St. Louis Metropolis SC introduced the firing of supervisor Olof Mellberg on Tuesday, following a poor begin to the season that noticed the crew win simply two of its first 15 matches.
David Critchley, who had been managing CITY2, the membership’s entry in MLS NEXT Professional, will now take over on an interim foundation.
Mellberg departs with an general file of 2-8-5 (W-L-D) after solely six months in St. Louis and with the crew in 14th place within the 15-team Western Convention.
Along with the crew’s place within the desk, Critchley can even purpose to revive the crew’s moribund assault, which has seen it rating simply 11 objectives in league play, the second-worst mark in MLS behind CF Montreal’s 10.
“The choice to half methods with Olof goes past simply outcomes. We have analyzed the crew’s efficiency throughout a variety of components, together with the necessity to execute in opposition to a method of play that led to the crew’s preliminary success and has been a part of our DNA for 4 years,” stated St. Louis sporting director Lutz Pfannenstiel.
“As a membership, we have now sure requirements we have to meet and consider a training change was obligatory to enhance our general efficiency and return to a profitable tradition. Our followers deserve a better-performing crew, and we intend to offer them one.”
“We understood it will take time for Olof to turn out to be acclimated to Main League Soccer and positively acknowledge accidents made his job tough, however we merely couldn’t proceed down this path,” added St. Louis Metropolis SC president and GM Diego Gigliani.
“We’re dissatisfied that we weren’t capable of finding success beneath Olof. He moved over right here from Sweden and labored tirelessly on behalf of the membership throughout his tenure. We want him nothing however success in his future endeavors.”
Critchley has been with the membership since 2021, initially working in St. Louis’ academy and training the group’s U-16 and U-17 groups. He was named supervisor of CITY2 final November. He led the crew to a 6-4-1 file thus far his season.
Baggio Husidic, certainly one of Critchley’s assistants from CITY2, will now work with the primary crew, whereas the membership’s technical director, John Hackworth, will fill in for Critchley because the CITY2 head coach.
Mellberg joined St. Louis final November after his contract with Swedish aspect IF Brommapojkarna had expired. Mellberg had beforehand managed Brommapojkarna from 2015-17, a interval when he led the membership to successive promotions into Sweden’s prime tier. Mellberg additionally managed Danish aspect Fremad Amager in 2019 in addition to Sweden membership Helsingborgs from 2019-20.
As a participant, Mellberg loved a distinguished profession for each membership and nation. After making his skilled debut with Degerfors IF in 1996, he moved to AIK, profitable a league title. Following a three-year spell with Racing Santander, he moved to Aston Villa, the place he revamped 260 league and cup appearances. He later performed for Juventus, Olympiacos, Villarreal and FC Copenhagen.
On the worldwide degree, Mellberg made 117 appearances for Sweden, a run that included a spell because the crew’s captain, scoring eight objectives. Mellberg was a part of two World Cup sides in 2006 and 2010, in addition to 4 groups that took half on the European Championships from 2000-12.
