Former Liverpool goalkeeper Brad Friedel has revealed he would prefer sacked Leeds United boss Jesse Marsch to be the next United States national team head coach over Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola.
Marsch was sacked by Leeds on Monday after failing to win any of the club's last six matches in the Premier League, leaving them perilously close to the relegation zone. The US national team are also currently without a coach as Gregg Berhalter saw his contract expire at the end of last year following the World Cup, with his former assistant Anthony Hudson currently serving as the country's interim head coach.
Two-time Real Madrid coach Zinedine Zidane was similarly shunned by Friedel in favour of American alternatives. French outlet L'Equipe reported earlier this year that Zidane had rejected an offer to become the country's next head coach.
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Writing in a column for the DailyMail, Friedel, a former coach of the country's under-19s national team and Major League Soccer franchise the New England Revolution, is a "firm believer" that the next head coach - and any new general managers or sporting directors - "should be American".
"I don't think it should be someone foreign," the 51-year-old said, acknowledging that remains the case for him "even though the best coaches in the world are foreign". Friedel added: "I will shout it from the rooftops, I think it needs to be an American from top to bottom.
"Pep is great, he is phenomenal, so is Zinedine Zidane. But the system over here, and I don't mean playing system, is different, and it has to be someone who knows it inside and out and can come in, make the team competitive and make the players he has available better."
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