The Vancouver Whitecaps signed Martin Rennie to their head coaching position in August after the soccer club spent its inaugural MLS season in the basement of the league.
He said he wants to change the fortunes of the club, not only its league-worst record but also what became a losing mindset over the course of 18 loses, 10 draws and only six wins.
A Scotsman, Rennie is one of a handful of international names the Caps added to its roster during a busy off-season.
Martin Bonjour, an Argentinean centre back, Sebastian Le Toux from France, Malta-born striker Etienne Barbara and superstar South Korean defender Young-Pyo Lee joined a line-up of Swiss, Japanese, Brazilian, New Zealand, American, Ghanaian, French, Canadian and Jamaican players plus two born on the island nations of Trinidad and Tobago and St. Kits and Nevis.
So who starts Saturday when the Caps kick off their second season at home against the expansion Montreal Impact?
That and how will you win? are two questions Rennie is constantly fielding in the lead up to the match.
With the Courier on Tuesday afternoon, the Whitecaps head coach talked starting forwards, philosophy, formation and why its so important to entertain the crowd.
Courier: What does "success" look like for the team this year?
Martin Rennie: For me right now its basically every time we step on the field for us to be competitive and for us to put on a show every time so that our players realize that each game weve got a chance to win. I dont know that was necessarily the case before. So actually the main expectation I have is to try and change the mindset that each time we step out there we compete with a belief that we can win.
Courier: Why didnt that mindset exist before?
MR: The results didnt necessarily go the way the team would have hoped and the confidence fell a little bit and expectations dropped.
Courier: You have a lot of firepower up front, but Sebastien Le Toux and Eric Hassli started together only once during the pre-season and that was the first match in February. What forwards do you see working best together?
MR: I can see those guys working well together. I wouldnt read too much into who started what games in pre-season just because often we were trying to manage two games at once. We were trying to play well in two games so the team was maybe diluted slightly from what it could be. There are a number of combinations that can work for us. I have a pretty good idea how were going to start this weekend. No matter who steps out there, they have the potential and the capability of scoring goals at this level and a number of them have proved that already.
Courier: How do you want to use Long Tan and do you see him as an emerging fan favourite?
MR: Yeah, I recognize that hes improving a lot as well. He shows a lot of enthusiasm every day. He seems to be getting better, hes picking up the things that weve been working on with him, hes definitely a goal threat. For him its more about becoming consistent and about improving on little things hat can end up making a big difference but hes definitely got something.
Courier: Everyone's talking about the offensive firepower but missing what could to be a newly acquired sense of team defense, considering the addition of Young-Pyo Lee. What have you done to emphasize that?
MR: As a coach thats always been one of my foundational philosophies, to defend as a team, to have everybody working collectively to defend and weve done a good job in pre-season and weve got to keep doing that because when we defend well from the front, it means we limit the chances the opposition has and we often win the ball back closer to the opposition goal, which can be an important factor when it comes to scoring goals.
Courier: Ideally fewer goals allowed, more goals scored than last year.
MR: Yeah, I hope so, I certainly hope so.
Q. What's your general tactical philosophy?
MR: To be very organized when we dont have the ball so the players know what their job is and every player knows that theyre expected to work very, very hard to win the ball back and make it difficult for the opposition. That would be first thing. And then hopefully we try to keep the ball and pass it through midfield to crate a lot of chances and entertain he fans as best we can. We dont look to just kick the ball forward and hope for the best, we try and play with a purpose and a plan and hope that that results in some exciting soccer.
Courier: You say soccer, not football.
MR: Yeah, Ive learned to say that. [Laughs.]
Q: What kind of formation do such tactics translate to?
MR: I change it, I dont always play the same way. Sometimes its 4-4-2, sometimes 4-3-3. Usually within those formations theres a combination, sometimes people get caught up with formations and dont understand the intricacies of what happens within that. It changes whether we have the ball or whether the opposition has the ball and it also changes depending where we have the ball or where the opposition has the ball. It changes a little bit but probably somewhere within those kinds of 4-4-2, 4-3-3 types of systems.
Courier: Do you think were seeing a more fluid, dynamic type of game developing?
MR: I think thats been happening a little more recently. Not everybody looks at it that way. A lot of coaches still play pretty rigid systems, but I think more teams now and more coaches now do have flexibility based on where the ball is as opposed to saying, no we always play like this.
Courier: This is a bonafide international squad. What's your general rapport with the teams you coach? Are you one of the boys or more aloof?
MR: Hopefully probably not either of those exactly. I feel like I have a good relationship with the players I coach and I do get to know them and I dont really follow the philosophy of not being able to have any kind of friendship with any players or anything like that. I do get to know them but there is always a distance as well because, at the end of the day, sometimes you have to make some hard decisions and if you get close to the players maybe that becomes more difficult than it needs to be. Between myself and all the coaches, we do get to know the players. We try and find out what makes them tick but we certainly make sure there is a proper line between that friendship and that working relationship.
Courier: Youve had success in your career to date. What pressure do you put on yourself to improve the Whitecaps record from last year?
MR: A lot of pressure. I feel like the pressure you put yourself under is always going to be a lot more than what other people can put you under. Its not so much that its a pressure, per se, but an expectation of doing everything I can to help the team do well and help each player be the best they can be. Thats kind of how Ive always tried to do it, with the expectation that I have to take responsibility for things to improve and try and teach my players to take responsibility as well. Theres definitely a lot of desire there for the team to succeed.
MR: A big thing for me is to try and connect the teams and the fans, try and get the fans really feeling the power of it. Because if we can build that kind of identity and connection, then I think the Whitecaps can become a really strong force. If I look at, for example, the Seattle Sounders or Portland Timbers, they are so connected with their fans. Their fans are so together with them and even when they have good days and bad days, they seem to stick together. I want that to happen here so over the long term we can really build a strong team and a team that the players feel confident and really hungry to go and play for the fans. That already exists and I want to try and help that improve.
MR: I think one of the things is to make sure that the fans know that when they players step out there, theyre giving absolutely everything and theyre not just doing it for themselves, theyre doing it for the fans and for the people of the city. Thats one thing. I think another thing might be at times, hopefully, theyll be opportunities to let the fans see how we motivate the players and how we get them playing to the level that we want them to and maybe that will motivate the fans as well and maybe there might even be a couple of songs here or there that the players like and fans like as well and the fans and players can feel part of one thing. I suppose the support happens as certain guys do that naturally and I think a guy like Eric Hassli, Le Toux and Jay DeMerit and Camilo, those guys will probably do that fairly naturally and we can probably let that happen just a little bit more. We dont have to contrive everything that happens, I think some of those things will happen naturally.
