3 Reasons why Anthony Hudson is not the best choice for the Rapids

Yesterday, Rapids South Stands wrote about why Anthony Hudson would be a great option for the Colorado Rapids head coach position—if KSE supports him. Today, I’m looking at the other side of the coin and giving you three big reasons why I don’t think he’s a good option for the Rapids.

We need a coach with a proven track record of winning.

That was the reason the Rapids got rid of Pablo, right? Because he wasn’t performing and the team was losing more than it was winning.

Looking at Hudson’s career stats, he has a winning percentage of 33.62.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthony_Hudson_(football_manager)

(For comparison, Pablo’s career winning percentage was 32.17.)

But you could make the argument that he made it to the playoffs with that record with the Real Maryland Monarchs. And he has a couple cup wins and medals with Bahrain and even the New Zealand national team. But with the New Zealand National Team, 8 of his 9 wins were against Oceania teams, who aren’t exactly known for being powerhouses.

Against non-Oceania teams, the All Whites were 1-4-11, with 8 goals scored and 25 allowed.

As was mentioned in the comments of another article (thanks cinhosa!), one MLS season is more games than he coached in four years for the New Zealand National Team (including the U23s), so how Hudson would tackle the rigorous schedule is a concern.

We need a coach that players will come to Colorado for.

Atlanta United was able to sign some of the best young stars that MLS had seen this year. Guys like Miguel Almiron, 2017 MLS Newcome of the Year, and Josef Martinez, who scored 17 goals in 20 games. And what convinced them to sign with Atlanta? Tata Martino.

“When I was younger, I used to talk to my friends and family, praising Tata, for everything he accomplished with our national team, therefore the idea of me training was a fantasy that I wanted to materialize,” said Almiron.

Martino’s connections in South America made it possible to bring over Yamil Asad and Josef Martinez. “I’ve been follow everything he’s done as a coach, and I thank him every day for this opportunity,” Martinez said about Martino.

The Rapids don’t have a winning track record/culture. The ownership has a reputation for being cheap. Dick’s Sporting Goods Park is windy and altitude makes it more difficult to get into shape. Denver doesn’t have the same perks as a big coastal city. Coming to the Rapids is not an easy sell. But bring in a big name coach and suddenly the negatives are more likely to be ignored.

This choice would not inspire confidence in the Rapids Way.

Let’s say Anthony Hudson is our guy. Let’s say he’s been our guy since the night New Zealand lost, which means he may have been involved in roster decisions and the signing of Johan Blomberg (though this is purely speculation). That would mean that the first major moves towards rebuilding the Rapids into a winning team are a 30-year-old midfielder and a coach with no MLS or real club experience. Let’s say those two things turn out okay, though.

There’s also the recent roster decisions. And the fact that Pádraig Smith is keeping Steve Cooke on as an assistant coach. (I’m not saying Cooke should or shouldn’t go, but I do think that should be the new coach’s decision. Maybe it was, I don’t know.)

What I’m saying is that since Pablo was fired, we’ve all been waiting and wondering about who would officially take over the reins. Maybe my expectations were too high, but saying that you’re conducting a global search and had 100+ applicants leads us (or at least me) to believe that we’re going to end up with an exciting name.

Who knows? Maybe this is all for nothing and there will be someone else named head coach. Or maybe it will be Anthony Hudson and he will take us to the MLS Cup in 2018.

Either way, if Hudson is our coach, I might be skeptical, but I’ll give him a chance. He’d be leading our Rapids and he deserves our support to at least see what he can do. I really hope he can prove the skeptics wrong.