It's actually kind of sad watching what has happened to Bono over the past 2 months. We are all witnessing him self destruct with his professional career in all likelihood coming to end. By all accounts he is a nice guy and well liked by his team.
It's actually kind of sad watching what has happened to Bono over the past 2 months. We are all witnessing him self destruct with his professional career in all likelihood coming to end. By all accounts he is a nice guy and well liked by his team.
LOL
Maybe, maybe not?
A lot of players have dreams to play in Europe/experience the lifestyle, so might be worth the paycut.
The again, they'd be getting an international player who has a few years left. If they only expect 2-3 years, it's not a crazy idea.
Means sale for the current one!
Maybe they'll bring back the long sleeved? (one can dream!)
They should get Herdman to talk to the guy. Look what he did for the CMNT with sport psychology.
Bob Bradley should be forced to choose either Player Management or Coach, after this year hes showing hes not good enough for both
I still think they thought a trade for one of Bono or Westberg was all but done & thus brought in Rajitsingh.
If Conway is still around next season....
Read over all the comments hating on BB. I get it we all want to make the playoffs but this was a rebuild that was so overdue. I don’t believe that a Curtin or Nancy could walk in and just change this team into a playoff contender. At the end of the day they still have the same personnel who are the ones that control what happens on the field.
I would like us to use more crosses into the box as an alternative to just having either Insigne or Berna cut in. Laryea has been far less effective on the offensive side the last number of games for instance and we need more of those crosses and runs.
Bono’s definitely done at TFC at the end of this year. Wish he could’ve performed better but as BB said this last stretch has simply not been good enough. There will be another major overhaul this off-season, at least that’s what it looks like.
Yup, I think this is it for this season. Just hope we can get a good keeper and a cb for the next season. Another good cdm would be good as well, but I'm glad we'll start from day one with the Italians.
Don't think Curtin or Nancy would get rid of the only FBs(Auro and Lawrence) on the team. Just those 2 alone would have probably kept the team in a playoff spot. Instead BB was forcing players to play out of position instead of adapting to his players. Like right now, the team is probably better off with 2 up top to spread the D and give the wingers/FBs space. Instead he throws out Nelson to cover no man's land and provide no pressing pressure at all.
Insane to even suggest a coaching change and starting again.
The reason Philly and mtl are good now is stability over a number of years, being able to build.
If curtins first couple years happened here people would have been calling for his head.
As it is we are probably halfway through a rebuild and gave the core of a very good team.
They'll add a DP striker, goalkeeper, a couple CBs and midfield depth in the offseason and we'll be cooking.
Trust the process.
Curtin is in his 8th full season, 9th overall...missed playoffs in 2-3 of those, has one supporters shield, never won mls cup or even got to the final and never won the open cup
Nancy is in his second season and missed playoffs last year
A perfect night for a match… but man that was difficult to watch. The start was misleading though. We had a lousy midfield, a stone cold striker and a fantastically incompetent keeper. And that was before the problems at centre-half.
Don’t think coaching would fix that. I’m going to wait to judge until Bradley sporting director has supplied Bradley manager with his players. Unless he doesn’t (which is possible). But Oso, Kaye and M. Bradley in the midfield are a prerequisite to doing well. I don’t see B. Bradley’s teams doing much in the end without an adequate midfield.
No one in that lineup was playing out of position. For the second match in a row our midfield had nowhere near enough quality. Don’t think there were other midfield options. Looked like it was stretching it to play MAK even as much as 45.
Okay, maybe I was wrong - Bono was playing out of position. His position should be in the stands, preferably behind a pillar.
Agree, I thought I am the only one who was thinking of this. But I doubt BB will do this, he will never change his 4-3-3 formation no matter what the result is.
I don’t like how he’s so inflexible with his tactics and formations. He is literally just copy and pasting his player selections and subs every single game. Other coaches are reading BB’s game plans like a book now.
Also in regards to Nelson’s poor defensive pressure….on Montreal’s 2nd goal, TFC managed to clear the ball upfield from a corner. Nelson was next to Johnston upfield, but Johnston reacted first to the clearance while Nelson started jogging back 1 second after Johnston started running for the loose ball. I am not even going to start talking about his lack of defensive positioning and awareness every game at midfield because he’s being played out of position.
Some questions needs to be asked.
- why is Bono still in goal after the NE game?
- why is akinola still starting over JJ? That left foot miss when we were still at 2-2, JJ would’ve scored that.
- when we’re 2-0 up, why didn’t BB tell okello to support MB more defensively, since he’s being a pylon anyway might as well do it at the back; and switch Insigne to CM and Nelson to LW?
- why sub off Crisito if he’s not going to use this opportunity to play 3-4-3, we were already down 2-4? If JJ started, Ayo could’ve been our 2nd striker if we switched to a 3-5-2. (Not like BB will switch formations but I think it would’ve been more ideal)
Both don't have the highest payroll in the league. And we are missing the playoffs now the third time in 5 years. Are people willing to give him another year to miss another one?
