Specifically, when he talks about why he's been able to be successful in coming into different teams and turning them into winners. It's all about being together, being a TEAM. That's the starting point. After that he also mentions that every single player has to defend, they have to be absolutely miserable to play against. Then, once you have those things sorted, you can evolve to play a beautiful game that fans pay to watch.

I know he's a soccer coach, but the parallels are there for all team sports.

24 comments

  2. That’s pretty much what Gordon Bombay taught the Ducks, too.  Ducks fly together.

  3. Something tells me that losing the most active person in the room in speaking to and organizing events with his teammates may not have helped.

  4. This is what Habs did to Leafs, and others, in 2021. We had a really tight knit TEAM of defend first guys, and just enough experience and skill to get the job done in multiple series.

  5. I’ve always thought there’s something that the toronto market does to players but I wonder if it’s actually the toronto leadership team inside the room.

    It seems like players in a contract year or on the trade bubble are some of the only ones consistently showing up.

    The rest feel like they’re just there to collect a cheque. It’s the lack of effort and the bad vibes over this team that make me think there’s something culturally wrong with the team that no new coach can fix.

  7. Lmao. Ya that’s it . I always love how fans feel they know what goes on off the ice. About team cohesion. Look at the on ice product? Do you ever just do that? You ever seriously consider if they are good or not? You think Klopp can make these hockey players skate faster, pass better save more pucks. Bring him in lmao.

  8. When, over the last ten years, have you ever gotten the impression the players on this team CARE about each other? I think the Kessel years had more of that than this team.

  9. I am a leafs fan and a Liverpool fan , when you have a leader like Klopp your team is more than the sum of its parts we dont have that

  10. >Then, once you have those things sorted, you can evolve to play a beautiful game that fans pay to watch.

    Ah, so we’re just in the sorting it out phase. Then mid-season we’ll evolve and by playoffs we’ll have a beautiful game that fans will pay to watch.

  11. There might be team cohesion issues, but I think that’s largely fictional. We don’t know.

    What we do know is we’re missing several critical parts to a successful team.

    We have no top pair defenders.

    We have two top four defenders, but they probably shouldn’t be partners and are.

    We have several forwards who both can’t contribute to our offensive scheme and are bad at helping our D.

    We lack centers we can trust defensively.

    You don’t need to have a perfect roster, but this is a lot of problems.

    We’re seeing now, with Stolarz playing badly, that last year was almost entirely goaltending propelling us to wins. And that is basically the most unreliable part of any team.

  12. I remember a prominent Leafs Twitter account, forget if it was Mogilnys Oversized Visor or Roberts&Tucks or whoever, but they said they heard that the teams core 4 at the time would hang out together on road trips and order in while the rest of the team would eat out together.

    This reportedly came from that years deadline acquisitions O’Rielly and Schenn. This makes sense as to why both decided to not stay, while receiving similar contract offers from the Leafs.

    Schenn reportedly said how it was so different from how Tampa Bay traveled.

    Ever since then, I’ve seen how that makes sense, and the core is rotten. I was hoping the main issue was Marner, but it might not’ve been.

  15. I think one of the things that a coach has to be able to convince ALL of his players to do is for them to be willing to do the things that need to be done, even if it means doing things on the ice that they hate doing. That could be backchecking, taking a hit to make a play, planting yourself in front of the net even though you’re getting the crap kicked out of you and other things like that. Doing the stuff that you hate to do but needs to be done. Until ALL players buy into that nothing much else will really matter.

  16. Guys Berube has done an awful job and Treliving made the team old and slow. It’s not that deep. Marner and Matthews’ style of game (and Matthews endless injuries) have made it difficult against top defensive teams in the playoffs. They need to play to their strengths and replace the talent that was lost when Marner left. Pittsburgh went through this, Washington too, they probably will be fine with Willy and Matthews in the long run, they just need to fire Tre and Berube, which likely happens after this season (unless they turn it around and then we’re all happy anyways)

  17. When teams win : it’s a tight locker room, the guys really care about each other.

    When teams lose: that locker room is poisonous, there’s no bond between these guys.

  18. Klopp is a leader, but let’s not forget that he went through rough times with Liverpool before creating a winning team.

  19. I feel like there has been a divide in the room for years. Matthews, Nylander and formally Marner think their shit don’t stink and it’s hard for the other guys to get behind them as the leaders of this team, because they’re not.

  20. Fans will eventually have an epiphany… realize that Marner was not part of the problem, that running him out of town wasn’t the solution, and there has always been other players that have been holding the team back and more deserving of criticism.

    And it really is the fault management. I believe coaches usually have their hands cuffed.

  23. Its impossible not to notice the difference between the way the Jays are a TEAM and the Leafs are a bunch of dudes. Jays post game and post series win interviews have been eye opening.

  24. I mean that’s exactly what Stolarz was talking about last week. Teams stand up for each other. We don’t do anything. Our guys don’t care. It’s just a paycheck for Matthews and Willy

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