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jloome
10-12-2009, 05:22 PM
After getting some of the initial ranting out of my system, I decided to sit down and give this season some thought.
This is speculative, so if that offends you, go read something else. Some of it is harsh, but what I believe is likely the case. However, I'm also going to touch on some reasons for serious optimism here, otherwise it's all too bleak to bear.
I'll start at the head office and head on down from there.

First, Mo. Mo's personal footballing history is notable for several moments of controversy, notably the Celtic-Rangers incident. There is ample belief out there, right or not, that he's a shifty guy. There have been other players since who've played for both clubs but ask Celtic fans why Mo is the one they hate.
When John Carver arrived, there were a couple of stories right off the bat that seemed to indicate Carver thought he was effectively the Manager, English-style. Mo brought that down to Earth saying he was still in charge and even suggesting he'd be actively involved with the team.
Within a few weeks, it had been clarified to "I'll handle the business, he'll handle the team."
Later in the year, Mo was seated next to Paul James on a Gol TV panel and James just ripped the organization for both personnel and tactical reasons, with Mo getting progressively redder and more stone-faced by the minute. Anyone who thinks James' dismissal around the time of the station acquisition might've been based on his overeagerness in critiquing TFC? It occured to me Mo didn't look like he was the cricitism as, uh, constructuve.

Then, towards the end of Carver's tenure, we have the incidnet involving Carver wanting to sit in the box. Go back and read the clips: Carver appears convinced, after talking to Mo, that the league won't let him coach from there.
A few days later, MLS releases a statement saying it had nothign to do with it. Then, Mo comes out and clarifies that it was his decision, although by then Carver is already gonzo alonzo.
All of this reeks of Mo being shifty.
It may also be crap. But I've been a student of human nature for a long time, and if you check the clips, the pieces fit.
Having said that, sometimes shifty is good, especially when it comes to player acquisitions, at which Mo is, I'll admit, pretty damn good. And that's most of his job.

My concern is that if he is still involved in the first team, it could be creating a situation where there's intersquad animosity and blame gaming, if certain players are guaranteed roles or other players are being held off the field at Mo's request. A team with that kind of intereference can't develop a system and will lack late -game cohesion and confidence, which is pretty much what we suffer.
I thought it telling that Cummins supposedly "forgot" about Sanyang on Saturday. He comes from a culture where fans would think there was something a little deeper to that, like that fact that Sanyang has had four European scouts after him already and is on an unguaranteed contract. Maybe Mo decided they can't show him this year until he's under new terms.
That kind of interference could also explain why Garcia keeps playing over and over, even though Cummins has publicly criticized his play. I'm not suggesting that grooming Ashley Young makes him Einstein, but the man can't be a total idiot. ANd only a total idiot keeps Garcia out there. Again, Garcia was Mo's teammate and buddy at KC, and Mo's talked about trying to get him here for quite a while.
Or maybe not.

Anyway, most of these ideas have been bandied about already on the forums, but when you chain them together, you get an idea of how front office failures might have contributed to the team's poor performance.

Onto Chris Cummins. Here's a guy who has not coached men's football. He was a youth tech director and briefly a technical director in England. At neither point was he forced under game pressure to make important calls. And based on what I've read, he's never had to coach professional grown men. So he's vastly unqualified. Even in areas where there wasn't interference (maybe even all of them) he may have just wilted under the pressure.
I'd suggest that there's likely more to it than that. He may have been in youth programs but he worked in professional football organizations for a long time before coming here. That couldn't have been pressure free.
It's a shame that this has probably been so bruising on the guy that he wouldn't stick around for a lesser role, such as technical director, where his technique training might best serve the club. But there's no way we could go forward with him as coach, particularly with guys with more MLS experience like Paul Mariner and John Spencer out there.

