ST. LOUIS—Saint Louis City SC’s President and General Manager, Diego Gigliani, and Sporting Director, Lutz Pfannenstiel, spoke to media after releasing Olaf Mellberg as head coach this week.

What You Need To Know

  • Lutz indicated the play style under Mellberg, game results and a lack of goal scoring led to the coaching change after five months

  • With a 2-8-5 record, St. Louis City SC is in second to last place in the Western Conference and has a 3% chance of making playoffs, according to Playoffstatus.com

  • For the CITY SC’s next head coach, leadership wants a strong communicator, someone that will fit the CITY SC aggressive play style and has a “nose for player development.”

  • David Critchley said he will coach CITY SC’s first-team to a more attacking play style

Lutz indicated the play style under Mellberg, game results and a lack of goal scoring led to the coaching change after five months. Less than a year ago, CITY SC fired its first head coach, Bradley Carnell.

Lutz said the interviews with Mellberg went well and staff came out feeling that everything aligned including playing style.

“We want to be aggressive,” said Lutz. “You want to be a pressing team and unfortunately, we did not really see that that much.”

With a 2-8-5 record, St. Louis City SC is in second to last place in the Western Conference and has a 3% chance of making playoffs, according to Playoffstatus.com. 

“Let me also make it clear that Lutz and I both take full responsibility for where we are,” said Gigliani. “We are clearly frustrated to be in this position, especially so shortly after Olaf’s appointment. We are obviously reflecting on that recruitment process and the appointment of the head coach to see what we can learn so we can minimize the chances of this happening again.”

Lutz said for CITY SC’s next head coach they want a strong communicator, someone that will fit the CITY SC aggressive play style and has a “nose for player development.” He added that they do not have a timetable for this decision. It could come sooner than the end of the season but it’s not necessarily a goal to have the next head coach take over before the end of the season.

Questions rose to why John Hackworth did not return to interim coach the team as he did after Carnell was fired last year. Lutz stated that he works with Hackworth, the team’s technical director, for hours every day.

“It's not possible now to have Hack not with me in this moment in time, because there is other things than the on field product to to correct and to make better,” said Lutz. “We have an important transfer window coming up. There is, plenty of recruitment has to be done.”

While they search for the next coach and reflect on what went wrong, seasoned CITY 2 coach, David Critchley, will coach CITY SC’s first team to a more attacking play style.

“It’s about being aggressive without the ball,” said David Critchley, interim head coach of City SC.

“It’s about getting the lines pushed up high and then with the ball we want the fans on the end of their seat. We want them to be entertained. We’re going into this game on Saturday to win the game and get three points.”