Marcelo Bielsa Disciples At D.C. United, San Jose Earthquakes Were Set Up To Fail

With Matias Almeyda departing the San Jose Earthquakes and Hernan Losada dismissed from D.C. United this week, the two Major League Soccer coaches who were the most ardent followers of famed Argentine tactician Marcelo Bielsa are now former MLS coaches.

In the aftermath, there will be temptation to use these exits — one anticipated for years, the other a largely unforseen surprise — to make pronouncements about the suitability of any Bielsa accolyte for MLS’ unique landscape.

Don’t do it.

There are three easy-to-identify used by followers of Bielsa, who himself was dismissed painfully from his role at Leeds United earlier this Premier
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League season.

They typically employ a heavy dose of high pressing, often use man-to-man marking and frequently shift formations game to game or even during games. The first two require exceptional physical effort on behalf of players — even by the standards of professional soccer — and all three require above average belief in the manager.

Between the unusual travel rigors and relatively shallow roster depth in MLS, you could credibly argue Bielsa’s ethos isn’t the most natural fit here.

But there’s something more glaring at play — that it’s impossible to ask players to continue to buy in to something unorthodox when it’s clear ownership isn’t doing so as anything other than a cost-saving measure.

While there were probably good reasons to move on from both Almeyda and Losada, to say their squads performed poorly relative to investment is unfair.

In 2021, D.C. United had 21st-highest payroll in Major League Soccer. The San Jose Earthquakes were 22nd of 27 teams at the time. Both teams finished above their payroll ranking in the final 2021 Supporters’ Shield Standings. The Quakes only did so by one position, but they also played an arguably more difficult schedule in the Western Conference.

In terms of squad value — determined by players’ worth on the transfer market, not their current earnings — the Quakes have the 14th-highest rated MLS roster according to Transfermarkt, while D.C. are a lowly 25th out of now 28 clubs.

And San Jose’s value is skewed upward by 18-year-old forward Cade Cowell, the fourth-most highly valued teenager in the league and the second-most among players produced internally by a club academy. He might be a valuable asset now, but he was extremely affordable when acquired.

What makes this worse is that, for either team to claim the need to operate below league average levels of investment is to admit without saying so that the club’s marketing effort or ownership commitment (or both) is sub par.

D.C. United and the Quakes play in the nation’s fourth- and fifth-largest combined metropolitan statistical areas, respectively, and the second- and third-largest with only one MLS club. These are not Salt Lake City or Cincinnati — two of D.C.’s peers among squads with low roster value. Nor are they Orlando or Colorado, two lesser spending teams on salaries last year.

There are obvious echoes of Bielsa’s own tenure at Leeds United here. The Peacocks’ squad value is rated 13th currently per Transfermarkt. But nearly a thirdis tied up in two players — defensive midfielder Kalvin Phillips and right winger Raphina. There aren’t many similarly valued teams in the Premier League whose worth is concentrated so highly in the top two places on the roster. And while Leeds weren’t a low-spending League Championship side when they hired Bielsa to steer their promotion effort, they didn’t ramp up spending in a way many expected once they got there.

Bielsa’s early success may have wrongly convinced Leeds that he was the kind of manager to help a club get more with less over an extended period. But that’s not really fitting of the profile of his previous stops as a manager — among them Club America, Lazio, Marseille and most notably the Argentina national team.

And if San Jose and D.C. United saw their Bielsa-esque hires in the same light, that was a misunderstanding of what those managers ask of players in the long term. It’s one thing to ask of total physical and mental commitment to unorthodox ideals. It’s another entirely to do so while it becomes increasingly clear your support system — including the guy backing up your roster spot — is worse than that of your opponents’.

A better gauge of how Bielsa’s tactics might play in MLS over a longer term might be Atlanta United’s two seasons under direct Bielsa disciple Tata Martino, or current Miguel Angel Ramirez era at expansion Charlotte FC.

Both men got above average results early on in their expansion tenures. Both clubs responded by pouring or pledging to pour above average financial resources into the future squad. In Atlanta’s case, it resulted in the 2018 MLS Cup title before Martino moved on at the end of a two-year contract to coach Mexico.

Maybe San Jose and D.C. United will both improve as the season goes on under new leadership. It’s hard to do worse than the basement of the standings. But these firings aren’t about tactics or an approach unsuitable to MLS. They are about ownership getting what they pay for, but wanting more.