Lastly, the players. And what a bunch of talented headcases they are.
As fans, we tend to react passionately about the most dramatic moments in a game. But the fact that time management is so important in football , and other smaller, less-tangible factors as well, mean that those moments often weren't really the sole deciding factors.
They do make for good forum fodder. Whereas, suggesting that there's a reason DeRo has wound up benched on some very good MLS teams gets you yelled at.
But it's true. Because he's a ballhog and thinks too highly of his own skills.He's also our best offensive weapon, no doubt. But a) he had the most shots, by far, and he's not a striker; and b) he gave the ball away more than anyone on the team, by insisting on carrying the team and dribbling full speed ahead without even looking around at times.
This isn't the most crippling problem we face. But it's indicative that signing a star player guarantees you're going to play things his way.
A few moons ago, DeRo suggested he could play in La Liga. Then, when we got unsurprisingly thrashed by Madrid, he seemed genuinely embarassed, as if they should've been able to compete.
I think he's a great player to have. But his ego is out of wack. And so are several on this team. Garcia, obviously, thinks he should still be out there and he's just awful, maybe the worst professional centre half I've ever seen. I have absolutely no doubt that 39-ish Rick Titus would've done a better job than Garcia this year.

Jimmy? Never seems perturbed. He's the captain. Why havent' we seen at least Roy Keane-esque moment where he ripped into his teammates to get them moving? Is that why they immediately made Robbo co-captain when he signed, so we'd have someone to do that? If so, he's been out half the season and a step slow the rest, so that wasn't going to work.
Brennan's own mental lapses defensively (he's one of our worst offenders at dropping back too early and pinching in too tight to the box, leaving the sideline free for crosses) also set a bad example.
Serioux is not a team player, because he can't control his temper. He's a fine defender 75% of the time, but he gets caught up in what's bothering him, as evidenced by his red in Seattle and that Beckham incident, and that same tendency leads to foolish passes and lapses.

Attakora is an example of what the entire team should be, as is Cronin: hard workers, team players, constantly busting ass defensively and improving, and thinking quickly coming forward. Both of the Gambians are arrogant about their individual ball skills, but on the whole were almost as confident-yet-humble as Attakora, as was Stefan Frei, until a few bad cross issues later in the season. Plus, they're young enough to be reined in.
Marv Wynne would be in that group on work ethic, but again, he allows arrogance over his speed to get the better of him. His inability to track back surely can't be ignorance: even coaches have mentioned it publicly. So he must be cocksure he can always get back.
And he can. Problem is "getting back" isn't enough to ensure a good cross doesn't come in.
Vitti and Barrett have the same basic problem, despite their differing skill sets: no confidence and a slow release on their shots. Without that confidence, they'll contribute to the team malaise.

Amado is: seriously religious, seriously family values, seriously angry when done wrong. Passionate guys work well when surrounded by a majority of strong characters. But we don't have that. As such, he'll either implode next year or simply move on.
Gerba is a good poacher but again, strikes one as arrogant. He's been in trouble for his physique throughout his career but hasn't changed a thing.
What does that say? He believes he's right, they're wrong. He needs intensity and passion, which will lead to improved off the ball movement.
OB White, it's too early to judge. His skills man-on-man look good, and he's finished a couple of nice ones.
JDG, too early to judge.We haven't seen much from the rest, but that essentially leaves us with two strong characters (Attakora and Cronin), three fairly dependable/occasionally shaky guys (Frei, Gomez, Frei, Sanyang) and one guy, Marv Wynne, who sometimes shows and sometimes blows. Plus, Fellinga and White look decent prospects, as does Ibbe, when he plays.
The rest of our team has a ton of individual skill, but very little to contribute to the TEAM part of the team, the character.
We have strong players with weak character.

