Monarchs coach Freddy Juarez on squad, development

In an interview with Real Salt Lake's official podcast, Claret-and-Cobalt Daily, Real Monarchs coach Freddy Juarez talked about the upcoming Monarchs season, some of his hopes for his side, and more.

Some brief excerpts of his interview follow, and it's well worth listening to the whole thing. In fact, I'd implore you. Do it.

On getting Monarchs playing like Real Salt Lake

I'm working them all really hard and some of them are not used to it. It's not easy to get RSL's style of play. We ask them to do a lot of different things, and it hopefully helps. That's what I'm banking on -- the guys that are new can communicate with the guys that I've coached before, and then say, "listen, he knows what he's doing, and he only wants the best for us. If we listen and are open-minded, it should work for everyone." If we have team success, more individuals have success. For me, it's all about team, and the rest always takes care of itself.

On the import of dominating possession

We hope to dominate the ball, dominate possession. If there’s anything I think, It’s super important to have the ball longer than your opponent. The more you have it, the more opportunities you can create, and the more opportunities you can create, you hopefully get goals. We want to make sure that we control our own destiny by having the ball throughout the game.

On small-market success from the academy's perspective

You have all these success stories with the first team where guys are kind of maybe not getting the attention they should have when they’re good footballers, and RSL gives them that opportunity. It’s the same as the academy. I had a lot of small-state players who come into an environment (...) Sebastian (Saucedo), for example — a very good player in Utah, and then you put him around better players and he develops to be a very good player from a small market.