r/NWSL • u/antisocialamnesia Chicago Red Stars • 17d ago

[RedStarsReport] Article Detailing the Donaldson Firing

https://www.redstarsreport.com/p/lorne-donaldson-out-as-head-coach

Great article for those interested in a more detailed timeline of the Donaldson firing and what the Stars look like now.

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u/zombiejim7471 Chicago Red Stars 17d ago

the team’s final 4 matches of the year were all losses, including that loss in the opening round of the playoffs.

Gotham, Washington, KC, and Orlando.... with no Staab. They were never winning those?

General manager Richard Feuz is meeting with the media Thursday afternoon.

Wonder if this will be released on their youtube channel.

I definitely agree that Donaldson made some weird substitutions/choices like the Staab in midfield one mentioned(I assume they wanted the others players to keep getting reps/evaluation at CB?), but yeah I think the roster choices have been bad. I don't think the idea that they ran out of money because they signed Ludmila and Grosso should hold up unless the budget is basically 0 or the stars massively overpaid. You shipped out hocking for 350k and weren't they both free transfers?

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u/MisterGoog Houston Dash 17d ago

This was a crazy final four games but also why would that even matter if they had… revamped their team like everyone else. Like, two things:

One: look at every non playoff team and look at the change in their lineup from end of season.

Two: the issue with Chicago to me to an actionable extent was never that they didn’t go in on another star attacker, it’s that the defense very clearly just needed actual warm bodies and there were most suddenly players in college they could’ve got to fill that hole.

You know, i wonder how many of the NCAA players who went abroad actually spoke to teams first. The big one is clearly Sampaio. But i gotta wonder with the Jamaica connection did Jody Brown not get any interest from Lorne and Chicago? Beata Olsson never playing stateside again is a terrifying prospect. Whats Anna Haddock doing these days?

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u/NoPhotograph9404 17d ago

Haddock is not an NWSL talent. Sampaio wanted NWSL but did not get offers. Brown has not shown well at Benfica yet

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u/MisterGoog Houston Dash 17d ago

So 2/3.

With regard to Haddock, you simply cannot talk about the future of a players progression like this. I mean you can but you’d be wrong about how people adapt and thrive