Two telling quotes from players over the last week. First was Jim Brennan guaranteeing the playoffs. It may have just been a bold gambit to get his teammates under some pressure, or it may have been overconfidence. Either reflects badly on the team's passion.
Second was Brian Edwards this morning in the star. ""As a group, we're angry. We're hungry now and we're not going to throw in the towel.""
Let's repeat that with the appropriate bolding.
"As a group, we're angry. We're hungry now and we're not going to throw in the towel."
Shouldn't that have come after the Charleston Cup?

sulfur
10-12-2009, 05:57 PM
"As a group, we're angry. We're hungry now and we're not going to throw in the towel."
Shouldn't that have come after the Charleston Cup?

Hell, shouldn't that have come before the last game of the Charleston Cup when the team had a chance to win a piece of hardware?

CoachGT
10-12-2009, 06:38 PM
Excellent (and fair) analysis. Well done.

AL-MO
10-12-2009, 06:42 PM
Holy fuck...LOL

I'll read this later on tonight when I have some time.

Oldtimer
10-12-2009, 08:58 PM
Mo shifty? :lol: yeah, for sure. Just look at him when he's asked a difficult question, he looks away from you as he spins his yarn. I wouldn't trust him at all. However, that doesn't prevent the team from succeeding necessarily, although it would make it very difficult for the coaching staff who have to report to him.

Cummins unqualified? For sure. Most of us thought he deserved a chance, he's failed and seems heading towards a mental meltdown. He'll be gone, I hope he finds a job more suited to his skill-set (he's probably going to be a lifer as a youth coach, where his real skill-set lies).

Having a GM and a coach who overlap isn't necessarily bad, but you have to get two people who work well together, Mo and Cummins don't seem to. Mo needs to find someone quality who can work with him. If he can't, Mo needs to go.

Agreed about the players, you've clearly given things a good thought.

Blazer
10-12-2009, 09:01 PM
My vote for post of the year. Nice job loom.

RedRum
10-12-2009, 09:09 PM
Fair criticisms.

Assuming the part about Mo to be even half true, what coach with any kind of credentials would come here? Fuck, we'll probably end up with Dale Mitchell as our next coach. He fits the bill.

Ossington Mental Youth
10-12-2009, 10:05 PM
all well written as per usual

ensco
10-12-2009, 10:08 PM
I have a slightly different take on a couple of the people mentioned:

DeRo - he is a hog and and has a huge ego...but so what? He's got the credentials and current performance that permit it.

Brennan - You say he's not perturbed. I actually think he's got a different problem - he's wound too tight. Not sure it matters much anymore, as his role will be vastly diminished next year.

Overall - disagree with characterization of team as "strong with weak character". Strongly disagree. I just think they're:
1. badly unbalanced (DeRo and Guevara have been tripping all over each other, playing the same role all year), no wingers, weak at CB, and
2. a little long in the tooth (I blame this, to the extent I blame anything, for the late game collapses)

Add in an inexperienced coach, and you've got a team that would be slightly above average, and it becomes slightly below average.

Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar. No end of people will jump up and down and say "there's no such thing as bad luck, you make your own luck, yadda yadda yadda"....but we've just been inexplicably unlucky in these late game collapses. I'm not mad, I just feel bad for the guys, more than anything. It's crushing.

Beach_Red
10-12-2009, 10:29 PM
^ That sounds about right; slightly above average MLS team playing slightly below average and not getting many lucky breaks.

AL-MO
10-12-2009, 11:25 PM
Great post Jloome. DERO said when he signed that he wanted to play in the midfield. IMO he doesn't seem very well suited for it ATM as he hogs the ball a bit too much(as you mentioned in your post) and is not creative enough. (by that I mean creating chances for his teammates)

I'd prefer Amado, but he is a bit inconsistent it seems.

DichioTFC
10-13-2009, 12:37 AM
great post, i disagree slightly and agree slightly



First, Mo...sometimes shifty is good, especially when it comes to player acquisitions, at which Mo is, I'll admit, pretty damn good. And that's most of his job.



and for that reason alone i would keep him for one more year at the least, maybe two or three. every team has politics upstairs, but most teams are still able to excel.



Onto Chris Cummins... he may have just wilted under the pressure...



reason enough to can him. getting a coach without the cerebral excellence is like getting a defender who cant defend



Lastly, the players...

