For the previous 11 hours, Patrick Vieira had been asked questions. But at the final stop of his daylong media marathon, which included a news conference and a dozen or so interviews, he was the one asking the questions.
A few dozen members of the Third Rail supporters group had assembled in a pub in Midtown Manhattan to give Vieira, New York City FC’s new manager, a roaring ovation and wrap up his interminable Wednesday.
Having suffered through lengthy interrogations, he turned the tables. He wanted to know where those in attendance thought the team had fallen short in 2015, its maiden season. He wanted to know how the players could build a better bond with the hard-core fans.
When they spoke, shouting above the pub’s din, he listened carefully and nodded. He cracked jokes and received generous laughter in return, looking at ease for the first time all day.
“Thank you for your feedback,” he said when they were through.
Earlier in the day, Vieira had folded his large frame, every bit as robust as it was when he patrolled the midfield for Arsenal and France, into a chair deep inside Yankee Stadium. Vieira, a Senegalese-born World Cup winner, had been introduced as the club’s second head coach and dutifully answered question after question about players whom he is still meeting and a league, MLS, that he is still learning.
“Here, it’s completely different,” Vieira said of the league. He acknowledged that he would need to rely, at least initially, on his coaching staff and on NYCFC’s front-office staff “to explain more in detail about the rules in this country.”
“It’s been a really long learning process for me,” he said.
Vieira, 39, appeared cautious in his new role, giving guarded answers to questions. Vieira, who had a reputation as an elegant but bruising player, knows he is stepping into a difficult job. His predecessor, Jason Kreis, was fired in November after only one season.
Kreis had led NYCFC, an expansion team that built one of the highest payrolls in league history, through an entertaining but ultimately disappointing 10-17-7 season. The reason given for his dismissal was his failure to reach the playoffs, underscoring the expectations that have now passed to Vieira.
Vieira inherits a top-heavy squad. Three European veterans — Frank Lampard and Andrea Pirlo, both central midfielders, and forward David Villa — gobble up most of the payroll and limit his tactical flexibility. (Unlike Kreis, however, Vieira will have Lampard and Pirlo available to start the season.) And he will have to remake last season’s revolving-door back line, which conceded 58 goals, tied for the most in MLS.
Vieira has no experience as a professional head coach. He retired as a player in 2011, from the English club Manchester City, after a career in which he won league titles with Arsenal, Inter Milan and Juventus. Since retiring, he had worked for Manchester City in a variety of roles, most recently as the organization’s under-21 coach.
Now, he said, he is eager for another challenge.
Vieira said he had job offers in the Premier League, in England’s second-tier Championship and in France’s Ligue 1. But he opted for a three-year contract in New York.
Vieira, by his own admission, “may not have the best knowledge of the league,” but he expressed confidence that he could overcome those odds.
“I think what is important is to be aware of the difficulty that I can find,” he said. “I have to be conscious of it, and I have to plan for it.”
During his career, Vieira encountered an unusual number of famous coaches. “I was schooled well by great managers, and I learned a lot,” he said. “But it’s important to be myself and not try to copy anybody else because that would be the biggest mistake that I will make.”
Vieira said he chose the Football Association of Wales to get instruction for his professional coaching license because, unlike some other federations, it does not try to shape its pupils’ mindset.
The quasi-clean slate of a second-year team in New York is part of the appeal. While the roster is not complete, Vieira suggested that he preferred a high-pressure style of play — “I want teams to come to Yankee Stadium and to suffer” — despite a core anchored by Lampard (37), Pirlo (36) and Villa (34).
“I have a clear idea of how I want the team to play,” Vieira said. “Hopefully I can make them understand it. That’s the tricky part.”
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