A clear idea

In 2019, I was in my seventh year with Manchester City’s women’s team – and we had been incredibly successful.

When you are with one team for seven years, though, it is natural you might need a new challenge. To get out of your comfort zone and challenge your ability, as a coach and in the way that you work. It was then that an assistant role at New York City FC (NYCFC) – another club within the City Football Group (CFG) – had opened up.

What CFG have consistently done for myself – and for many players and coaches – is map out a pathway around the development journey. There were many conversations between myself, CFG’s Brian Marwood and Omar Berrada – then Manchester City’s COO – around what would be the natural next step for me.

This was an opportunity to join an MLS team that wanted to go from being Conference winners to MLS Cup winners. To work as an assistant to Ronny Deila – an experienced manager – and step into a different culture and league. It was going to be a challenge, but also a great learning experience that I fully embraced. 

I came here on February 5 2020 – a few weeks before the pandemic hit. I’d been in Manchester for 13 years, where I worked my way through the boys’ academy, and then managed the women’s team. I knew everybody there, as well as the training methodology and the sessions. It was so familiar; I was confident and comfortable.

Flying into Miami for pre-season in 2020, I had never met Ronny before. I didn’t know any of the coaching staff, and had never met any of the players. I had to build 50-odd new relationships and, to be honest, I underestimated that challenge. But it was one that made me so much more rounded, both as an individual and a coach. 

"I like my teams to press high and counter-press aggressively, and you have to be a dynamic, expressive coach to get that"

Another challenge was that many players in the squad were Spanish-speaking. Possibly my best attributes as a coach are my character and communication; I am extroverted and dynamic on the field. I can speak with players in Spanish, but when you’re not fluent you can feel like you almost lose that one superpower you have as a coach. 

A lot of my coaching and success at Manchester City was about rapport, emotional connection and using emotions as a driver. It’s a selling of ideas, and the way you want to play.

I like my teams to press high and counter-press aggressively, and you have to be a dynamic, expressive coach to get that. When you can’t use language to get that across, you have to be aware of it quickly – and find another way, fast.

The late Dick Bate – one of the most respected coach educators in England – was a huge influence on me. He used to speak a lot about maximum impact from your message, and choice of language. When you are working with players who don’t speak English, where words and phrases you used in England aren’t going to hit hard, you have to find different ways.

So the video room became really important to me. There, I would show video and small clips. I also had iPads on the pitch, used translations, and learned really impactful Spanish words that got the message across quickly.

"He was very good at giving me responsibility, but also really hard on me at times"

Ronny was an incredible man-manager. A very good people-person, who could recognise the feel and direction of the group before it happened.

He was clever in the ways he took the pressure off the group; such as when he would dial up the tactical side, when he gave the team a mental rest, and when he pushed the physical side of the game. Learning from the way he did that definitely improved my ability as a head coach.

Ronny was also exceptional in the way he developed me, pushing me up front. He let me deliver all the tactical sessions and team meetings, and build important game plans. He was very good at giving me responsibility, but also really hard on me at times, when he felt I hadn’t delivered what he wanted. On top of that, he told me when he felt that I needed to be more intense, or at other times more relaxed. It wasn’t just the players he improved; he also improved staff tenfold.

We had gone into the 2020 season as a new coaching staff, and Ronny made some big decisions between 2020 and 2021. He changed two or three players in the team and made Sean Johnson the captain. Ronny also put Taty Castellanos in the number-nine role, believing in a young player who could be the main focal point and impact player.

We had some ups and downs in the 2021 season. There was a period in September when we got beat by 1-0 by Red Bull at home; then we were 1-0 down to Atlanta away, before we scored in the last minute. We got a draw in a really difficult moment, when people thought we were going to drop out of the playoffs.

Ronny came into his own with how he managed the players, settled down the staff, and opened the team’s eyes to the opportunity to win. We caught fire and went game after game after game. The environment was very relaxed in an intense period. Ronny was inspiring the group week after week, to keep pushing one more step.

"The expectation was to win again. That has always been the way for me at CFG, and I have embraced it"

At the end of November, we took on New England in the Eastern Conference semi finals. They had finished top with a record points total, and we were playing them in their own stadium. After extra-time and a 2-2 draw, we won on penalties. 

We carried on growing in belief. In the MLS Cup final, we went away to Portland – possibly the most difficult place to go, in terms of the intense environment. Even when we conceded an equaliser in the 94th minute, we kept our belief and hunger to win. That definitely came from the way that Ronny pushed the team.

I shared his desire to win. I had come from Manchester City Women, where we had been consistently successful. Ronny had won at Celtic and Strømsgodset. We both believed that if we made clinical decisions and pushed in areas that we believe creates winning teams, we could win with NYCFC.

When Ronny left in June 2022, I stepped up to become head coach – initially on an interim basis. We were top of the Conference at the time, and the expectation was to win again. That has always been the way for me at CFG, and I have embraced it. I thought: “Let's go for it.”

We had rough periods in the remainder of that season, lost some players, and had some injuries. But we managed to get to the Eastern Conference final.

Our goalscorer, Taty, had left during the season, because it was the right move for him. He had the opportunity to go to Girona, and has since gone on to play in the Champions League for Lazio. We also lost Thiago Martins and Alex Callens – our two central defenders – to serious injuries.

