Report: St. Louis CITY SC in negotiations with Yoann Damet

St. Louis CITY SC appears to have honed in on its next head coach ahead of an important week in Major League Soccer.

Tom Bogert was the first to report that CITY SC has approached Columbus Crew assistant manager Yoann Damet, and a deal to secure the Frenchman following a lengthy 7-month search is on its way ahead of this week’s MLS SuperDraft. 

Damet replaces interim manager David Critchley, who is expected to remain on Damet’s coaching staff and was a finalist for the role himself. Under Critchley, CITY SC dramatically improved following a disastrous start under manager Olof Mellberg.  

Mellberg’s stint in St. Louis was short but became the catalyst for a cascade of front office moves that saw the club move on from Lutz Pfannenstiel and opt for MLS experience in former Columbus Crew Assistant GM Corey Wray. Wray has pledged to restructure the Front Office and build out a scouting and analytics department that relied far too much on one person over the club’s first three seasons. 

Now, as CITY SC prepares for its fourth season in MLS, the club knows that it has to deliver playoff soccer along with a sense of stability that has alluded the club since firing Bradley Carnell during its sophomore season.

Who is Yoann Damet?

St. Louis wasn’t the only club seeking Damet’s services. He was thought to be among the frontrunners to replace the recently departed Wilfried Nancy in Columbus, and even became a small source of contention in Nancy’s negotiations with Celtic* as he looked to bring his key assistant with him across the pond. 

*Side note, a bit more on the Nancy situation later this week.

Instead, Damet is reuniting with Wray in St. Louis after a successful stint in Columbus. Damet was on the MLS Cup winning staff in 2023 before adding a Concacaf Champions Cup 2nd place medal and a Leagues Cup trophy to that haul. 

Of course, a successful stint as an assistant doesn’t always transfer to success as the guy calling the shots – a similar question mark that surrounds his new boss –, but it’s a reason to believe that Damet will bring that pedigree to Mound City. Damet isn’t flying blind to the challenges of managing vs. assistant managing either, having served as interim manager in Cincinnati during the 2019 and 2020 seasons, managing 17 matches during a tumultuous time in Cincinnati’s young MLS tenure. 

After Cincinnati, Damet took charge of LA Galaxy 2 during the final season of MLS reserve sides in the USL Championship. Damet lasted in the role until August, when he was pulled into the first team coaching staff to assist Greg Vanney. 

What will it look like?

Damet’s team in LA pressed hard out of possession in either a 4-2-3-1 / 4-5-1 or a 3-4-3, and would build possession methodically out of what was often a 3-man backline with a fullback either pushed into the wing or tucked into the midfield. 

The Galaxy would build slowly and methodically, before the attack knifed forward into space vacated by impatient defenders. There were multiple modes of attack inside that philosophy, including the ability to send the ball long into the wings and either create with a cutback centrally or create by winning the ball back with the numbers advantage moving forward. 

In Columbus, Damet would experience some tweaks on that philosophy. Nancy also used a back three in his build-up, but the Crew built through quicker passing sequences and more frenetic pressing off the ball. 

From there, it’s easy to see where Damet could evolve his approach with a CITY SC roster that is built for a higher pace of play. Team President Diego Gigliani has often spoken of the CITY SC principles of play, but that has looked different under every manager that has taken the reins so far. Despite the reputation, CITY SC aren't the energy drink soccer club they were under Bradley Carnell. Under John Hackworth they were more pragmatic, often defending in a midblock while still pressing with intensity in the attacking third. Then, Mellberg attempted to build on Hackworth's philosophy of playing confidently with the ball while defending even deeper, before David Critchley had to step in and rebuild the house.

Instead of Mellberg’s approach of completely abandoning those principles of play last offseason, Damet brings the opportunity to evolve out of the modicum of success the club saw at the end of the season.

Under Mellberg, St. Louis suddenly found itself on par with Houston as one of the slowest clubs to recover the ball after losing possession, only to jump into the top half of PPDA (Pass per defensive action) production under Critchley. CITY SC started to find pockets to create, and started to evolve the role of its fullbacks and the idea of what a possession based CITY SC attack could look like with time to gel and advance out of the initial ideas.

Under Damet, CITY SC should still reside in the top-half of league PPDA while looking to possess the ball more and control more of the field tilt – a measure of total momentum with the ball. However, without reinforcements on the backend, he could suffer similar defensive breakdowns along the backline.

What’s next for the roster?

Corey Wray will be in deep preparation for this week’s SuperDraft, and there are some clear needs. Ahead of the offseason, we circled the need for a staunch defensive presence at either the 6 or at CB, along with more firepower on the wings. However, with a manager who will want to build through a back three, the need along the backline becomes urgent. Maybe this means that the lack of Fullback depth isn’t an issue, especially if Damet is fond of the 3-4-3 often used in Columbus, but it does hasten the need for at least two CBs that can spend time in the starting rotation along with Fallou Fall and Timo Baumgartl. 

There should be some movement around the draft and, frankly, there needs to be, but Wray isn’t going to rush into a deal for the sake of making a deal. The club has had talks with Henry Kessler, but the lack of a deal at this point most likely points to the two sides parting ways. Does that usher in an offer to Justin Haak, who is bound to have offers from everyone, or is it an issue solved when the transfer window opens?

Regardless, like my eating habits, the offseason has picked up steam heading into the holidays.