Serioux is not a team player, because he can't control his temper.

Both of the Gambians are arrogant about their individual ball skills

Amado is seriously angry when done wrong. Passionate guys work well when surrounded by a majority of strong characters. But we don't have that.


Agree with the sentiments about the other players but beg to differ with a few.

I'd argue that Serioux is a team player, by being passionate and taking one for the team. That kind of passion is what Gerba, among others, is accused of lacking. Serioux and Guevera are the most passionate players, but it seems as though De Ro, Barrett, Attakora and Cronin are as well. Add Dichio and Carver to that mix and we had a very passionate team at the beginning of the season.

Kinda unfair to call the Gambains arrogant. I would say quietly confident, which is probably a good trait to have when you're 18 years old and playing soccer halfway around the world in a foreign land. Besides, they've been pleasant surprises, just need more coaching and mentoring.

DichioTFC
10-13-2009, 12:39 AM
quick thought: think that maybe Mo is forcing Cummins to keep starting Garcia so that the acquisition looks less like a failure (if Garcia gets benched during the playoff stretch only a couple months removed from being the apparent answer to our defencive prayers, the Toronto media would pick up on that in a heartbeat).

Food for thought.

tlear
10-13-2009, 03:07 PM
Arrogance is not really a sin if one has something to base it on. De Ro definitely qualifies he has some part of the game missing, but if not for him we would now in be in Shitbulls or SJ territory. JDG looked amazing to me.. watching WC qualifiers this weekend he is the only player on the field on Saturday that looked at that level. I don't know if he is a leader or not but our CM/DM position has someone who is the best in this league by far (which is what is expected from DP)

People that need to go.. Garcia=gone. Vitti? maybe too $$ even so I like his skills, he is not worth it. Our number 1 priority is getting another experienced defender or maybe Gomez can actually take that first position(unlikely)?

Cummins. I liked some of the tactics he used, it was fun to watch. Can he improve? probably but I am not sure TFC should be the place where he gets his next chance

jloome
10-14-2009, 12:02 PM
Arrogance is not really a sin if one has something to base it on. De Ro definitely qualifies he has some part of the game missing, but if not for him we would now in be in Shitbulls or SJ territory. JDG looked amazing to me.. watching WC qualifiers this weekend he is the only player on the field on Saturday that looked at that level. I don't know if he is a leader or not but our CM/DM position has someone who is the best in this league by far (which is what is expected from DP)

People that need to go.. Garcia=gone. Vitti? maybe too $$ even so I like his skills, he is not worth it. Our number 1 priority is getting another experienced defender or maybe Gomez can actually take that first position(unlikely)?

Cummins. I liked some of the tactics he used, it was fun to watch. Can he improve? probably but I am not sure TFC should be the place where he gets his next chance

I think there are definitely games where DeRo has hurt us more than helped. But they're in the minority.

Having said that, we need a coach who can reign in ANY strong ego, and Cummins' tactical approach notwithstanding, I dont' think that's him.

Beach_Red
10-14-2009, 12:32 PM
I think there are definitely games where DeRo has hurt us more than helped. But they're in the minority.

Having said that, we need a coach who can reign in ANY strong ego, and Cummins' tactical approach notwithstanding, I dont' think that's him.

It's too bad Cummins had to spend the whole year with the "interim" tag. It's a small thing, maybe, but it likely affected everything. Who knows, maybe he himself said he'd handle things till the end of the season but he didn't want to stay any longer.

There better be a good reason why this team spent most of the season with an "interim" head coach.

Hitcho
10-14-2009, 12:53 PM
^ there is - you can't just walk out and get a top class MLS coach a few games into the season, because no-one is available. So the options were, bring in someone as a head coach just to fill the gap asap, or leave it to CC for the rest of the season and try and nab a decent MLS coach in the off season when it's easier to bag one.

