The Christian Lattanzio era begins for Charlotte FC

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (WBTV) - Charlotte FC shocked the soccer world last week when they fired head coach Miguel Angel Ramirez just 14 games into the season. After the international break, the team got back to training on Tuesday morning under interim head coach Christian Lattanzio.

But the question still remains, why did the team move on from a coach that had an expansion team just 2 points out of the playoffs? Quite simply, there was a fracture between coach Ramirez and the team.

“If you go to work and you love to go there that means something is done right,” said Charlotte FC defenseman Christian Fuchs. “I don’t want to say this has not been the case, but for most parts, it was not the easiest. There were certain fractures between us and the coaching staff.”

Fuchs is also a captain of the team and says being put in the middle between the players and coach was quite difficult at times.

“The issue is when you try to address a problem, most of the time, unfortunately, the door was shut and that didn’t feel good,” said Fuchs. “I tried hard to be a communicator between him and the team, but at certain times it just felt too much and it was discouraging.”

Communication was one issue, but there were also some issues in the way the training was handled.

“It is so important, especially with a young group that we have, it doesn’t matter if you win or lose, you address the players,” said Fuchs. “To use a loss in your benefit to have a post-match analysis. To look at what do you do well and what did we do not so well. That’s how you improve a team. That’s just the process. That was not existing.”

Management heard the players and moved on from Ramirez naming Lattanzio the interim coach and after one training session, Fuchs already sees a difference in the team.

“It was very interesting to see how much relief players were approaching the training with a lot of smiles,” said the captain.

Some key words surrounding training on Tuesday included intensity, competitiveness, and fitness. The players were going at each other hard.

“That’s what you need,” said Fuchs. “You need that competitive aspect in every training and that’s the way forward. That’s what Christian Lattanzio brings in now which makes me even more positive looking forward because if you give this team this spark, there’s a lot we can look forward to the rest of this season.”

To Fuchs’ point, Charlotte is currently tied for 8th in the Eastern Conference and just 2 points out the final playoff spot. They accomplished that with a fracture inside of the locker room. Will be interesting to see where this team goes from here.

They are back on the pitch Saturday when they host the New York Red Bulls at Bank of America Stadium.

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