Well, thank god for Taylor this morning.
Needing help in the back aside, it has been a brutal schedule and something had to give. Playing every 3-4 days for almost a month now....that's just too much with a small squad.
Dom
Last edited by Eastend; 07-09-2012 at 06:30 AM.
Dom,I don't think we have small squad.what we have is a coach who does not rotate his players at all,same starting 11 in 23 days and 7 games does not work.we have players on the bench that can play if for no other reasons than to give a rest to our burned off starters.
Henry,JDG,Soolsma,Silva,Harden,Aceval,Stinson,Wili ams, are decent enough for rotation every now and then.
Season is over,give youth a chance,riding old horses all the time does not help when you have such crowded schedule.
And if season is over, it begs the question as to why completely abandon the vision you were implementing (using the term you lightly meaning Kilinsmann told them to implement since they werent coming up with it on their own)?
The answer of course was to demonstrate immediate improvement in order to sell tickets based on hope. Being out possessed in all 7 games, out shot in 6 of 7, and stringing together less passes.... Not to mention being further back from the last playoff spot than we were when we started... Getting just 7 of a possible 21 points... Having a starting record worse than Preki and worse than Winter's May and 2011 4 month end of season... And that decision resulting in Plata leaving.... Yeah, I'm not seeing the short term improvement.
And while the executive continue to let the team flounder with in fighting and lack of vision and resources and they keep asking me to pay double what other MLS fans pay to see better, more well run organizations, they won't be seeing my money either.
So the media appear to have given up on the team as well. Each of the articles written by media above are copies of the same article written for Canadian Press. The wording is the same, just the headlines are different.
One more loss or tie, and Mariner will have had a worse start than Preki.
What more can you say?The score line after the opening half was 2-0. It could well have been 8-0.
MLS is a tough, physical league, that emphasizes speed, and features plastic fields, grueling travel, extreme weather, and incompetent refs. - NK Toronto
If you didn't have enough reasons to hate this FO:
http://www.sportsnet.ca/soccer/2012/...LS%20all-starsNEW YORK -- There will be some Canadian content at the MLS all-star game.
The league announced Sunday that D.C. United midfielder and Toronto native Dwayne De Rosario as well as Vancouver Whitecaps captain and central defender Jay DeMerit will be part of the squad taking on English Premier League team Chelsea on July 25 in Chester, Penn.
De Rosario, the 2011 MLS MVP and Golden Boot winner, finished last season with 16 goals and 12 assists.
So far this year, he has five goals and a league-leading 10 assists while helping D.C. United achieve first place in the Eastern Conference with a 10-5-3 record.
MLS is a tough, physical league, that emphasizes speed, and features plastic fields, grueling travel, extreme weather, and incompetent refs. - NK Toronto
lest we forget, mariner's "minor tweaks" to the formation. a 4-4-2 hoof instead of a possession based 4-3-3. oh yeah, minor tweaks.
honestly, i get that we're in a rough run of the schedule, but starting the same 11 for the past 3 games, including 2 away games in the course of a week.. what the fuck? people were on winter about being tactically inflexible? we're playing the same 11 with HOOF BALL. our defenders have more ground to cover, and our attackers have to book it up the pitch.
oh, and if anyone ever wants a kick in the stats-nuts:
456 Total Pass 264 86% Passing Accuracy % 71%
the team launches almost 200 passes more than we do and maintains 15% better accuracy. well done reds!
Last edited by Oldtimer; 07-09-2012 at 09:05 AM.
MLS is a tough, physical league, that emphasizes speed, and features plastic fields, grueling travel, extreme weather, and incompetent refs. - NK Toronto
"Thank god for Taylor."
Any bets on when Jimmy B gets handed the job ?
We’ve tried nothin’ and we’re all out of ideas.
a ha ha heh he hoo.. ha
When I was watching this game I saw the team playing more like this:
------------------Kocic------------------
Hall----Eckersley--------Emory----Morgan
------Dunfield------------Frings----------
-----------------Avila--------------------
Lambe----------------------------Johnson
---------------Koevermans---------------
In the previous games we were in a 4-4-2, with one winger:
------------------Kocic-------------------
Hall----Eckersley--------Emory-----Morgan
------------------------------------------
-----Dunfield-----Frings----DeGuzman-----
Lambe------------------------------------
---------Koevermans---Johnson-----------
The point I wanna make is that the previous games the looked pretty decent because the hoof ball reached Johnson and Koevermans, Dunfield wasnt left to do more than his abilities and deguzman covered for Morgan. Our midfield wasnt so far back that it would be non existant. The 4-2-3-1 never worked with Deguzman and Frings as the holding midfielders so why would it work now with Dunfield and Frings?
I'm thinking that with some of the tired legs, Brennan might soon get promoted to Stength and Conditioning Coach. Either that or Team Doctor.
The Carver debacle was really the turning point with the franchise. That's when we should have realized there was really no one in charge. Look, for all of Mo's faults he was really just an inexperienced guy in way over his head, trying to do a job he should never have been given. For all the talk of a five-year plan there was clearly no "plan" there was just scrambling and the belief that if you just keep going in this league any team can make the playoffs in five years (has anyone coached a team for three years and not made the playoffs?).
If Carver had stayed, even with Mo as a GM, the team would probably have at least made the playoffs. But what happened with Carver (and Dichio and DeRo and so many others) should have tipped us off a lot sooner that the problems with this team started at the very top.
