FC Dallas: How Luchi Gonzalez shines as head coach

With limited practice sessions due to COVID-19, FC Dallas head coach Luchi Gonzalez has implemented an inventive system to improve his players. His coaching prowess is shining through.

It is important to have a rounded skill set. Unlike in other sports, especially some team sports, soccer demands that the players are able to contribute in a number of different ways. The modern development of the game has seen positions blend into others, and the skill sets required have changed as a result. Specialists are dying out as a result and the need to be comfortable in different circumstances is only growing.

FC Dallas have taken this one step further: they have specialist coaches teaching specific skills to all the players in the squad, rotating through the different drills throughout the week.

Head coach Luchi Gonzalez divided the roster into groups of four who rotate through three main drill stations. Gonzalez changes stations each week, also rotating with assistant coaches Peter Luccin and Mikey Varas. Gonzalez assigns each coach a theme for the week. The theme changes each week as well.

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The FC Dallas squad appreciates this tact so far. Midfielder Brandon Servania told the club’s official website:

"“Each coach specializes in different things. Luchi was a forward when he played so dribbling is one of his strengths. Peter is a legend so all his combination play and passing techniques will help. And Mikey helps with the long-range passing from the back. So when each coach can key in on one thing to help you and your game, it’s easier to be nitpicky and improve”"

During the practice moratorium, Luccin handled defenders and occasionally midfielders in team video conferences. Besides discussing current events, Luccin said they covered the game’s mental aspects and then specific tactics.

As Dallas players transition back to the pitch, he said the video conferences actually changed things for the better as more players were given the opportunity to speak. Now back on the pitch, these players have become more active in the team’s productive and creative goals.

Besides working with players, Varas specializes in working with team reports from Kin Analytics. This company assists FC Dallas in player evaluation, overall team and player performance, youth scouting projections, transfer projections, and opponent scouting. With analysis and advanced coaching techniques in their arsenal, FC Dallas plan to emerge from the moratorium of this pandemic ready to compete.

Gonzalez heralded the importance of the variation of their training plan, in terms of both the coaches implementing the training and the training itself:

"“It’s important that they hear different voices each day. Development needs variation. If you did the same thing with the same voice every day, then it becomes predictable and I don’t think that challenges the mind enough. We want to make sure we’re having our players out of their comfort zones. There’s a little bit of everything that the coaches try to bring in different ways and all that makes the development of the week more holistic and more effective.”"

FC Dallas, then, are attacking the difficulties with the pandemic in the best way possible: with creativity and progression. Gonzalez is shining as an astute, aware coach who recognises the importance of the modern-day skill set and pushes variety and versatility onto his players. And the team will be better off for it.