Q&A With Rayo OKC Coach Gerard Nus

Rayo OKC’s new coach, Gerard Nus, has coaching experience from all over the world. He has had stints, in different roles, with Liverpool and Brighton & Hove Albion (England), Chunnam Dragons (South Korea), Melbourne Heart (Australia), and Elche (Spain) at the club level. He also recently was an assistant to Avram Grant for the Ghana men’s national team.

He earned a 1-1 draw against the New York Cosmos in his NASL coaching debut, and following that result, he spoke to Matthew Levine of NASL.com about his impressions of the team, his coaching philosophy, and more.

Levine: Before you coached the team on Saturday, the team was towards the top of the Fall Season Standings (the team currently sits in fourth place), so how do you keep the team pushing on in terms of getting results now that you’ve taken over?

Nus: That’s the intention. As a professional, I didn’t come here to enjoy my time. I came here to work as much as I can. Of course, I’m going to try to work very hard because we want to be successful. The players and the people around the team need to have the same mentality. We want to win and play well and to show this every day.

Levine: You haven’t had too much time with the team yet, but what has been your impression so far?

Nus: I was really impressed with the positives [on Sunday]. All of us know what happened, so it’s time to not look back to the past and look to the present and the future. The players worked hard, ran a lot, and had chances. We scored first, so we were all the time competitive in the game. I see so much potential to build from.

Levine: As a coach, you’ve spent time at Liverpool, in South Korea and Spain as well as with the Ghanaian national team. What can you bring from those experiences to Rayo OKC?

Nus: In life we need to learn from all experiences. All the experiences were different and of course you need to pick up the most important things – the positives and negatives. It’s good, but it wouldn’t be good if you don’t show it in the present.

What I mean by that is look what you’ve done, but the most important is the present. The most important is the game we played which was very positive and even more important is training the next day and so on.

Levine: What kind of playing style will you use now that you have more time to imprint your mark on the team?

Nus: I am a person from Barcelona and that football, Barcelona-style, likes to dominate the opponent and create a lot of chances – and I like this professional style. But when you come to a new role without preseason time and you have to perform straight away, there are a lot of things to consider. I’m thinking really deeply and I have some ideas already. I need to make some decisions. It’s not about what style I like to play, but what’s best for this group of players. It’s important to be successful right now and to win games and do even better.

Levine: Before coming in, did you know much about the leagues and the teams?

Nus: I know a few things about the team and the league – the other teams and coaches. I’m going to learn even more and more. That’s a matter of time, that’s normal. I’m quite positive, I’m not scared at all. I feel I am a bright person and I’m going to try to show that to the players. I’m sure it’s going to be positive moving forward.

Levine: You go into the game against the New York Cosmos (who had won 10 straight home games) and pushed them further than any team has all season at Shuart Stadium. What did you say to the players beforehand or why do you think the team performed so well?

Nus: In life, when you are facing adversity, there are two kinds of people: those that try to look somewhere else and those that try to fight and be brave. The players showed they are the second type of people. I’m very happy they chose to fight and we almost got the three points as we had a good performance. We showed what we can do and we stuck together. We’re a group of professionals, we’re a family, and we’ll build from this.