The Weights of Nations

Two managerial stories made the rounds over the recent international break. One saw Tottenham’s former manager take control of a national team project.

The other featured a winning manager being put in charge of a national side looking to win, only to receive backlash finally.

The stocks of both Mauricio Pochettino and Thomas Tuchel hovered around the lowest of each respective manager’s careers.

Now, both find themselves with the chance of rewriting each nation’s images.

For Poch, the US job resembles most of the jobs he’s taken. After a period of instability in the last Berhalter stint, the USMNT needed a manager to calm things down before the World Cup. This US side features the nation’s most talented batch of players looking to make an impact as the country prepares to host the World Cup in 2026.

To put it bluntly, the backlash that Tuchel faced over the past week is mind-boggling. For a national team that continues to find ways to fail, why would fans get angry over Tuchel? The manager proves to be a winner wherever he goes—just look at his stint with Chelsea.

Both managers face different expectations but will be judged by their results at the next World Cup.

It’s fascinating to see two managers go to situations resembling what they saw in the Prem.

After a somewhat successful spell at Chelsea last season, Poch returned to the job market in the summer. While not the most glamorous of national team posts, the USMNT job offers Poch a unique opportunity to change the image of a nation.

Since the 2014 World Cup, the USMNT has fallen into a cycle of producing exciting players but failing internationally. Failures at various competitions pushed the nation into some real soul-searching over the summer. With the World Cup less than two years away, the US Soccer Federation needed to prove it was serious to the World.

A much-publicized search for their next manager saw the USMNT rejected by Klopp and Zidane. To be fair, those managers just did not fit what the US needed at this moment. Those managers joined sides needing that push to real contention, and the US is just not at that point.

The US needed a manager willing to restructure the program and implement a real system. For all his warts, Poch showed at Southampton and Tottenham that he could at least give that.

Poch brings with him a system that aims to build the squad out in a very specific way. It takes time, but he does best with teams that need structure. Even with that Chelsea side last season, it’s difficult not to see him as a success in stabilizing a sinking ship.

US fans needn’t expect him to play like Pep; rather, he will bring much-needed structure to a program sorely lacking it. Poch prioritizes internal development, which perfectly fits the needs of a national team manager. The real crux of Poch’s job revolves around how to change the development system for soccer in the US completely.

Unlike Tuchel, the World Cup trophy doesn’t need to be the end-all for the Argentine.

Potch just needs to get the USMNT to be a regular competitive side at the international level. 

Since announcing his hiring, the English media and some fans have continued to attack Tuchel’s appointment with such vitriol. What boggles most outsiders is how a country so desperate to win a trophy gets angry at a winning manager being brought in.

Over the course of English national team history, the FA hired three foreigners, including Tuchel. One of those foreigners, Sven-Göran Eriksson, finished his tenure with 40 wins over a five-year period. Despite a litany of incredible sides, the national team has not won a trophy since the 1960s.

PHOTO: Jim Dedmon/Imagn Images

Looking at the current slate of English managers, none match Tuchel’s CV. Howe’s tenure at Newcastle remains the most impressive, but he’d likely not leave given the club’s trajectory. That only really leaves Graham Potter, a manager broken by Chelsea who showed an inability to manage at the next level.

After back-to-back heartbreakers in the EUROs finals, fans and media quickly lambasted both the players and Southgate. It remains insane to think that Tuchel is not the correct manager to get them to win. 

Comparing Tuchel’s current task to that of his time with Chelsea reveals his merits for the job. Tuchel joined a talented Chelsea team that had collapsed earlier in the season. By implementing his defense-oriented style and playing lineups that fit, he made Chelsea a juggernaut in Europe.

Tuchel doesn’t seem to care about dynamics at play—see his time with Bayern, for example—but he knows how to win. He plays players who fit his vision of winning and isn’t afraid to bench players. Under Tuchel, football may not be the most beautiful, but he has a system that grinds out wins.

By hiring Tuchel, England sees this current iteration as having one or two more chances at winning a trophy. Despite the backlash, the FA made the correct choice given the choices. 

Both managers enter their new jobs with the eyes of each nation on them. Expectations differ for them, but their current roles fit the work they’ve done in the past.

Now, two managers at the most unique jobs of their careers find themselves with the weights of nations.

PHOTO: Erich Schlegel/Imagn Images