“What the world needs is more geniuses with humility; there are so few of us left.”
LOL ... guess Plata grew a few inches and looks a lot like... JDG
http://www.thestar.com/sports/soccer...on-in-3-0-loss
Yong Kim/AP Toronto FC's Joao Plata, left, kicks the ball against Philadelphia Union's Brian Carroll during the second half of their MLS soccer game in Chester, Pa., on Sunday.
A lot of people on here were saying that Winter was changing the starting 11 too much earlier in the season. Now its "we are keeping the same starting 11 too much". Fans need to be a little more consistent with the complaints sometimes!
It would take a BRAVE manager to change a starting 11 that is unbeaten 5 games in a row! In hindsight, we are all fantastic football managers, but if I were TFC manager, 5 games unbeaten, I wouldn't want to change the starting 11!
I really thought Mo was the problem.
However, I should have looked a bit higher than Mo.
It's totally consistent. We lack someone who has the sense to pilot a middle ground. For another problem area, under Winter, TFC was too technical, under Mariner, not technical enough. It's just bad coaching, period. All the talk of "courage" doesn't paper over Mariner's severe shortcomings.
Last edited by Oldtimer; 07-09-2012 at 10:24 AM.
MLS is a tough, physical league, that emphasizes speed, and features plastic fields, grueling travel, extreme weather, and incompetent refs. - NK Toronto
If you were TFC head coach, and you were unbeaten in 5 games, and you said to your players "how do you feel?" and they all said "good to go" (as they were confident after playing well) - would you keep that starting 11, or change them, even though you are unbeaten?
I'd be extremely hard pressed to change that starting 11, personally.
Anybody like to argue otehrwise (bearing in mind that hindsight is a wonderful thing right now and its easy to answer "yes I would change the team" knowing the result).
I fear that whatever happens to any TFC manager right now, that it would always be the "wrong decision" for many fans. I don't think TFC is a win-win situation right now, unless we got Sir Alex and we went on a 50 game unbeaten run! I'm sure some people would still consider that a "change in direction" (Sir Alex often players 4-4-2, even though its beautiful to watch)!
No, you are using skewed stats to defend Mariner. You can call it unbeaten in 5 or 1 win in 6 matches and has blown two goal leads twice. And add to that the amount games and travel in the past month you can't help but wonder why there hasn't been any changes made.
So would it take a BRAVE manager to change up the staring XI with all of this kept in mind?
thought I'd re-post this .....
Fake Diary of Mo Johnston - afternoon of October 15, 2010You all hated me. Like I am some kind of evil goblin or the like.
Aye I’m nobody’s pal. I played rough with the players. I was a cheapskate for the bosses, it’s up to the bosses to decide if they want to be toss a few more of their coins around. Of course these bosses never stepped up.
Some of the players are still crying. Hurling stones at me because I didn’t pay for coaching lessons. Christ what a bunch of numpties. I’ll remember. I didn’t win, so I had to go, but I’ll be back somewhere– getting canned by MLSE is an endorsement of your character.
In the meantime, I’ve got a few other scores to settle. The bosses actually said: “Preki broke up a team that was close to getting there, and Mo let him do it”. You can bet I’ll have something to say about that. I’m the one who thought we were close, but I got ripped when I said so. The bosses didn’t back me up and forced Preki down my throat. I warned them about him, but it didn’t matter. They gave him the keys, let him bring in his guys. Everybody loved it. For a few weeks anyway.
Then this stuff they’re doing with the fans: “we’re sorry, but not really”…“we’re hiring consultants to advise us on the consultants”…there is a god, because they're letting people see what life is like behind closed doors.
So what d’ya think now? Now that you all get to see for yourselves. What I protected you from. Every day.
“What the world needs is more geniuses with humility; there are so few of us left.”
And I'm equally as sure if he DID change the starting 11, and we lost, then all you guys would be saying "why the hell did he change an unbeaten starting 11". You see how this is a no win situation?
As I said, its VERY easy to criticise the starting 11 selection in hindsight.
Having coached and been involved with teams in this position, the answer is yes, I would change things up. As stated in another thread, there are a few players that are not playing particularly consistantly. We've already seen rotation (of sorts) on the back line - mainly to try and find a solid starting 4. Core players would stay in - Frings, Danny K, Ecks, Morgan, Kocic, Johnson. Others can rotate in. JDG/Dunfield. Lambe/Avila/Soolsma/Silva. Hall/Henry/Williams/Emory on the back line. There are also others - Maund and Stinson are capable of taking up the slack in the midfield in a pinch. Our weakest area is up front, with nothing comparable to throw up there, and those are spots that should be subbed off after 60-75 minutes. Maybe a Silva or Soolsma can slot in up front in a pinch, even if only as a sub.
Recognize that not all positions are equal. These guys (the coaching staff) have information about the distances each runs in a game and their frequentcy of touches. My guess would be top in that category might be the attacking mids, followed closely by the fullbacks. Mariner is already doing some of this (managing positions) with his subs, why not take it a step further. Had he done this with Plata, who knows? Maybe he'd still be here!
There is an issue with the roster size, and this is something to consider. We need a 30 man roster at a higher cap to be effective with fixture congestion as we've seen. But everyone in the league faces the same congestion, maybe not quite as much as us, but not that far off.
Forget about hindsight. That is just good football (and roster) management.