ST. LOUIS – One year ago, Bradley Carnell was St. Louis CITY SC’s head coach. He’s gone. A few days ago, Olof Mellberg was the head coach. And now he’s gone.

CITY parted ways with Mellberg after just 15 MLS regular-season matches. During his run, CITY finished with two wins, five draws and eight losses, compiling just 11 points. That currently places the team second-to-last in the Western Conference standings.

David Critchley, previously a head coach for club’s development team CITY2, has been named interim head coach. He’s been with the organization since 2021.

“It’s am opportunity I’m very excited for,” said Critchley during a Thursday news conference. “I feel very prepared for this opportunity. … It’s a job right now that requires a guy to come in and think about how we can turn that team around moving forward.”

The main critique of Mellberg was the club’s conservative, defense-first style, an approach that came across as boring to some. Critchley hopes to shake things up and gets the offense going, which hopefully leads to more buzz and more wins.

“Unfortunately, [Mellberg] wasn’t able to replicate that level of [previous] success here,” said Diego Gigliani, St. Louis CITY SC President and General Manager. “And once we felt we had given that process enough time, it was the moment to look forward and make that decisions.”

“There’s some things just sometimes that don’t work out 100%. We realize that. That’s why we had to pull the plug in this moment of time,” said Lutz Pfannenstiel, St. Louis CITY SC Sporting Director. “It was not anything personal against Olof, it was how can we be sure we can turn the season around., how can we get back to our winning ways.”

Critchley’s first match at the helm is set for 1:30 p.m. Saturday on home grounds at Energizer Park against the San Jose Earthquakes.