In a sense, there was minimum risk in this for Mo. CC could easily be sacrificed if things went south since he was Carver's man anyway. There's no threat fo relegation in MLS, and even if we came dead last well, that just means Mo gets another shot at being the drafting king, or can trade the pick for a decent player. And to cap it off, if the team dives, it's CC's fauly and not Mo;s because he;s the GM, not the coach. Besides which Mo has a five eyar plan anyway, and this was only year three.

So, faced with all of that, Mo decided it was better to wait for the off season and recruit someone properly, since his next coach recruit is likely to be something that actually sticks to him, whereas CC's forced appointment probably won't.

jloome
10-14-2009, 12:56 PM
^^ Yeah, that's pretty much how I'd read it.

Hitcho
10-14-2009, 12:58 PM
Yikes, we are becoming scarily similar Jezza. If you put up an avatar of Calvin, the assimilation will be complete. Resistance is futile.

Cambridge_Red
10-14-2009, 01:10 PM
Nice post, I tend to agree with quite a lot of it.

Beach_Red
10-14-2009, 01:33 PM
So, faced with all of that, Mo decided it was better to wait for the off season and recruit someone properly, since his next coach recruit is likely to be something that actually sticks to him, whereas CC's forced appointment probably won't.



Okay, that makes sense, but let's just hope he ddn't, "wait till the off season," and has been making steady inquiries.

I can understand how they can't negotiate in public but it's frustrating to not know what's going on. At the Dichio press conferrence Mo said Dichio would be involved with the big team next year. You have to wonde if that's already been cleared with the next head coach.

This must have all been discussed in the boardroom. Certainly the North American model that MLSE is more familiar with would have been for the GM to go, "behind the bench." Because GM's are held accountable for the coaches they hire and can't really hide behind that, "he's the GM not the coach." No one buys that.

Now I just have to find that Calvin avatar - though in my house I'm more like his clueless Dad.

Hitcho
10-14-2009, 03:35 PM
^ agreed, but i think we should take it as read that Mo has been looking for a permanent head coach since Carver left. if not that quickly then at least for the last couple of months. while the season is in progress he's probably limited to discrete enquiries (no point openly pissing off other GM's when there's no chance of gettign your man mid-season) but once the MLS Cup final is out of the way, I'm hoping he will aggressively target his man, ideally Stevie Nicol, and ideally with Nicol pressing to be released to join us.

jloome
10-14-2009, 04:05 PM
^ agreed, but i think we should take it as read that Mo has been looking for a permanent head coach since Carver left. if not that quickly then at least for the last couple of months. while the season is in progress he's probably limited to discrete enquiries (no point openly pissing off other GM's when there's no chance of gettign your man mid-season) but once the MLS Cup final is out of the way, I'm hoping he will aggressively target his man, ideally Stevie Nicol, and ideally with Nicol pressing to be released to join us.

Love to have him, can't see any indication anywhere that he'd leave or that Toronto would be a destination he'd choose. Money talks though, I suppose. Still, contracts are tough in MLS and he has two years left on his.

Still think John Spencer or Paul Mariner would be more likely, as both have had success as assistants (and Spencer coached the reserve team) in MLS.

Ossington Mental Youth
10-14-2009, 08:51 PM
Mariner looks bound for a league 1 team if im not mistaken which leaves us with Spencer. What are the chances that Spencer would join us?

Bobo
10-16-2009, 09:23 AM
Good read but I disagree about DeRo. I think anyone will agree that he tries to do too much himself at times but IMO you're mistaking ego with heart and determination. He's a competitor, the guy's won the championship four times (finals MVP twice) and hasn't even missed the playoffs yet. He puts in 110% game in game out, more than anyone else. You can't fault him for trying to put the team on his shoulders. He's not a world class player, this is MLS, a crap league where even the better players take horrible shots and can't dribble properly. If DeRo had this huge ego then after a season like this he'd be making more noise than he is. In fact, he always seems to say the right things.