When Wade Barrett was appointed interim head coach, the former Dynamo captain had 22 league games left in the season to inject changes into the team. Barrett quickly implemented several subtle changes to the club’s approach to each week, and the results are promising, with the Dynamo gaining three draws in five road games entering Saturday’s trip to face the Montreal Impact (6:30 p.m.; ROOT SPORS Alt.).
The key areas of change include areas of scouting and video, timing of practice sessions, and the itinerary for road games. The Dynamo are 3-3-6 in all competitions under Barrett, and have allowed just seven goals in nine league games (0.78 GAA), including five away from home.
“You need to be a little careful coming in midseason that you can’t change every single thing on the players,” Barrett told HoustonDynamo.com “We’ve changed little things in how we prepare for practice and how we prepare our plan for the week.”
A typical week for the Dynamo includes four days of practice, with one off day three days before the weekend’s game. Constructing a plan for those training sessions includes the need to work on tactics for the weekend while giving the players the best chance to peak physically on the day of the game.
“I’m staying in very good communication with [assistant coach] Paul Caffrey, he and I are working very close in making sure that the practices we plan are relevant,” Barrett said. “Everything we do from the very beginning of practice – the passing, the possession, into the game – we’re carrying a theme from the beginning of the practice to the end, while accomplishing what we need to physically. There are different energy systems we need to tap into over the course of a week so the guys are prepared for the game on the weekend.”
Barrett also wants the games within the practices to feel like the games on Saturday. Losing should sting for the players and the competitive environment should carry into BBVA Compass Stadium.
“I am asking the guys to compete more in practice. I want the games to matter, I want it to hurt if you don’t win the game in practice. If you come up short in the possession, that it hurts. A little bit of attitude and mentality of pushing each other and leaving everything out on the field.”
The Dynamo have used three different formations in the last three games, beginning with the U.S. Open Cup quarterfinals against FC Dallas. From a 4-1-3-2 vs. FC Dallas, the club shifted to a 4-4-2 vs. Vancouver and finally back to the 4-1-4-1, Barrett’s most-used alignment since taking over the team.
“[Performance analyst] Oliver Gage has been a huge asset, so I’ve been trying to use him as much as I can in preparation for the next opponent and also in evaluating what we are doing. Looking at the changes that I can do to the team, if there’s something that I don’t see, looking at chance creation, and where our chances are coming from. If we need to do something different, he’s really helped in evaluating some of those things.”
The Dynamo technical staff now films practice for later review. For Barrett, it helps him review his players’ performance as well as his own.
“I am looking back at practice every day, and I’m going to make sure I start having audio as well, so listening into some of the coaching points I make to make sure they’re relevant so I can evaluate how I’m doing and what I’m breaking down during the course of practice, and if I’m communicating it clearly to the players. A lot of times I have a clear picture in my head of how I want things to go and I need to make sure that I’m communicating that to the guys in an effective way. We are looking at every single thing in how we can improve.”
The Dynamo have also held one night practice per week on select weeks during Barrett’s tenure.
“We’ve tried a couple night practices with the idea that if your most important event during the week is a game, and it’s at 7 o’clock, that maybe one of your bigger training sessions of the week can be at the same time. Having the guys wrap their head around preparing for that, so that even their preparation for the game is more familiar for them because they’ve done it a couple times during the week.”
The Dynamo traveled to Vancouver and Portland over 48 hours before kickoff, allowing for two full practices in that city and time zone before the match. For Saturday’s game in Montreal, the team left mid-morning Thursday on the team’s off day and trained in Quebec on Friday in the late afternoon.
“We’ve looked at changing the travel, for most of the road games now, especially the long ones. I like traveling in the morning so that we can get there and have a training session in the afternoon. I think the science has shown that the quicker you get that (travel) out of your system, the better prepared you are for the games. Having that training session gets the flight out, so that the next day at training I think the guys feel better than I think if we had waited. Sometimes those little things make a difference. We’ve had some good results on the road, so I think that’s a good early return on that idea. We’re looking to take little steps here and there, but overall it’s raising that standard of performance will take us to the next level.”
