I watched their recent SKC match very carefully, and, first of all, what a good, good match. Second of all, it appears to me that MI make the 1 striker formation work better than it's worked in MLS for years, maybe since Mamadou Diallo and Carlos Valderrama combined so brilliantly. The player movement is of a different level from the rest of the league. The mids make great runs and take advantage of the space the 1 striker formation gives them. Most every MLS team that runs 1 striker is either parking the bus, or counting on that striker to hold up the ball. IMO.
The standings would tend to agree. It's not about how many changes he's made, it should be about getting the important ones right.
Is there a way to un-eat crow if they complete their pretty amazing collapse? 9 wins in the first 14 games. 4 wins in the next 18 games. On the brink of missing the playoffs (though they still have a good shot at the playoffs).
It has been pretty sad to see them fall apart in regular season and CCL after an amazing start to both.
2nd year team y'all, and progression over the first. The real disappointment will be if they indeed miss the playoffs. Otherwise, if they get in to the post season anything can happen.
unless all the 30+ yr old geriatrics get a steroid shot to last the playoffs, I don't see much. Montreal looks out of gas. I blame CCL, which always takes more out of MLS teams than people like to admit
That's the other problem with the team, they struggled due to a lack of depth and tired old legs, that's not going to get better next year with out more big changes... going to be a struggle again.
One of those geriatrics, is tied for the league lead in scoring (don't know what that says about MLS), and they're not the problem. I think this team did a poor job of using the full squad. Besides, what do you know about playoffs?
http://www.goal.com/en-ca/news/4175...-winning-the-only-option-for-new-impact-coach This is the real problem. It's hard to blame Schallibaum for repeatedly going back to his veteran players, because at the end of the day, if this team doesn't make the playoffs ... He's gone.
For your sake I hope they make it. If they fire him and start over, its beginning to look a lot like TFC.
that's the problem. the old geriatrics are overused and tired. The young defenders actually did well enough, but lack of depth in other positions is killing Mtl, esp not having another striker who can score other than di Vaio. Montreal has done a poor job of developing Wenger not much. rumours say it's a nice place to visit
and why I dislike meddling Italian owner syndrome. Joey Saputo is a pretty smart guy but I don't think anyone thinks he's qualified to run a soccer club
20 years would say otherwise. And we're crapping on a team, who despite the regression, still has a chance to make the playoffs.
The latest troubles with the club steams from Joe Saputo's meddling and tinkering with the lineup, players and the staff don't have the balls to say it's so.. But they all come out in the wash sooner or later.
Note: I realize that I'm responding to a months old post. This seems like some weird reverse-revisionist history. While I was totally on board with the Red Bulls changing coaches this year, Backe inherited a total shit-pile of a team, instantly brought us back to respectability, and made the playoffs in every year of his tenure. Most fanbases would kill for that. If we didn't have 1-2 players play the worst games of their career or openly sabotage the team (Rafa Marquez) we probably would have gone farther in the playoffs. You can't call his tenure a failure with a straight face.
It wasn't by choice. Injuries to Brovsky, Bernier, Nesta and Mapp and suspensions to Arnaud and Ferrari didn't leave him with much choice. Despite all that, last night's performance was still an improvement over the NE game last Saturday.
If that's the case, I guess he must have suddenly lost his touch, cause he was top of the table a month ago. At the end of the day Saputo wants to win, and I'd take that any day of the week over an ownership group that doesn't care, and a fan base that doesn't have the balls to do anything about it.
Perkins has played every MLS league game this season, and Martins just needs to get his act together. There's also a Do or Die game this Saturday (3rd in 8 days) I suspect both will be in the lineup. If Schallibaum would have used similar rotations through out the season, they might have had fresher legs going into this last stretch.
He's a goalie, they should play every game unless they are injuried. Sounds like our coach Either way it helped us out, so three teams with 46pts with two games left each.
I hear people saying that there wasn't a good player rotation to keep key guys fresh. I'm not very familiar with Montreal, but I am with Portland. When Porter took over he talked about being concerned with getting a proper rotation going and lasting a full 34 game season. He's done remarkably well with that--most players have gotten games off here and there, and not just due to suspensions and injuries (and there have been quite a few). I'm not writing this post to talk shit, not at all. Could any Impact fans elaborate on whether they think there could have been more rotation? What's the bench like, and depth beyond the game-day 18? Are there players that have gotten very little playing time that you think should have been given more opportunities? As a reference (and it's obvious to folks who follow Portland), the Timbers had a rough stretch in the second third of the season, mostly due to injuries and suspensions that piled up. That said, Porter has done a good job all season of resting players (to the consternation of fans like myself at times), and it seems to be really paying off now, when it really counts. Now we have a long list of guys who've played together in many competitive matches and can be inserted comfortably as needed. Montreal really was unbeatable at the beginning of the season, and it was no fluke.