John Herdman is knee deep in a high-performance review.

It’s been little more than three weeks since the Englishman shocked the Canadian soccer community by moving from head coach of the women’s national team to the same position on the men’s side.

He has been busy in the interim, taking a “very deliberate” look at the state of the men’s program from the national squad down to the EXCEL feeder program. It didn’t take long, he says, to see the problem.

“It’s clear there’s been disconnect there, from even the initial parts of the review,” he said during a conference call on Thursday.

His first game at the helm is set for March 24 in Spain, a friendly against New Zealand, but while it’s a significant year for Canadian soccer — including participation in the new CONCACAF Nations League, a national team competition designed to maximize available dates on the FIFA international calendar — Herdman is focused on long-term goals.

It starts with a clear plan building backwards from the men’s World Cup in 2022.

“It’s becoming very clear that a critical part of this is establishing a vision underpinned by a very clear plan that takes us through this new CONCACAF landscape, that the players are very clear on, are buying into, but more importantly it raises the expectations of them and the staff and the organization to deliver,” Herdman said.

The core challenges of the international game are no different between the women’s and men’s programs: short timelines and quick turnarounds with a lineup that only plays together sporadically.

Herdman says he has already been in contact with some players to outline his vision and get their feedback. Some areas that need improvement based on those discussions, he said, are sports science and the mental part of the game.

“When teams are announced and we move forward to the first selection, then I’ll get closer to some key players that I think are going to be critical: to understand who they are, what their expectations are, and more importantly so they can understand a little bit about what they can expect when they come into this new environment,” he said.

Canada is already well into the four-year cycle leading up to World Cup qualifying for 2022. Forty-six players have been used over the past eight months in projects, camps or at the Gold Cup.

While Herdman says the men’s program has seen some progress over the last year, it was also inconsistent.

“You’re building on other people’s work and other people have been building on other people’s work,” he said. “At the end of the day, it’s about making sure that our best players are on the field. That’s the starting point for me, and building from that core group.”

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Next, Herdman plans to analyze the team’s tactical play in detail, focusing on the last seven games. He adds that it’s imperative to learn as much as possible about CONCACAF opponents in particular, and to prepare mentally for playing in hostile territory at times.

“I’m sure this group of men know that we have to build a resilient culture and a culture that is more adaptable to these climates,” Herdman said. “There aren’t any excuses. We will be able to tolerate whatever you throw at us. That will be our mindset.”