Eric Quill’s “to do” list at FC Dallas
The new man is in place at Toyota Stadium – and there’s no time to waste in fixing what’s broken around the ground
There’s not a moment to waste as Eric Quill, successful at two previous managerial posts but now climbing to a higher level, has been named FC Dallas manager.
Personal note: I feel badly for Peter Luccin, who came darn close to securing the position himself, showing some ability to patch together solutions and rally a dispirited, injury-undone roster. But a late regular season dip, plus an ideally suited candidate being available in Quill, nudged team president Dan Hunt and the club’s technical staff in another direction.
Here’s how I see Quill’s “Fix it” list or “Important Things to Do” list, however you choose to look at the big job: getting FCD’s compass pointed north again.
This isn’t a granular look at the personnel needs. I did that one already, which you can read here. This one is bigger picture.
Establish culture
This is about more than tactical identity. This is about culture and even “brand.”
Because I’m not sure I understand what the FCD brand is now.
We’ve talked about this before, about how the team’s brand, so easily identifiable previously, has drifted from view in the last few years. (You can find much more about that here, written last month.)
It’s on Quill now to establish it, to “re-brand” this project. He sounds like he’s aligned with upper management along the club’s previous pathways, in building around and developing young players. He says he believes in younger players and he’s certainly proven he can work with the less tested and less worldly (aka the “youngs”), having claimed a championship previously as manager at North Texas SC.
A lot of establishing a culture that truly sticks is about having the right voice, about being the right kind of presence in the room. While Luccin seemed to have this part covered in his limited time – how he effectively handled Petar Musa’s moment of indiscipline showed us a lot – it had been missing in Frisco since the highly respected Papi (AKA Oscar Pareja) left the scene.
Neither Luchi Gonzalez nor Nico Estevez commanded the room the same way, in some part because they didn’t have the same voice and presence. Gonzalez may have developed it along the way, but it just wasn’t quite there in his first run as a professional head coach. Same for Estevez, who cared deeply for his players – maybe even a little too much. Estevez seemed reluctant to show the players “tough love.” Or maybe he just didn’t have it in him. (We’ll see about that now that he’s in charge at Q2 Stadium in Austin.
Of course, the right player voices in the locker room can set culture, too. The problem for years around Toyota Stadium has been the lack of “that guy,” or perhaps enough of them. There haven’t been the stubborn enforcement arms, the right voices calling out subpar effort, flagging focus or inattention to details. Veterans with big stacks of knowledge, passion, respect and tenacious intent, packaged up with a savvy understanding of when to speak up in no uncertain terms, aren’t easy to find – and there just haven’t been enough of them in Frisco over the last few years.
Unless FCD Sporting Director Andre Zanotta can go find that guy (or guys) then it’ll be on Quill alone to stand in front of the group, be The Man and set the standards and expectations – and then follow through with unbending enforcement.
Address the Ferreira conundrum
Jesus Ferreira had 10 goals midway through the 2023 season. He was absolutely flying. At that rate he had a superb chance to “finish the job,” the one he couldn’t quite complete the year before: to seize the club’s single season record for goals. (Ferreira had matched the club record of 18 in 2022, and was bitterly disappointed not to have claimed it for his own that year.) He was marching steadily toward that important milepost in June of 2023.
Then something happened. He has seven goals in 31 regular season MLS matches since then.
Something happened in June and July of that ‘23 season as Ferreira went to the national team and then to the MLS All-Star game before returning to Toyota Stadium. Things have generally just not fallen into place for him since then. Injuries? Disappointment over not moving abroad? Disquieting loss of confidence? Only he could say.
Either way, it’s on Quill (and his staff) now to help the player fix it.
First thing he’ll need to sort out is Ferreira’s role. Higher positioned striker? “Underneath” striker a la Sebastian Driussi at Austin? Playmaking central creator with freedom to roam, a la Lucho Acosta at Cincinnati? Creator off the wing?
Previously we would have said the club’s first homegrown Designated Player could fill any of those roles, and quite likely excel at any of them. Now? By the end of last season Ferreira probably wasn’t even a lock as a starter.
By the way, this absolutely ties into the first item above, establishing brand, culture and accountability. Because somebody in the room has to be The Man and demand the same effort and performance from Ferreira that gets demanded of everyone else. No free rides. It can’t be about “what you’ve done?” Now it’s gotta be about “what can you do right now?”
And the question here (“Can the new manager get Ferreira into a better place?”) has to be answered before Quill can get to the next item on the list …
Who to build the attack around?
This is where things start looking a little brighter around Toyota Stadium. While the defense (and the midfield defending) obviously needs some attention, the attack has pieces to be excited about.
IF, that is, Quill can stack those pieces the right way.
Musa seems the obvious choice to build around, having hit 16 goals in his inaugural MLS season, never mind service that was … well, let’s be kind and go with “something less than stellar.”
So, construct the building blocks in ways that maximize Musa’s player profile? Well, maybe. You could also arrange them in ways that maximize Ferreira’s skill set. Or Alan Velasco’s. Or some combination of Ferreira and Velasco.
At LAFC, the system is essentially built to get the indomitable Denis Bouanga out in space along the left wing as often as possible. Down the road at the Los Angeles Galaxy it’s about Riqui Puig being on the ball at every possible opportunity over the final two-thirds of the field. In Columbus it’s about the highly kinetic Cucho Hernandez and his movement as the centerpiece. And on it goes. Those teams have a clear attacking identity with an identifiable central force providing the reference point for the swirl of activity around it.
We’ll all wait to see what Quill cooks up here – and whom he decides to cast as the main ingredient.
Working with Zanotta on a roster
I was never quite clear on where the roster disconnect happened in 2023, but there sure seemed to be one. A coach that wanted to play with three center backs and wingbacks was doing so with a disconcerting lack of … center backs and wingbacks. Did Estevez not convey his needs? Were they conveyed, but too late?
There must have been a communications breakdown somewhere. At any rate, that’s the past. Now Quill has to convey – and right quick – a priority list of required / requested assets. Surely Zanotta is already on the roster reconstruction process, but Quill can certainly provide input on which positions and which player profiles best fit whatever he has in mind.