Real Salt Lake Interim Manager Pablo Mastroeni Details Coaching Philosophy

SALT LAKE CITY, Utah – Real Salt Lake interim manager Pablo Mastroeni has detailed his coaching philosophy during his press conference ahead of the blockbuster midweek fixture against LA Galaxy.

Mastroeni was asked about his training philosophy and in particular, the traits that he is trying to instill within his playing group. Five minutes later and Mastroeni was finished with his detailed breakdown of how he wants Real Salt Lake to play.

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For the full video, click the link above and scroll through the thread. The response was so long that Twitter required the full video to be split up into three separate videos.

Compact Defending

Compact defending is the most important factor to how Mastroeni hopes to defend. He wants his players to be communicating and organizing one and another in tight and controlled environments. For example, when an opposing team is dribbling the ball up the pitch, Mastroeni hopes that Real Salt Lake can push the ball out onto the wings and not down the middle of the pitch, by ensuring a tight shape, Mastroeni hopes the opposition does not pursue the fastest avenue to goal.

From there, the 3-5-2 formation also allows for “verticality” in the shape, meaning, it is very difficult for opposing teams to penetrate the spine of Real Salt Lake. The middle of the pitch is compact and full of traffic.

Reactions In Transition

With that said, Real Salt Lake does not find itself in shape often. Under Mastroeni, Real Salt Lake has showcased the ability to play end-to-end football. The ball is constantly moving, and when Real Salt Lake has the ball, it’s almost always moving towards the goal.

Therefore, Real Salt Lake is constantly reacting and working in either a defensive or offensive transition. Mastroeni loves the idea of playing an entertaining brand of football, he believes that Real Salt Lake has the players to tear through opposing defenses with a fast, crisp, passing display. Similar, in some sense, to the likes of Leeds United and Liverpool of the English Premier League.

Direct Route To Goal

In the attacking phase, Mastroeni has preached playing a direct style of football. Mastroeni explained how in training drills when a player crosses the halfway line they are not allowed to play a ball back into their own half, rather, they must play the ball forward.

“What that forces is players ahead of the ball have to move, players behind the ball have to run forward to support in order to keep the ball in the attacking half of the field,” Mastroeni said. “The amazing thing that has happened in this short time is that players are actually looking forward. Whereas before they were quite content passing the ball back to the goalkeeper and then opening up,” he added.

The challenge for Mastroeni is ensuring all of his players are on the same page.

The Ideal Style

In a perfect world under Mastroeni, Real Salt Lake would play direct when in possession, if they lost the ball they would quickly hustle to get numbers around the ball and force a quick turnover, then another forward pass would ensue and a goal-scoring chance would follow.

It is a very aggressive way of playing, but it is also very entertaining. It forces the playing group to take educated risks when maybe they are not comfortable in doing so.

As a result of this change in philosophy, Real Salt Lake has conceded 18 goals under Mastroeni’s watch. However, a handful of those goals have been a result of self-inflicted mistakes and not because of the style of football.

Furthermore, Mastroeni noted that the 3-5-2 system would obviously be much easier to teach with the time and patience of an off-season. What Mastroeni is trying to accomplish is incredibly difficult, but can be very rewarding.

If Mastroeni can transform the style in which Real Salt Lake plays with just 24 games at the helm, who knows how good they could be with an off-season and practice matches under their belt.

Next Fixture

On Wednesday evening, Real Salt Lake will host LA Galaxy at Rio Tinto Stadium. The Galaxy is two points ahead of Real Salt Lake in the fifth position.

Star El Tri striker Chicharito is expected to make his Rio Tinto Stadium debut against Real Salt Lake. Earlier in the year, he played against Vancouver when the Whitecaps were renting Rio Tinto Stadium, but he is yet to play against Real Salt Lake in Utah.

Kickoff is slated for 7:30 p.m. and can be streamed for free on the KSL Sports & KSL 5 TV app or on KSL Sports dot com.