"It’s one of my regrets, because I do feel that we could have won back-to-back MLS Cups"

Results dipped in the period in which we’d lost these three. I then made a clinical decision and changed the system. We’d always played 4-2-3-1 with Ronny, but we went to 3-4-3. When we got Martins and Callens back, and I put Maxime Chanot in, we had three experienced, top-level MLS defenders with huge presence.

We stopped conceding goals and started to create a lot, and we flew. Against Atlas in the Campeones Cup final – which is the champions of Mexico versus the previous year’s MLS champions – we played in front of our home crowd at Yankee Stadium and won 2-0.

It was a great catalyst, and three days later we played Red Bull and won. Those results gave us belief and momentum to go into the playoffs and finish the season strong. We had finished third in the standings, which gave us a home playoff game against Miami. With a top performance, we won 3-0.

Next was Montréal away. They were probably the most in-form team at that time, but we won convincingly, 3-1. 

In the Conference final, we were 1-0 up after 70 against Philadelphia, and probably should have seen that game out and got to another final. It’s one of my regrets, because I do feel that we could have won back-to-back MLS Cups. 

The league is designed to try to prevent anyone dominating across several seasons. We had got to the point where we had lost Johnson, Callens and Anton Tinnerholm, while Maxi Moralez went back to his boyhood club for a period. One by one, we’d started to lose a lot of important players, with experience, who had driven our team into back-to-back Conference finals.

We still had important players in the team, but we had to recruit seven or eight players to start the cycle again. That took a little bit of time. We brought in Birk Risa, Julián Fernández and Andrés Perea, and Maxi Moralez came back. A lot of what you see in our team now – what drives our performances – we didn’t have for the first 20-odd games of MLS 2023. It made our challenge a bit different, and unfortunately we missed out on the playoffs that year.

"Recruitment is a big part of improving, but MLS has taught me that is only one part of creating a top team"

That is all part of MLS. We were still trying to develop the culture and young players. We had Mitja Ilenic, who is a big player for us now. Thiago Martins has become our captain. We recruited Matt Freese. Although he didn’t start 2023 as our main goalkeeper, he is now arguably the best goalkeeper in MLS. So we made a step to where we are now.

In 2023 we conceded the second-fewest number of goals in the whole Conference. Our expected goals in many games was high, but we were developing. I had to sit back and review it all from a higher perspective than emotion.

I had to go away and work out how to make this team more offensive and score more goals. Ultimately, that built the whole process that we now have, and the idea and style our team has embedded in 2024.

We went through an incredible process, going through every inch of this team. What was good, what we were going to keep, and what we needed to improve. Some people think it’s as simple as just buying players. Recruitment is a big part of improving, but MLS has taught me that is only one part of creating a top team.

You need a good culture, a really clear idea, and a transparent strategy of how you’re going to embed it. So, as a coaching staff, we came back in pre-season with a clear idea for this team. We wanted to be able to create goal chances from every phase of the game.

Offensively, that meant making our team aggressive with the ball. We’re a possession team that wants to control games, create goal chances and entertain our fans. But that alone is not going to equip us with the amount of goals to win against the top teams.

"We wanted to make the defensive side of our game an attacking attribute"

Some people think that possession is about scoring goals from 10 or more passes. I think possession can get you into offensive areas, but you have to equip your team to score in four passes or fewer. And you have to be really aggressive in counter-pressing moments.

Counter-pressing is a huge part of our game, and we wanted to make the defensive side of our game an attacking attribute. We are going to press high, because that could turn into a goal chance.

We’ve scored more goals this year, and our expected goals are a lot higher. We are dangerous in every phase of the game, and our players have embraced that.

For me, the best game we played so far in 2024 was at Tigres in the Leagues Cup. They are a well-established Mexican team, one that nobody really gave us any chance against. We not only won the game, but dominated both with and without the ball.

Another memorable moment was playing in front of 44,000 at Yankee Stadium against Inter Miami. It showed the real growth of soccer in New York. When you see the capacity crowds around the league, you can see a lot of pink Messi shirts, with a lot of fans there for him. Rightly so, because he is the greatest. 

But of the 44,000 at our game, the majority of them were in NYCFC blue. To hear the Messi shout start to ring around the stadium, then have the New York fans sing over it, showed that our football club has soul and real character. I cannot wait for the new stadium, because it is going to be an incredible place.

"Keep them as far away from our goal as possible – keep Messi and Suárez on the halfway line"

As for the game, when you come up against Messi, Luis Suárez, Jordi Alba and Sergio Busquets, you know you’re coming up against a team with incredible quality. Everybody asked me: “Did you go man-to-man on Messi? Did you have an individual plan for him?”

The idea is about controlling the spaces that those guys play in. You have to stay compact and reduce the space between the lines. If Messi and Suárez can turn in space and run at your back line, they're going to cause you problems.

We wanted to keep them as far away from our goal as possible – keep Messi and Suárez on the halfway line. Don’t give them time on the ball, and make sure that we put pressure on all the other players, so that the ball doesn't get in and around our box. And in that moment, we’ll create goal chances for ourselves.

What pleased me was Messi had one touch in the box, while Suárez had three shots in the whole game. Meanwhile, we carried a good xG and had a lot of chances in the game. We could be disappointed that we didn’t win, but to draw in the last moment against a team that is running away with MLS was a positive for us.

As head coach of New York City FC, I have learned that you need all your players and staff to have the same idea. If you are all facing in the right direction, all believing in the idea, then you can win football games and be successful. There is nothing to stop you from taking on the best in the league and the world’s greatest stars, and being successful.