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Posted by
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September 1, 2014 |
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Aaron Nielsen
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@ENBSports
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Like many, I've not been happy with the recent form of TFC and wanted them to be in first place in the East like I had predicted at the beginning of the season. I was very open minded about the potential Ryan Nelsen had as a coach and respected his experience as a player. As he even said in his last press conference, "I won this league, played in it for four years, been in the Premier League for 10 years, been in a World Cup, Olympics, and played in some pretty high-pressure games." Although running off this CV is where we didn't see things eye to eye.
His main responsibility in the Premier League was survival, which earned great him wealth as a soccer player being a very valuable commodity at Blackburn Rovers. This allowed him a move to Tottenham Hotspurs where he played five league games as a back up, but also led him to a move to Queens Park Rangers. They reportedly paid him $5 million dollars a year and is the same QPR who are now in Toronto newspapers about paying $11 Million dollars for Jermain Defoe.
His national team experience was with New Zealand, who spend their time either beating up on small islands in Oceania, where most likely Nelsen wasn't even called in to play unless it was a critical fixture, or played nine men behind the ball against more formidable national teams trying not to lose 5-0. All worthwhile accomplishments, especially coaching in a club and country who is looking for any type of success of their own. As well, where he has had legitimate success is in MLS, winning the 2004 MLS Cup with DC United where the club finished with 11 wins, 10 losses and 9 draws in the season and went on to win four playoff games in row for the title.
In a league full of parity, where the last two league champions were Sporting KC who had a regular season record of 17-10-7 and LA Galaxy who were 16-12-6, these are records in Europe that would not even guarantee a team a Europa League position. In many ways Nelsen could be right; that they just needed a couple wins for the playoffs and could have made this season finish as everyone hoped. Before the firing, which completely blindsided most, Nelsen mentioned the game against New England didn't matter, the club should forget it and stay the course. This made me think how many die-hard TFC fans have told me on numerous occasions that the goal is to make the playoffs and we will be happy about this season.
Statistically the club are still projected to make the playoffs, with odds being in the 70% range. In many cases this season where TFC tied or lost a lead, or played poorly, my point of view is MLS is a long season and even the best teams do the same.
However, I applaud the move, as it showed me what I think all clubs should be run by, and that is not accepting mediocrity. As the past two seasons have played out, this included Nelsen as well.
I'll be interested to see if Nelsen can get another comparable head coaching role, and if he does how he will fare. For me, without knowing the man personally, in my opinion he coached scared and had no relationship to any analytical or tactical awareness. His undying commitment to 4-4-2, which is a bit ironic as most press outlets say his formation on Saturday was a 4-2-3-1, is fine if you have the players who fit that formation. It doesn't work well in teams who utilize wingers, which there are abundant in MLS or with full/wing backs who are more known for their speed and dribbling than their defensive abilities.
In 2013 the club was always in an upwards struggle with a poor draft, signing players who then quit by the time the season started, injuries, a team that just wasn't good enough and arguably the season was over by June. Yet as the summer and fall months passed, Nelsen kept to his guns with formation and players he preferred to use. Which meant at some points of the season(s) the likes of Richard Eckersley, Stefan Frei and Bright Dike were healthy and remained on the sidelines. As well, with the season already over did very little experimenting, so arguably only Jonathan Osario and Joe Bendik grew in value, which meant question marks remained regarding other players' quality going into this season.
In the off-season I joined Ian Clarke in a Toronto FC season preview on East Side Stand Up, which was right before the Julio Cesar, Jermain Defoe and Michael Bradley moves were finalized. We foreshadowed the disappointments of this season, first talking about Cesar most likely being gone after the World Cup, that Defoe has injury concerns and Gilberto is a nice player but not the final product. We even mentioned in the long term that I saw most, if not all, of these players not lasting, as success will lead to interest elsewhere. What we did speak positively about that hasn't happen was Bradley being an attacking tool, De Rosario playing an impact role, and most importantly with this new quality of players and Lieweke as the cheerleader, a winning attitude where on paper they would be regarded as one of top team in the league and this should be reflected on the pitch.
Ryan Nelsen, despite what he regards as his past success, never invoked a winning attitude. Instead he invoked a person who knows what to do to survive in the game, especially in MLS. Part of this was sharing the blame, as he hinted that he doesn't have enough resources this season - an indirect criticism of Toronto FC GM Tim Bezbatchenko. The club had 4 goalkeepers at one point, ten defenders including Ashtone Morgan who has played one minute, eight midfielders and seven forwards if you include Quillan Roberts and Manny Aparicio in Wilmington, Ryan Richter in Ottawa and Jordan Hamilton now in Portugal.
They have the highest budget by far if you include the DP total salaries, and if you only include the DP max prices, are still the most over the cap because of the allocation money they have received from past trades. We are talking MLS here, not Chelsea or Manchester City. Toronto FC this season easily have the most resources in the league, whether the salary cap reflects the talent is another article, but Nelsen can not use this as an excuse.
What this all shows, in my opinion, is a further example of Nelsen's lack of tactical ability as a coach, however I hope he wasn't fired because of this. Instead, I hope he was fired because he hasn't reached expectations and the team was in a negative spiral. The fact is that the moves made last off-season, no matter how you see them, should have made Toronto a top contender, so the firing in my view is equivalent of any top team, in any sport, being just .500 with a quarter of the season to go.
The team fired Nelsen as they hope it will give the club the push they need to get back on track for the playoff run. At the end of the day, sports is about reaching expectations. For Ryan Nelsen the game against New England might not of been a high pressure game, but this year certainly is a high pressure season and in my opinion thankfully one with consequences.
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