We threw away the playoffs at the start getting rid of Lawrence and Auro and literally playing kids who never played defender, and lots of points lost as a result. Bob's idiotic decision to dump them without replacements. His arrogance to think it would work. We then dropped more points letting go of Poz before a replacement was found. Not ony did it hurt us, he recharged Miami and also helped beat us in a 6 pointer. He also continues to stubbornly and arrognantly keep putting Bono back in the net, blunder after howler. These goals given up are completely inexcusable. Directly cost us at least 10 points just in recent games...and if you include that New England at home and Miami were 6 pointers, its even worse.
Put it this way also, if Nancy coaches us last night with our players, and BB Montreal with theirs, we win. Tactically BB is clueless. Inflexible, can't adapt in game. Game after game gets outcoached. And stubbornly thinks going with the same players like Akinola, Nelson, Thompson/Okello and Bono will magically work finally. It won't. Ever.
PS what exactly does the keeper coach Conway do? Surely he has to be fired, because whatever he is doing is the definition of an incompetent "coach". Fire his .ass this morning. Enough.
Last edited by Hala Hrvatska; 09-05-2022 at 07:16 AM.
I’m going to disagree with you here. He’s played better as a midfielder shuttling the ball and popping up between the lines than he has as a winger. I think that’s actually where his future will be as a player.
The issue is, he’s too inexperienced to be anchored next to Okello and a past prime Bradley. At the very least, you play one of Okello or Nelson, you’d never play both. But it’s inexcusable that we don’t have a cheap, experienced midfielder on the roster right now. It’s been incredibly obvious we’ve needed one all season.
Bono is done.
I'm not going to pass judgement on Bradley Sr. until he has a full season under his belt with an adequate goalkeeper in place.
Bob truly committed to his vision and a group of guys, the young players, Bono, and gambled the season on it. He lost the gamble because, I think, the league tipped forward this year. There have always been teams that “successfully” did what TFC did - numerous versions of Dallas come to mind. But you can’t do it anymore. Everybody has proven talent, depth and youth now. One of the three ain’t enough.
"There are some people who might have better technique than me, and some may be fitter than me, but the main thing is tactics. With most players, tactics are missing. You can divide tactics into insight, trust, and daring." - Johan Cruyff
Yeah. I question the readiness of our youth players though.
I look at what other teams have on offer and their academy players look more polished and ready to play on day 1 than ours do. That’s not to say there aren’t mistakes across the board but our guys look seriously naive and unprepared.
Why hasn’t someone told Nelson you can’t jog on defence? I’d give him the ultimatum to fix it or sit. Not a talent thing, just awareness or effort.
Well said. Its that arrogance of BB again to try and shoehorn players into spots that won't work. Or put a bunch on at the same time, its not going to work.
Last game, Nelson/Bradley/Thompson in midfield with Akinola striker.
Last night, Nelson/Bradley/Okello with Akinola striker.
And quite predictably we get absolutely run over in the midfield again. Sliced and diced easily. And can't get control up top. There most certainly is not a worse starting midfield 3 than those guys in all of mls. Other teams have injuries, players out, rested etc and will never have as bad a midfield trio as that.
And then it all falls apart forcing Berna and Fede to try and have to beat 3 guys surrounding them time after time.
Am still wondering what exactly is BB's plan if Mike were to get hurt? We never try anyone in that spot.
The Italians and Layrea are quality pieces. Oso is okay. Kaye the jury is out, I get he was rusty, but man, that header miss from cross put on a platter by Fede was brutal...missed the net by about 10 yards...so we have 6 quality pieces on a roster of what 22? Imagine Fede or Insigne get hurt though...
One area that needs a makeover is scouting, which is abysmal. Signing Italian NT players on DP contracts is a no Brainer. What TFC hasn't been able to do in recent years is sign quality foreign players on relatively inexpensive contracts I.e. Victor Vasquez.
There are MLS quality players in Central and Eastern Europe playing on relatively low contracts that TFC should pursue. Portland's keeper Ivacic is only on $248K per season, less than half Bono's salary. Petrovic from NER, who stoned TFC twice, is only on $225K. Instead we sign garbage like Erickson Gallardo. Which scout recommended that signing? Did anyone from TFC ever even watch him play?
What has hurt TFC more than anything else is our inability to round out our roster with starting quality players on relatively low contracts.
Last edited by NK Toronto; 09-05-2022 at 08:33 AM.
Spot on brate. Central and Eastern Europe is loaded with players who could come here at a fraction of the cost and are much better, and are hungry.
For keeper comparisons, Bono is on over $525k US...which is over $650K CDN. Great for him at least. For us, not so much.....
Last edited by Hala Hrvatska; 09-05-2022 at 08:59 AM.
Whoever signed Bono to a 5 year contract should be exiled to Columbus.