Owen Coyle arrived in Houston yesterday for final discussions with the Houston Dynamo over his impending appointment as the second head coach in organization history. An announcement could come as early as this weekend.

Is Coyle the right choice for the position? There are those who do not believe that he is, particularly anybody who is a fan of Bolton Wanderers. At this point it is irrelevant, however; the fact is Coyle looks set to be the next coach of the Dynamo so best to focus on the positives about this appointment.

Outside the Box

It would have been very easy for the Dynamo to simply hire an MLS retread like Dave Sarachan or a Dom Kinnear disciple like Wade Barrett or Steve Ralston. Going in either direction would have been the safe choice, sticking with the generally held view that foreign coaches cannot be successful in MLS.

Instead, the Dynamo pulled a surprise by tapping a manager with recent Premier League experience and a fairly successful overall record, despite getting Bolton relegated and struggling with Wigan.

If nothing else, the Dynamo should be applauded for going against convention and getting creative with the hiring decision. Not everyone may be enamored by the specific selection, but there will always be those who are disappointed, even if a manager like Pep Guardiola was hired.

Reasonable Credentials

When Coyle took over Burnley in November 2007, the club sat in 15th place in the Championship table and had won only once in their previous 10 games. Burnley had finished in 15th the previous season, and had been mired in the 13th to 19th place range since getting promoted following the 1999/00 season (apart from finishing 7th place in their first two seasons in what was then League 1).

The last time Burnley had played in the top flight of English soccer was the 1975/76 season when it was called the First Division. Dreams of promotion were non-existent, this was a club bouncing between mid-table obscurity and relegation battles.

Over the final months of the 2007/8 season, Coyle guided Burnley to their highest finish since 2004/5 (13th place). The following season, Coyle shipped out 9 players (including Ade Akinbiyi who went to the Houston Dynamo) and brought in 8 fresh faces, then proceeded to guide the club to 5th place and the promotion playoffs.

Burnley beat Reading 3-0 on aggregate in the semi-final before knocking off Sheffield United in the final to win promotion to the Premier League. Getting Burnley up in his first full season increased Coyle’s reputation as an outstanding young manager, and it wasn’t long before Bolton came in for him in November 2008. Coyle left Burnley, going from hero to villain, but not before making sure Burnley received proper compensation from Bolton for hiring him away.

Coyle joined a Bolton club that was bottom three in the table. With no transfer budget to work with, Coyle brought in Stu Holden from the Dynamo on a free and acquired Paul Robinson on loan from West Brom during the January transfer window. Over the remainder of the season, he guided the club out of the drop zone and all the way up to a respectable 14th place finish.

2010/11 was a successful season by most measures for Bolton. They made an FA Cup run before losing in the semi-final to Stoke City by a 5-0 score. They were top 10 for most of the season before going winless in their final five matches of the season and finishing in 14th place once again.

The 5-0 thumping by Stoke City at Wembley was a turning point in Coyle’s time with the club as was Stu Holden’s injury. Bolton never seemed to recover from that loss. Their back line was a mess for the 2011/12 season, Daniel Sturridge’s return to Chelsea from his 6 month loan to finish the 2010/11 season hurt the offense.

Gary Cahill left for Chelsea in January 2012, injuries piled up (including another Stu Holden injury and the Muamba tragedy) and Bolton could never do anything right, ultimately getting relegated on the final match day of the season.

With Wigan, Coyle joined a club that was a mess on many levels, the less said about his time there the better. Still, this is a manager who has had periods of success with two clubs and once upon a time was a candidate for jobs at Liverpool and Celtic.

Managing on Limited Resources

The very nature of MLS is resources are limited and rosters are not deep. This has proven to be particularly true in Houston over recent years. Unlike many managers with Premier League experience, financial constraints are the only reality that Coyle knows. At Burnley, Bolton and Wigan; Coyle had virtually no transfer budget to work with. He had to get by on loans, free transfers and low transfer fee deals.

Coyle is probably better equipped than most to deal with the financial realities that he will encounter in Houston. The presence of Matt Jordan and his role means that Coyle need not have a full grasp of the intricacies of the MLS salary cap on day one; that will come with time. What he can do, however, is use his experience and exposure to the Championship and Premier League to help Jordan target low budget, high value players that he has been exposed to.

Coyle will be well acquainted with these types of players, they are exactly what he has had to look for in his previous jobs.

Positive Soccer

Coyle is known for playing a more positive, attractive style of soccer than Houston fans may be used to. Observers of Burnley and Bolton describe the style of play under his time as fun to watch. As a former striker, Coyle likes to attack. The flip side of this is he has been criticized at times for his team’s defensive play. Defense having been a significant issue for the Dynamo last season, this is potentially cause for concern.

Looking back over available data, Coyle likes to play out of the back. Wide midfielders in his tactical set-up tend to stay very wide to take on fullbacks and get crosses into the box – expect to see much more wide play and balls into the box for the Dynamo next season.

This has two obvious implications: 1) the playing pitch will very likely be widened, something most of us have wanted for a while, 2) the Dynamo need to find a player who can consistently get on the end of crosses.

Much of his style is player contingent, however. Bolton played fairly attractive soccer when Stu Holden was healthy and controlling the middle of the pitch. Once Holden was gone, the talent drop off made it more difficult to move the ball out of the back, up through the middle of the pitch and out to the wings. As a result, Bolton often reverted to long ball and over the latter half of his time with the club, stats show Bolton as one of the long ball leaders of the Premier League.

Most recently at Wigan, Coyle set out in a 4-2-3-1 most of the time (a formation Orange in the Oven advocated last season); although without any real success, it has to be said.

Conclusion

There are, of course, plenty of criticisms of Coyle; in particular it has been suggested that his training sessions are poor and he does little to keep the players fit. We can only hope that he has learned from past mistakes and is surrounded by the right supporting staff members to allow him to get the most out of what he is good at and rely on other staff to plug his weak areas.

For now, pending the outcome of discussions, the Dynamo will have a man on the sideline next season who was brought into Bolton to change the club philosophy to employ a more attractive style of soccer and who once was linked with the Liverpool job. He has (recent) experience at the top levels of the soccer world and the potential to do great things here in Houston.

Yes, there is also the chance that he fails spectacularly, but again, the Dynamo should be applauded for thinking outside the box and taking a risk in hiring a replacement for Dom Kinnear. Let’s face it, when push comes to shove, Coyle is considerably better than what most people expected Houston to do on the managerial front. Spring can’t come soon enough so that Coyle can show us what he can do.