Last week, the San Jose Earthquakes formally announced Bruce Arena as both the club’s new manager and sporting director. Giving a manager with his resume these responsibilities makes sense on paper.
However, what does his appointing signal for the rest of this Quakes’ project?
Arena’s appointment divided fans. One camp believes he will either push the team to the playoffs or he is an outdated fixture of a bygone MLS. Both camps stem from the club’s desperate situation.
To be fair to the American soccer legend, Arena finds ways to win wherever he goes if he is given the proper squad. It’s in this caveat that perhaps the split between fans happens.
Will Arena use youngsters as previous Quakes managers have, or will he be devout to getting the team up the table?
On the pitch itself, especially if the winter reinforcements don’t transform this team, it’s probably fair not to expect dramatic shifts. The 4-2-3-1 employed by both Luchi and Russell is a hallmark of Arena, and he is more likely to tweak personnel than the system. Arena used this system to perfection with the Revolution, but the team was built to get the most out of players.
Out of all the possible choices, Arena perhaps felt the most divisive.
The focus on his time with the Galaxy is useless, as the focus needs to be on whether the front office can build this team out.
Since Almeyda, a goal of the Quakes hinged on the club becoming one of the league’s better youth development sides. While the results remain lacking, this mindset makes sense for the way that the club is run.
However, by appointing Arena, the club places itself in a predicament. Do immediate results matter more than the club’s future?
PHOTO: Brian Fluharty/Imagn ImagesThis juxtaposition makes any real discussion of the club tricky, and it all stems from the club’s situation. If the club found itself in just one down year after some relative success, going all in makes more sense. In addition to having a front office that is more apt for building a squad, one imagines that Arena would fit like a glove.
By not even having touched the playoffs, not play-in, for close to a decade at this point, the club became desperate. To be fair, this feeling is understandable, given the changing landscape of the league. With a new MLS team coming to California next season, can the club really afford to be the fourth MLS team in the state?
With Arena’s hiring, it became clear that the club not only wants to but needs to win now. Given Arena’s results-driven approach, this may come at the expense of the club’s long-term prioritization of youth development. Again, this represents the dire situation the club finds itself in.
Perhaps had the Quakes not allowed such impressive young talents like Diego Luna to leave the club, the argument for youth development would have stayed alive. The club prioritizing being more competitive means that only players who impact winning can play. Effectively, this hurts the idea of youth development for players like Tsakiris, who may find themselves looking in from the outside.
The club’s desperate need to reach some level of mediocrity pushed them to give Arena the world.
While this may eventually succeed, it comes at the price of the club’s long term aspirations.
On the pitch, however, fans needn’t expect any true departure from the soccer of the past few seasons. While there is a chance of different results, the team’s fundamental structure will remain the same.
One of the hallmarks of US soccer continues to be the obsession with the 4-2-3-1. It does feel a little strange, as not many clubs globally use this formation or style as much, especially as the revival of more defensive-minded sides continues to take over Europe.
With New England and elsewhere, Arena sets his sides up in the all too familiar 4-2-3-1. The idea remains the same: having a central hub in the middle that the whole team revolves around. At the Revolution, this hub perfectly found itself in MVP Carles Gil.
Fortunately for Arena, the Quakes employ an excellent creative midfielder in López. However, potentially complicating the formation, Espinoza being the club’s best creator and a winger hurts things.
Moving López to the left wing, which he struggled with last season, would create a more balanced front line. Again, this would necessitate a shift in formation. Playing with a midfield three rather than a center-attacking mid balances the side more.
Yes, the Quakes need better players to fill out the squad, but a 4-3-3 with López and Espinoza on the wings balances the team out. It also requires a more clinical striker, but again, this gives the team two creative hubs on the wing. If the club’s best creator wasn’t a pure winger, a 4-2-3-1 makes more sense, but there’s no sense in changing or cutting Espinoza.
As every Quakes coach runs into, the issue of roster construction will hinder this team.
This team remains unbalanced, and the desired formation just doesn’t make sense to the squad.
While Arena enters the season with the benefit of the doubt, his appointment is far from fixing this team. In fact, it may hurt the ambitions of this club in the long run.
However, with this club so far from any semblance of competency, it’s hard to properly diagnose the solution.
PHOTO: Brian Fluharty/Imagn Images
