Chris Taylor Looking to Bring Trophies to Burlington
We chatted with the new Vermont Green FC head coach about the upcoming season, roster construction, and how the Northeast Division is shaping up.
Vermont Green FC enters 2025 with a new head coach, but the goal remains the same.
The Green have been one of the top teams in USL League 2 since the club’s inception. Adam Pfeifer has cultivated talented rosters capable of competing for championships. Now he gets to focus on roster-building as sporting director while Chris Taylor patrols the touchline as head coach of the club.
The Liverpool-native noted that the conversations about becoming head coach have been going on for some time. Additionally, he praised Pfeifer for helping him develop as a coach.
“It's been massive, actually, because him and I coach very differently,” Taylor told The Blazing Musket. “We college head coaches, we get siloed. We don't always get a chance to work with other people. He's definitely more of a manager than a coach, whereas I've always seen myself as a coach.”
Taylor noted that while Pfeifer provides freedom within a structure, when the now-head coach arrived to serve as an assistant, he was extremely strict. Now he has become a more balanced and well-rounded manager.
But fans of the Green shouldn’t expect wholesale changes now that Taylor is at the helm. While there might be some tweaks, the style Vermont plays will be familiar to seasoned fans of the club.
“I'm a big believer in high tempo in terms of playing forward when we can,” Taylor said. “We want to have a lot of movement. We want to feel really fluid off the ball. We want to create an intensity and drive to get that ball back. We want it really, really uncomfortable. Same thing when we have it, we want them to feel like we've got more players than them and they don't know how to figure that out. But when we don't have it, we want them to feel like there's no space.”
Taylor will also be focused on creating a culture that has players from across the United States and the world wanting to put everything on the line for a club that they could potentially only spend one summer with.
“I do truly believe it's the most important part of the job, because we have the players for so little time,” he said. “I do really think that the best teams have that commitment, and that amazing culture and environment and buy in every day, in what language we use, what we refer to as a important, what we refer to as being crucial to what we do, how we represent about what the group means to people, what the group means to the community, what the group means to anyone involved. They're the things that will win the championships at the end. We've had brilliant players every single year. We've had one of the more talented teams, probably in the country, and we've had some really good seasons, and we've had some really good experiences but ultimately, we want to be winning trophies and if you want to win championships, you've got to have the talent and that buy in. Playing for other people, going a little bit further, because it means something to people who are there to watch it. We want to inspire them through that. I think it's absolutely crucial. So we will be talking a lot about that.”
Vermont’s roster features a lot of new faces as the club enters its fourth season. This year there is a lot more international experience with the likes of Bayern Leverkusen, Eintracht Frankfurt, and RC Strasbourg as well as CF Montreal, Vancouver Whitecaps, and Charlotte FC youth setups.
Being a college coach, Taylor believes this represents how the college game has changed in the United States.
“Yeah, definitely is a representation of what the college game looks like in terms of a lot of the top players are international players at the moment,” he said. “What we found in the recruiting process was a lot of the top academy players were going pro early, whereas the international players tended to stay in college longer.
“I think it gives us a real professional environment in terms of their expectations in the sense they’ve been in professional environments since they were young kids,” Taylor added. “It's a challenge for us to make sure that we're on part, if not exceeding those environments.”
But there is something different about Burlington. It’s a unique environment in USL League 2 and soccer in the United States as a whole.
Vermont Green FC is different compared to other soccer clubs as well. They don’t just put out statements on issues they care about, the club takes action.
Taylor appreciates the connection that the Green have with its fans and the overall community in Vermont.
“Yeah, I think that's the main thing, is the connection,” the head coach said. “You can't buy that, right? You've got to create that yourself. It's not given to you.
“I think if I could create a club, it would stand for a lot of things that we stand for,“Taylor said. “It really feels like something that just speaks to me internally and who I am and what I want to represent.”