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As to your first question: you are incorrectly presupposing that the game threads provide all the relevant answers and that the coach just ratifies them. In fact, the coaching has two indispensable functions in that process: getting the thread started by laying down the options and making the final calls. Rambo spent entire Monday mornings in the chat with me, wozz and others trying to make final matchup and tactics decisions. Your objection is a bit like saying that since the us president has advisors, there is nothing left for him to decide....

It's not at all like that actually. Our choices are, are we calling anyone up?, are we running LI R&G or Motion?, are we playing M2M, 3-2, or 2-3?, are we playing TIE Normal or CT?. Pretty straight forward and with the people in our community the knowledge is there even if a manager personally doesn't have "experience" he can make tactical decisions with no problem. Starting a thread isn't hard at all... As far as the chats go I'm not discrediting them entirely but if the coach gets the chatter going in the thread a week before I don't understand what last second adjustments would need to be made.

I just want to make sure that there are people in the nt staff whose job it's to attend to the pipeline (we need at least half a dozen)

I will say this again... I agree the staff is great and the way they are set up is great, but, I still feel the coach personally needs to be out in the community and having more contact. I think this is a big reason we don't have a connect between U21 team and national team. They operate as 2 separate entities, and to a point they are, but the NT manager needs to personally be on top of the pipeline along with the staff to keep things moving in the right direction.

With my job I am playing around on BB and the off-site all the time so I would be able to respond to mail from the community and any discussions we had going at all times essentially. I'm typing these responses from my phone.

As far as ideas to get the community more involved and by doing so create a bigger pipeline... I'm going to preface it by saying i don't know what the limitations are as far as being able to provide supporter etc...

1. Create a private league system with our top prospects at each age group pitting players coming up through the ranks against each other and trying to create rivalries and competition that enticed managers to stay the course. This is where the supporter comes in... If managers get prospects to a certain point they would get it and get put in a PL with other players to start these rivalries.

2. Use the off-site to create training strategies for propects (which we already have) but then take and deliver this to the managers personally. Again I think having the coach personally contact then will get people more excited that aren't already a part of the NT.

3. Create mentor programs uniquely built around their prospects to help them promote and therefore be able to sustain their players on their team for longer. Give them realistic monetary numbers as far as potential merchandising and ways to build their team around their player to advance through the game. And again I as the NT Coach would deliver these programs.

Etc.

Last edited by southpaw17 at 2/10/2012 2:56:31 AM

I will say this again... I agree the staff is great and the way they are set up is great, but, I still feel the coach personally needs to be out in the community and having more contact. I think this is a big reason we don't have a connect between U21 team and national team. They operate as 2 separate entities, and to a point they are, but the NT manager needs to personally be on top of the pipeline along with the staff to keep things moving in the right direction.

I have to agree with this. Even if the NT coach sent out a common message to everyone with a good trainee it would encourage them to train that player because they just got contacted by the "NT Coach". That is a big deal to some people. Scouts help out a lot by putting together the reports of what each player is being trained in and how they are looking but all these trainers need the motivation from the NT and U21 coaches themselves. The scouts can tell the owners of these players that "they can train them and and they will help their teams" or "they can sell them and make lots of money" but really that isnt goiing to do anything. They need motivation by the NT and U21 coaches to feel special like they are really part of the NT.

This is a very superficial view of the game decisions. (1) Almost all of the threads for the major games do not end up in a single solution. Everyone who has been coach will tell you that every major game involves a couple of days of agony. The threads at best lay down the pros and cons of each approach. When you're playing Venezuela in the round robin, there isn't much else that needs to be done. But if you're playing Chile in the semis you will change your mind many times and the offsite people will try to talk you into all kinds of bad ideas.

(2) Matchup and personnel choices are often a lot harder than the game tactics decisions.

As I've said I'm new to this so that may have been the case in the past. This past couple of seasons though I felt as a group we were on the same page by gametime when it came to personnel, tactics, and matchups. I realize decision making is involved, however I don't see how its as difficult as you make it out to be.

I will say this again... I agree the staff is great and the way they are set up is great, but, I still feel the coach personally needs to be out in the community and having more contact.

Why?

Because the only way we're going to be grow as a nation is to get more activity and I think having the NT Coach contact people, having that title when you do will give you more credibility and give us the chance to grow the community the way we want and need.

I don't follow. How does "[being] out in the community" help forge a connect between the two NTs? And what would that connect be, other than having a single pipeline, which we already have?

Because from what I've read and been told its almost like you either pump primaries ans try to get them on the U21 team or you make a more rounded player and go for the NT. It honestly looks from the outside like its 2 different things and I think we need to have the coach get out there and bridge that gap so we don't lose prospects as soon as they are done with the U21 team and lose that merchandise.

P.S. I don't mean any of this as casting doubt on your eligibility as a coach. I think all prospective coaches are mostly unaware of this. But decision-fatigue is the #1 reason why NT coaches don't run again I just mean this to rebut your challenge to me that I wouldn't be doing the "important" stuff.

No offense taken. I understand it is a task, and there will be a ton of second guessing. I just feel with the community that the correct decision will be made.