Greg Vanney earned a one-year contract extension after getting the LA Galaxy to the playoffs in 2024. They then went on to win their sixth MLS Cup and Vanney’s second as a manager in historic fashion. However, just five months on, his side are off to the worst start of the season in MLS history and the calls for his departure have returned with new fervor.
What can we, as fans, make of the situation, and would his firing be an immediate solution to the Galaxy’s woes?
It was less than half a year ago when Greg Vanney was wrapping up a historic post-season where the LA Galaxy beat his own record for most goals scored in a playoff run and he joined an elite group of coaches who have won multiple MLS Cups.
Now, “Vanney Out” cries are ringing throughout Galaxy Land once again as the reigning champions have matched the worst winless run of any team in MLS history, surpassed the worst title defense in league history, and have become the first MLS team to lose a game while holding their opponents to zero shots.
The stunning nature of the team’s most recent loss to Sporting Kansas City and the news that the LA Galaxy and Vanney’s camp have made no progress on a potential contract renewal have added even more fuel for those who see Greg Vanney as a scapegoat.
What They Have Against Vanney
Besides the obviously bad start to the season, Vanney has been criticised for failing to react positively to criticism and a supposed unwillingness to be tactically flexible.
The infamous expletive-laden response Greg Vanney had when asked about the team’s poor start to the season at the peak of the fan boycott in 2023 showed his frustration with what he perceived to be a lack of understanding from supporters and the media. He claimed that despite the poor results (zero wins in the first six matches at the time, followed by a loss at home to LAFC), he was confident that the ongoing process he had developed behind the scenes would yield results.
And yield results they did. Once Will Kuntz joined the team in April, 2023, Vanney was freed from the litany of other roles besides coaching he had been forced to take up. The Galaxy then started to prove the process was effective and went on to win the 2024 MLS Cup, putting a momentary pause on the outside noise.
Unfortunately, league rules dictate that champions must essentially start from scratch the following season, and the Galaxy were forced to part ways with many key players.
The LA Galaxy’s signings in the following offseason were full of young talent. While neither Matheus Nascimento or Elijah Wynder have made much of an immediate impact, it’s clear that the intention with their signings was to lay the foundation for future success, gambling on their development (like they did with Dejan Joveljic) and understanding that success in the present would be unlikely.
Few expected the LA Galaxy to reach the same heights they did in 2024 this year without Riqui Puig, but no one expected a fall from grace quite this tragic.
With his side now winless in 11 games, questions regarding Vanney’s tactics have reemerged.
While fans claim that Vanney is tactically stiff and hasn’t made changes to suit the strengths of his available players, a closer look at how the Galaxy have played in 2025 shows that Vanney is unafraid to change tactical systems in search of results.
Solving Weaknesses
Vanney’s default system is a possession-focused 4-3-3. The midfielders and defense work together to maintain possession while the forwards are tasked with making runs with and without the ball to give the attack verticality and threaten opposition defenses.
With Riqui Puig in the side and wingers Gabriel Pec and Joseph Paintsil in killer form, this was an almost unstoppable playstyle in 2024. Without Puig and with both Pec and Paintsil underperforming and now injured, Vanney has been forced to try and find other ways to make the Galaxy tick.
Vanney first had to find the best available midfield combination to cover the Puig-sized hole in his roster. He’s fielded 10 different midfield combinations in the first 14 games in all competitions, experimenting with different formations and testing the depths of the roster with young players like Isaiah Parente and Tucker Lepley. Marco Reus’s recent return to fitness has been a bright spot for the Galaxy. He’s looked effective paired with Diego Fagundez and Edwin Cerillo, but the concern of another injury is ever-present with the German legend.
The wide attacking positions have been another headache for Vanney as Gabriel Pec has struggled to follow up his MLS Newcomer of the Year performance with just one goal in 11 league matches and Joseph Paintsil has struggled with injuries which have kept him out of the squad and off the pace when available.
Greg Vanney tried to solve his wingers’ issues by swapping them in the second half of their most recent game against Sporting Kansas City. After finding that both Pec and Paintsil over-relied on cutting inside to shoot with their strong foot, causing potentially dangerous plays to fizzle out, he moved Pec from the right wing to the left and Paintsil from left to right.
