LAFC Sack Marc Dos Santos After Nine Months: The Price of a Succession That Came Too Soon

On Saturday night I sat in front of my screen and watched LAFC lose 1-0 to FC Dallas. The match finished close to midnight Guangzhou time. I switched off the monitor, drained a glass of water, and thought of something nobody dared say on air nine months earlier: this man is about to lose his job. The next morning, John Thorrington announced that Marc Dos Santos had been dismissed. Nine months in charge. A cycle that ended faster than the time it took to prepare for it. All of Moscow had never heard anyone speak as bluntly as I do, so they called it a prophecy. This time I refuse the medal. This was too easy to call, so easy that anyone tracking MLS through data rather than emotion would have seen it coming in July. LAFC is not an ordinary MLS club. Since joining the league in 2026, they have gone through just three head coaches. Three. While the rest of the league changes managers like shirts, LAFC built its identity on succession. Bob Bradley, Steve Cherundolo, then Marc Dos Santos. When Thorrington personally chose Dos Santos from Cherundolo's staff, after four seasons beside him, it was a decision of philosophy rather than results. Then Son Heung-min arrived. Son's arrival was covered by global media all through the previous year. A world-class star, in the closing stage of his career, choosing MLS as his destination. Together with Denis Bouanga, LAFC owned an attacking pair that every club in the Western Conference envies. Commercially, it was the biggest boost in the club's history. In terms of expectation, it was a time bomb. Now comes the data, the part I always double-check before going on air, because I once paid the price for three wrong numbers. After 28 MLS matches, LAFC sit sixth in the Western Conference with a record of 11 wins, 9 draws and 8 losses. In their last nine matches across all competitions they have won exactly once. Since July, their MLS record is 1-4-5. They were eliminated from the CONCACAF Champions League in May. The 0-1 defeat to FC Dallas was the final drop, but the glass had been full for a long time. The origin of every illusion sits in the 3-0 win over Inter Miami, in front of 75,673 spectators. That was the night the stands erupted, and it was also the night LAFC set an offside trap for themselves. They believed that scoreline was the baseline. They believed the machine had clicked into gear. But a heavy win over an opponent still finding its shape is not a system, it is only a moment. When the moment passes, you discover the team has nothing to lean on. I have watched a great many LAFC matches this season, and what bothers me most is not the defeats. It is the manner of them. In some games this team played as if waiting for a miracle from Son Heung-min or Denis Bouanga, rather than actively creating chances. That is the classic signature of a side dependent on two individuals, and also the signature of a tactical system that never truly existed. This is where I have to speak plainly as a professional rather than a fan: in the material available to me, there is no process data at all. No xG, no xGA, no PPDA, no pressing numbers, no build-up shape. Only results. Which means I cannot conclude that Dos Santos failed tactically, only that he failed on results. And this is where I put myself in the opposite position. Suppose I am wrong. Suppose the problem was not Dos Santos but the power structure above him. Look at the profile: Dos Santos spent four seasons as an assistant, and before that coached Vancouver Whitecaps. That is a technical CV, not an authority CV. When you promote an assistant into a dressing room that already contains Son Heung-min, a global star, and Denis Bouanga, one of the league's best finishers, the authority gap is a real problem. An assistant stepping into the hot seat may keep the old framework, keep the old staff, and try to convince everyone that continuity is enough. But continuity is only enough when results arrive. When results do not arrive, continuity becomes the excuse for every criticism. Better to be the eccentric alone in the studio than the man who speaks from someone else's script. So I will say what perhaps nobody at LAFC wants to hear: the person most responsible for this is named John Thorrington. Thorrington chose Dos Santos. Thorrington chose an internal solution for the second consecutive time. Supporters were disappointed from day one, because after Son Heung-min arrived they wanted a fresh tactical wind, an outsider, a man willing to tear up the old structure. They wanted something loud. They got a silent continuation. Nine months later, Thorrington sacked the very man he had chosen. That releases pressure from the coach but loads all of it onto the general manager. If the next appointment fails, Thorrington's own seat will genuinely wobble. And if LAFC make another internal appointment, I will say it plainly on air: this is no longer philosophy, this is avoidance. Financially, no figures have been disclosed. But one fact is unavoidable: Dos Santos signed a multi-year contract and was dismissed after nine months. That means LAFC must pay the remainder of the deal, plus part of the staff. In a league run on salary budgets and roster regulations like MLS, every such outlay eats into the budget available for the squad. Son Heung-min brings commercial revenue, but he also brings wage pressure and expectation pressure. This is the equation LAFC's leadership must solve on its own. The transfer market is a mirror: the wealthy see prestige, the clever see the trap. LAFC looked into the mirror and saw Son Heung-min. They may have forgotten to look at the rest of the frame, where there is a defence never properly reinforced, a midfield lacking a tempo-setter, and a coaching bench that was never truly allowed to change. So what happens next? I will offer verifiable predictions, as I always do before a big match. First, LAFC will appoint a coach from outside, experienced, no longer a former in-house assistant. Second, over the next five MLS matches, if LAFC do not win at least three, their playoff race stops being a contest for position and becomes a fight for survival. Third, Denis Bouanga will be the most direct beneficiary of the change, because a new coach usually begins by freeing up his attacking players. And if I am wrong, I will go on air and admit it. That is my contract with you. But admitting a wrong result prediction is a small thing. What I do not want to get wrong is the diagnosis: LAFC traded patience for prestige, and paid with nine wasted months of a season. Son Heung-min is not getting younger. Denis Bouanga is not waiting for anyone. And now LAFC must prove they have a plan big enough for the two of them, rather than a seat easy enough to keep swapping.