John Hutchinson on challenges of building a new identity for El Paso Locomotive

After seven games in the 2022 USL Championship season, El Paso Locomotive find themselves in an unfamiliar position in the league having earned only 4 of a possible 28 so far.

For the fourth episode of the Goal Club Podcast - head coach John Hutchinson candidly talks about the rough start the team had, what progress has been made and how confident he is about the team realizing his vision on how the game should be played.

Hutchinson says that although the team had challenges to start the season with many players being unavailable due to injuries or international duty, he still recognizes that the team is not where he would like them to be seven games, he is confident the best is yet to come.

“My belief in this group is growing all the time,” Hutchinson said.

In his eyes the players have bought in to his new style of play and the players continue training with the right attitude to work on getting better.

Despite the rough start Hutchinson believes his style of play is the best path forward and says changing his mind would be detrimental to all the work he and the players have put into the new philosophy.

“It’s important to be honest with the players and not change our football. Why? Because if things start going wrong and I say ‘you know guys, we’re losing - let’s go sit in a low-block and start kicking it long’ I lost all of them - they’re going to say ‘coach you don’t believe in your own football,’” Hutchinson said.

In his mind, it is better to ask what the team can do better - rather than throw away months of work into the new system, he constantly asks himself how he can make the team more aggressive, how they can further control the game and how they can be more dominant.

“My job is to create a football brand that is going to make us successful and give our players the best chance to win,” Hutchinson said. “That’s what we want to do as a team.”

Despite the progress made defensively and as a whole, Hutchinson says the team is still far from a finished product and can’t wait to see the team continue to get more comfortable with the new style of play - although he understands that the fans don’t like to hear that it will take time to build - that is exactly what the team needs.

As to what he expects from the team over the next seven games - there is only one thing on his mind…

“Results. Let’s not sugarcoat what’s happened - it’s bad. Although at times the football has been excellent, the results have not,” Hutchinson said. “It’s time for us to turn that football into results - I believe we’ll get positive results in May.”

Just over the next five weeks the team will play another seven games - On April 30, they will take on Loudon United - a DC United affiliate on the road.

Then the team will have back-to-back home games to start May hosting Tulsa in a mid-week game, followed by the Los Angeles Galaxy II on May 7.

Then it gets tougher with a road game to Pittsburgh on May 14, the Locomotive then hosts Sacramento Republic on another mid-week game before to tought road games to close the month.

Against defending champions Orange County SC on May 21, and at Las Vegas Lights on May 27.

To listen to the full interview, check out our podcast at thegoalclub.buzzsprout.com or wherever you get your podcasts.