After an 0-3-2 start to the 2017 season, Real Salt Lake gets a fresh start this week when new Head Coach Mike Petke takes over for his first week with the club. With a 4-2 loss to expansion Minnesota United on Saturday, Petke saw many things that he likes about the club, but knows there needs to be change to turn things around sooner rather than later.
“Observing this team over the last three or four months – being with them in preseason and observing their practices – intensity really never was a factor,” Petke said on ESPN 700’s On Frame on Monday night. “We just need to get back to a fresh start. That was my message after the game and it starts tomorrow.”
Though he was named Head Coach last week, replacing Jeff Cassar after 3-plus years in that role, Interim Head Coach Daryl Shore manned the bench for Saturday’s loss to Minnesota because of the short turnaround between when Petke was named coach on Wednesday and when the team departed for Minnesota on Friday. That would have left Petke with just two training sessions with the team and gameplanning had already been implemented by Shore early in the week, so the club opted to keep Shore in charge.
Instead, Petke watched the match from the press box and will take the helm at Tuesday’s training session ahead of Saturday’s home match against Vancouver Whitecaps FC.
With a bevy of experienced veterans and a steady stream of young players looking to make their mark, he sees small changes that need to be implemented quickly to get the club in the win column for the first time this season.
“What I want to see from this team is not taking a sledgehammer to it and redoing everything. A lot of good foundation has been laid. But it’s out of that foundation that I have my ideas of things I want to tweak and do differently,” Petke said, siting a higher line of defensive confrontation as one change he looks to make.
This week will start some of those types of shifts towards Petke’s ideas for the club. And while he emphasized that attitude wasn’t the issue with the first five matches of the season, he also wants to see some of the passion that he exuded in his 13-year MLS career and his two seasons as Head Coach with the New York Red Bulls.
“I need them to not convince me,” he said. “But I need them reiterate to me their desire to be here and their desire to represent this club the way it should be represented.”
To hear the full interview, listen below.
