our opponents to properly guess.

5) A public forum is not the best place to explain why certain strategies are more relevant to this squad. I will say that in certain matchups, the US at the NT and u21 level either this season or seasons prior were quite guilty of trying to fit a square peg in a triangular hole. Every team will have a strength, and the strength should make 2 or 3 offenses viable. Play within those offenses, force others to play against your strength. Exploit what other managers think of your team as well. Plan for what the other teams mindset might be as well. Another area where we have been guilty is at times expecting other smaller nations to play to win the gold, when somestimes they play to boost their achievement past the prior seasons to create a positive vibe and a way to get re-elected. Thats what the US is going to have to improve on.

~FurySK/Yimmy

Its very easy to say what you would have played now that you see the results. Heck, I would play things a little differently too. But based on everything we had in front of us and the shape of our roster at that time I really don't think yourself or Goldbear would have done much different. The Australia game was a fluke and Id say 8 out of 10 times we would have won. As for the Spain game, go look at the discussion for it. I was dead set on PTB and had it set until the last two minutes. I feared the double guess and it happened. That was my only wrong decision in my opinion. The Australia game I would do it over again.

Also, you talk about playing the guys with the best stamina but do you not realize that stamina really isn't that high on the majority of our best players? Its not like we can just pick whoever we want whenever we want. We are only allowed 18 players and if we make drops then we lose enthusiasm. What you are saying you would do is almost an impossible feat due to the restrictions in place.

I never said "guys with the best" stamina. I thought a manager of your class would not twist words but I guess I was wrong. I said an emphasis needs to be placed on higher stamina, whether that means 1 or 2 or 3 weeks training stamina it is open ended at this point (obviously this will rely heavily on the compliance of the managers who have these players on their team). But its definitely not an "almost impossible feat". It not might be a popular choice but stamina can have a large effect on the game. The fact that it is not really high on the majority of our best players is a problem within itself. It shouldn't be ignored.

Also I was asked a question about what I would have done differently for one or two matches and I answered the question. Was I just supposed to ignore the person who asked the question?

Last edited by Dwight Coward at 5/25/2016 10:33:28 AM

Nope, not ignore. I was just saying in general it is easy to look back on matches and say things could have been played differently.

As far stamina, I agree 100% that it has an impact on games. I would love to have everyone train stamina but, as you mentioned, it is dependent upon the compliance of managers. There are some that would be all over it, but the majority of managers are focused completely on training and see those core skills increase or they are training new guys all together. That's just one thing that a NT manager has to deal with.

The correct answer also really isn't to win both games. If we win one game, our placement has changed. So the argument isn't how you beat both, but how you ensure you win 1 and put yourself in position to be in the final bracket facing Spain, France, or Serbia. Hindsight is 20/20, but planning for the worst case scenario is also part of being a manager, and we could do better next time.

I'd just like to know whether or not you are committed to working with the NT to improve understanding amongst owners with potential NT players, and/or strategy, etc. This is regardless of whether or not you win the election.

Hence why I said I would have played conservative against Spain after a win against Australia(even so I still think we would have won that Spain game especially due to their GDP but that's beside the point and an added bonus).

Yes, that is the exact reason why I signed up to the NT forum. I want to contribute. My biggest strength is tactics, this is why I am running to win the election. I can out coach our opponents even if we don't have the most skilled roster in the world. But I am still committed to help out in other areas if the election does not go my way.

Last edited by Dwight Coward at 5/25/2016 3:28:30 PM

For the record, I spawned less than 4 weeks ago so am ineligible to vote. A perfect season looks great on paper, but I have yet to see a modern NT be able to pull that off.

The statement that every game is winnable I completely disagree with. As a 2x U21 coach, my counter point is that you need to feint with a loss at times in order to set up bigger, more meaningful wins. "Playing possum" is a valid strategy to mask your best lineups and favorable tactics. Until the time requires it, it would be foolish to show your hand.

All this conjecture is great, yet the main points raised about the aging roster and lack of playable players remain. It will take a coordinated effort by all to overcome them.

Like other managers have stated, I can vouch that Isaiah is inclusive when it comes to tactics and lineups. I can further attest that it wasn't always the case on the offsite aka "The Dark Cabal". I hope that the non-elected candidates will begin/continue to contribute to the greater discussion taking place on the offsite.

Last edited by Mix at 5/25/2016 5:08:04 PM

This may have had smallfries listed as the active nt manager, but the reality is that there are 6-7 talent scouts, 2 former u21 managers, 1 former nt manager, and I guess total about 13-14 people involved. I'm not saying join it or else, but if you commit your ideas and aid in tactics to the nt or beginners so that they stick around, then it's easier for me to consider you. At least take a look at it and see what you think.

The whole off-site right now is just another forum with a lot of information as to what we want to do with development of our players and our strategies. There isn't some special pass code to get in, you just sign up and message one of the several people involved as admins to set you up via BB-mail here. That's it. We don't want to openly say "were running Look inside against australia on take it easy" on the forums here because there has to be some gamesmanship.

It's my belief that you look at what you likely need to advance, and you plan for what you'll need to get to that point. You might set aside some enthusiasm in one matchup thats is 50/50 and go in on another one on normal effort thats also close but maybe 55/45. Thats an acceptable risk, but i don't believe in losing any game by trying to misdirect with offenses.

The ability to go perfect is more difficult because in certain situations someone will not think "I need to win gold", they will revise their strategy and say "I need to show my teams progress between now and the last worlds". And so instead of waiting to POCT, they might CT in the season and use up their enthusiasm. Teams that are hoping to win gold cannot afford to CT, and can ill afford 4-5 normal efforts to ensure that every one of those goes to plan, so there's always at least 1 chance for a crazy move to cause an upset.

The key to "making America great again" is for more experienced managers to take more new people in. For every 20 that sign up, 13 will either not login or login 2 or 3 times and quit. 7 will stick it out for at least a season, and maybe only 2-3 stick around long enough to make an impact. We need to buy in to helping people out, whether or not you want to join the offsite yourselves or not doesn't matter. Take them in, show them game-shape, show them enthusiasm management, show them how to best train single position and 2 position training to maximize their talent's growth, show them the importance of building an arena early. It's my contention that people quit because they aren't winning, and if you aren't winning or learning how to win, then the game is less fun. I think we probably have 4 people in the NBBA willing to help right now, and maybe close to 12 from D.II, along with another 10-15 from D.III and D.IV that know a lot but commit to u21/nt development. I think if we could get to 6-7 NBBA, 17-20 from D.II, and 17-20 from D.III and D.IV, we might actually increase the amount of US players.