Originally Posted by
notthesun
All right, game is over so let me get all my thoughts out on here. I know I will probably get a ton of flak for this, but I'll say it anyways.
In my mind, today's game should mark the end of the Bezbatchenko era. Not Vanney's.
I firmly believe the biggest reason we lost today was because Bez failed to build a structurally sound roster. I think Vanney made mistakes, but overall tried to do the best with what he had. As the guy tasked with building the team, Bez is the one that should bear responsibility for the state of the back line. Who can sit here and honestly tell me Vanney messed up horribly today? What specifically did he get terribly wrong? The formation was the one that's brought us our most success this season; hell, it had us outplaying Montreal for the first half on the weekend and competitive in the 2nd half save for those 10 awful minutes. Back line selection? Morrow is a given. Can we realistically say Zavaleta or Hagglund would have done better than Kantari and Williams? Jackson had a shocker, but who do you stick there instead? Delgado?
Besides Morrow, we've been grasping at straws all season at the back. Could Vanney have coached in a such a way that the back line would have been stronger? I don't know. Maybe. But I think the blame lies with Bez. All of that and we also don't have a midfielder that can sit in front of our CBs and provide an anchor for us to rely on (and yes, we're all thinking of a particular player of that type). That's on Bez too. And we started Robbie fucking Findley at RM today, with no player a significant upgrade on him on the bench (I definitely would have started Delgado or Warner, but it's not like that would have changed much). That's Bez, again.
We have holes everywhere in our lineup, and as a result I have a hard time believing Vanney just coached us out of the playoffs. I think this is a squad issue way before it's a coaching issue, and therefore I think the guy in charge of building the squad should get the axe, not the coach. It's one thing if we have talent pool that should be able to compete with the best but we just can't get it done. It's another thing when the talent pool isn't good enough. I look at the roster we had today and I don't feel like there's some kind of untapped potential. We certainly played below ourselves today, but our best today wouldn't have been a blowout win, it would've been a 1 goal squeaker. Our squad isn't that good. People always talk about how we underachieve, but it's always in the context of the money we spend (which is a little misplaced due to the salary cap and DP rule). On a player-for-player, pound-for-pound evaluation, I don't think we underachieved. I think this is what we are right now.
Now look at Montreal. They have quality depth spread out across their team. Two capable outside backs with an average CB and the best CB in the league. One of the most dangerous and creative midfielders in the league aided by speed on the flanks and defense-first focus in the middle. And a striker that scores nearly every chance, but just as importantly provides unseen levels of hold up play to maintain possession when things get bogged down in the middle of the pitch (seriously - Drogba's hold up play is almost unfairly good, no one else in the league comes anywhere close at all). They have a balanced roster and every midseason signing they made helped them achieve that balance. I suspect I will get hounded for this, but I don't think Biello is some revelation as their coach. Honest truth, I question what evidence there is for him being better than Klopas, or - yeah, I'm gonna say it - Vanney. He plays a simple 4-2-3-1 and his players basically pick themselves. Montreal didn't turn their season around by firing Klopas, they turned it around by signing Drogba, filling in some other pieces, and in the end creating a truly balanced roster. I guarantee you we would have made the playoffs last year if we signed Giovinco when Nelsen was fired. Absolutely guarantee it (we wouldn't have looked as good as Montreal do now because we had a host of other issues, but it would've been enough to get us into the playoffs, that I promise you).
This result proves that Bez utterly failed in building this squad, especially the midseason additions. I love the guy, but signing Gomez was idiotic. We needed a holding mid. And Bez simply signed the wrong guys on defense, and didn't address the hole at RM.
Now. With all of that being said, I'm not completely against the idea of firing Vanney. I think we could bring in someone else and still succeed. I think Bez has to go, or at least has to have zero say in personnel decisions moving forward and someone needs to be brought in for that. But I would be satisfied by keeping Vanney but hiring a new GM. I think overall this is a talent issue, not a coaching issue, and I think we should treat it that way first, and evaluate the coaching second.