By stripping them of the option to cut inside and slow down play, Vanney forced his wingers to be more direct. Instead of cutting inside, they had to use their favored foot to send in crosses or dribble directly at Sporting’s defenders. This resulted in the Galaxy’s best chance of the game in the 50th minute, as Pec whipped in a brilliant ball to the back post, but Paintsil couldn’t figure out how to get the diving finish right. Although it didn’t result in a goal,Vanney’s tactical manipulation created one of the few times the Galaxy’s designated players have linked up all season.
Now that both are out of commission until Pec’s potential return against the Philadelphia Union on May 24th, Vanney will have to continue experimenting with systems that don’t rely on his underperforming wingers.
Vanney has introduced Mauricio Cuevas and Julian Aude late in games to give his side a different attacking presence. When they come on, the team switches to a formation with three center backs and Cuevas and Aude take advanced positions on either flank as wing backs.
In situations when Pec and Paintsil are available, like the closing minutes of the game vs Portland, this allowed Pec and Paintsil to abandon the wing and try to find space to operate inside, while the dynamic wing backs took up the wide spaces, sending in crosses and trying to unlock space for the forwards. While threatening, this formation has yet to yield much in terms of goals.
Playing to the Team’s Strengths
Vanney has tried to make changes based on his team’s strong areas, as well as trying to lessen the impact of his team’s weaknesses.
One of the team’s strengths this year has been in the forward position, with Christian Ramirez scoring 4 goals so far this year to lead the team in goal contributions.
Vanney tried to build on the effectiveness of his striker by playing a 2 striker system with the support of Miguel Berry and Matheus Nascimento. Miguel Berry showed some of his best attributes in the road loss to runaway conference leaders Vancouver Whitecaps. His tenacity and willingness to run and take up forward areas created Gabriel Pec’s only league goal of the season and one of the only times the Galaxy have led a game all year.
Vanney hoped to create a threat and overload the central area by combining his strikers, relying on wide players to get them the ball into spaces they can convert from, but the team hasn’t seen much good from that either.
It seems that Greg Vanney is close to exhausting all of the options with the roster he has, which is why his focus now seems to be on how they can make the squad better.
Working on the Future
During midweek media availability he recently said, “I’m just focusing on improving this team and the ways that we can get out of our results. Some of it’s day-to-day, some of it’s longer-term, but all of those things are in discussion. When I say longer term, I’m talking about the pieces that we need to keep improving”.
After the last home game, a 4-2 loss to Portland Timbers, Vanney hinted at the need to bolster the midfield. “We’ve gotta be hard to play against in the midfield… teams foul us in the midfield a lot to slow us down and then we just let teams kind of run through us in the midfield. The spine of our team needs to be sturdier”.
An enforcer à la Gaston Brugman or Mark Delgado could help stop some of the bleeding defensively while also relieving some of the defensive workload from Edwin Cerillow and allowing Diego Fagundez and Marco Reus to focus more on being catalysts for goals.
With the LA Galaxy struggling for goals, it’s also likely that Will Kuntz and Greg Vanney are looking to make changes in attack. With three strikers currently on the books, two of them being new signings for 2025, it’s difficult to see any changes made there without the departure of cult-icon Miguel Berry or recently acquired top-goalscorer Christian Ramirez. It’s likely that conversations regarding adding an additional winger to support and compete with Gabriel Pec and Joseph Paintsil could be going on behind the scenes. This would also be difficult without the sale of one of the two designated players, with both Pec and Paintsil joining in 2024 on big-money deals.
So, Vanney Out?
It’s unlikely that the LA Galaxy will fire a club-legend who has just won their record sixth MLS Cup midseason. What is much more likely is that Greg Vanney will continue to play a role in deciding the present and future of the Galaxy with the support of Will Kuntz and the rest of the front office.
Greg Vanney has reprogrammed the Galaxy’s DNA from a club that makes short-sighted moves to one that is intentional and methodical in how it operates. They’ve enjoyed recent success by trusting the process and building year-to-year. Things have been difficult in 2025, but a bad third of a season, as awful as it has been, shouldn’t derail any serious club from executing on their long-term vision.
Greg Vanney has said multiple times this season that his goal is to secure the 7th. Having already proven himself capable as the engineer of the 6th, fans should have faith and get excited for the return of Riqui Puig and the improvements to the roster that are sure to come.
PHOTO: ANDREW HERNANDEZ/LAXSportsNation
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