coutesy of St. Louis CITY SC
If you’re captivated by Ted Lasso, who is not real, then allow us to introduce you to the newly minted St. Louis CITY head coach, Bradley Carnell, who is very real—and will be instrumental in executing the team’s style of play, as well as player recruitment and development. Carnell, who is from Johannesburg, South Africa, played for Germany’s Bundesliga and the South African national team, but it was as interim head coach for the New York Red Bulls that he got a taste of what his new job might be like. (He also has a connection to CITY sporting director Lutz Pfannenstiel: Carnell was a student in a coaching course that Pfannenstiel taught in Germany.) When Carnell was interim coach for the Red Bulls, he fostered a culture that shunned entitlement. CITY is brand-new. How will he set the tone for culture here? “We always used to say, ‘Leave the jersey in a better place because the club will be here a lot longer than you will,’” he says. “After meeting [CITY] ownership and having in-depth conversations with them, the core values are honesty, hard work, and extremely humble people. It’s my job now to transfer those messages onto the field of play but with an intensity and a passion and a style of play that’s really exciting.”
Speaking of playing style, can you give us a preview of what we’re going to see out on the pitch? I had the feeling last night at a Blues game—it’s the intensity and the passion. I could draw similarities—and I had never been to a professional hockey game—but the fast pace and the chaotic nature of the style of play. This is something we pride ourselves on: being proactive, on the front foot, working together. We want to be as positively aggressive and exciting as possible, which means creating scoring opportunities and winning the ball in advantageous areas.
What’s the difference between the best players and the right players for CITY? In other styles of play, just thinking about transition, when we lose the ball, what is our action? Is our action to all run back, get behind the ball, and protect our goals, which is common or traditional? Our way is slightly different. We feel that if we lose the ball, that was our possession. We want it back, so we’re going to go and hunt it back quickly. This is called a counter-pressing action. So when we’re scouting individuals and a player has this skill set, this is something that attracts us to the player. Are they willing to run? Are they dynamic? Are they fast? Are they physically gifted in terms of holding the intensity of our game that’s going to be relentless for 90 minutes?
You used the word “relentless.” How do you keep the players healthy? There’s on-field data that we collect on a daily basis. Because of the style of play, we have to monitor the workloads carefully so that we don’t jeopardize the health and welfare of the players. Then there’s also the data in the scouting department, where we track and potentially lure players who have certain qualities that fit our style. You have to know your opponent and you have to always improve your own style of play, because the opposition is never sleeping. It is a famous saying in Germany, “The opposition never sleeps.”
