Post-Game Presser CF Montreal vs Vancouver Whitecaps

Laurent Courtois

Q: In the second half, we saw a much more conquering face. A few months ago, you talked about the concept of the extra pass to put your team-mate in the right position. Isn’t this a bit of an overuse, where you’re in front of the box, you’ve got the cross to make, then you make that pass again, and then you make another pass?

LC: Yes, probably. It’s the eternal debate. It’s kind of the same speech in New York about playing forward and just losing it too quickly. So when you get to the box, do you want to connect that extra pass and when is it too much? But I think there’s that concern. There was at least that concern of settling in a little more before stuff. But yeah, like you said in one-shots, I thought there was a lack of, shall we say, intention, of just serving in the box and creating something a little chaotic and alternating a little bit between the two and not trying to be perfect all the time. I agree.

Q : Inevitably, there was a contrast between the two halves in terms of the number of shots, possession, chances created, even in the duels. How do you explain these two faces? You made a number of changes, including one at half-time with Ibrahim, but essentially, perhaps you feel that if your team had played 45 minutes for the whole match, the result might have been different.

LC: There are two scenarios, I’d like to say. There are the. There are the times when we shut off against Miami or Orlando, the two home games where we concede goals because of a bit of a lack of concentration and all that. And then there’s a slightly more chronic aspect too, where the guys pick a half. One half we start off strong and the second we melt down and or vice versa against Philly and today it’s a bit the same thing. But I’m still hopeful, I’m still hopeful that one day it’ll click and we’ll start each half the same way, and whether it’s at New York or today, if we can find a way, when we can’t put any speed into our game, we can at least stay at 0-0 on things that are still very predictable. So you’d think that when you’re at 0-0 at half-time in the last two games, positive things can happen. So when you can’t get up to speed like you’d like to, can you at least not concede so easily on actions that don’t even exist?

Q: Josef Martinez as a first-half striker, do you think he gets enough of the ball? Is he involved enough himself to receive the ball?

LC: No, he doesn’t get the shifts we’d like. He knows very well when and how to move. I keep telling you, I’m hopeful today, tomorrow, next week, in a month, in a year, we’ll see. The guys will be able to connect for two halves and not just the first or second like today, and I think he’ll be better served and he knows very well when to trigger or delay or accelerate. And his record speaks for itself. You have to be patient.

Q: You’ve had some harsh words, if you will, for Mattias Coccaro in recent weeks. How did you find his week with his goal tonight, but also his overall effort? Do you see any improvement in what you wanted to see from him?

LC: I didn’t use harsh words, and today he showed an interesting game.

Q: With all these forwards coming back from injury now we’ve seen a lot of different combinations of your front three. How close do you think you are to getting your front three that you can always go to that you know everything is working exactly as you want it?

LC: We’re getting people back from international duty or fitness. Today we thought that Ariel Lassiter coming back more or less fresh from these last couple of weeks and with a good rhythm would provide us some pace and some versatility up top and we were curious about the association with the Dominik Yankov and Martinez, and not only Yankov couldn’t find a real rhythm but like we said in the first half everyone was a kind of force rhythm and the first half. Maybe Yankov plays the second half, and some interesting scenarios show up, so it’s frustrating. We have a couple of guys that are both coming back, and we know they have skills. But also, we did we didn’t take every opportunity we had.

Q: Victor Wanyama is back as a starter. What did you think of his performance?

LC: Victor brings his maturity, let’s say, in the way he handles the opposition and so on. Now, I know he’s also paying a bit of a price for the fact that I don’t give him much time and continuity. So it’s not easy when there are players who have had several matches to test themselves, and to get into a rhythm, and it’s not easy for Victor, with what I do to him, which is to go in and out like that, and I found that he showed some interesting things and on others a little more in difficulty. Well, it’s not easy. In any case, I found a lot of effort, like this week in training. He set a different pace in his efforts and counter-efforts and intentions. So I’m pleased with his performance.

Q: Matias Coccaro’s reaction after his goal was very emotional. He brought all his passion to bear, and it’s important to see how a player like Coccaro can be a success for the club.

LC: Yeah, we all want to see our players succeed, so we all want to see them exploit their full potential. But you’ve got to work hard every day. You have to work, you have to give, you have to persevere. And tonight, we saw something interesting. And there you go, it was time.

Q: I’m sorry, because I’m still insisting on the first half, but the distance we see between the midfielders and the front three? Is this a desired distance? And to bridge it, is it a job for the front three to come back and pick up the ball or for the midfielders to pass or progress? Still, there’s a space that doesn’t seem to be so busy. What’s your take on that?

LC: We tried to put in place something that we didn’t recognize ourselves or try to, that is to say, of ourselves, to shift. Because they weren’t going for the ball very high up, but they were very compact and very aggressive in their block. And we wanted to either stretch our back three a bit more or find moments to try and transform ourselves into a false back four to try and create a bit of a double box between the lines, and we never succeeded in our backline in the first half, in trying to create a bit of a shift to bring a numerical superiority between the lines. And to answer your question, there’s probably also a question of distance between the midfielders and the front three. In the second half, as soon as the back three stretched out a little more, we found that our passing angles were a little more interesting. And then, as soon as we switched to a back four with some inside play, it started to look interesting to exploit the deep wingbacks a little, but we couldn’t connect the crosses.

George Campbell

Q: At halftime to kind of hash that up and make any adjustments

GC: I think we just needed to be closer when we pressed and me personally stay a little bit wider, that was the game plan to make sure I can stay on Fafa Picault and Lassi Lappalainen can stay more in the middle. But in the end, I think we just need to press better as a collective. All 11 players on the pitch, including myself.

Q: All right, George, I’m just curious. I feel you’re more involved in the offense maybe in the last few weeks. Am I mistaken?

GC: Its more just reading the game and knowing when I do go forward, I know I’m going forward because I can make an impact, not just to go forward and waste energy. So also comes with the gaining fitness as well. And you know, I think the coach at times gives me the license to go forward. But sometimes it’s tactics, sometimes it’s me just feeling the game. You know, it just it depends on game to game.

Q: This is still relatively new, you and Lassi on that right side, you’re more familiar with Ruan. But we also saw Lassi inverted, which is something we haven’t seen from a wingback in a while. How did that discussion go in the build up to the game today? How do you think that went? And also can you talk a bit about your partnership with Lassi and how that’s grown?

GC: Yeah, like I said before, it’s kind of part of the game plan today to keep Lassi inside, partly for the press. Obviously the press might change game to game. So obviously I don’t know exactly what the coach has in mind every game that might change whether he’s on the inverted or not. But yeah, I mean, Lassi is a good player and he’s coming back from injury from before. So obviously he has to gain fitness as well. And you know Ruan is also a good player. So yeah it’s just you know two different players. Ruan is a little more run in behind and Lassi sometimes comes inside and more defeat. So yeah, I mean I like playing with both of them.

Q: George, it seems to be kind of a recurring theme for you guys to have one good half and one bad half. How do you explain this and how do you think you guys can fix this going forward and be more consistent?

GC: Yeah, I just think we need to, as a collective kind of drill it in our heads that we need to be on top of the other team right away and not wait until we’re down a goal or wait until halftime, or we just need to start the game on fire right away. But it starts with me. It starts with the keeper. It starts with the coach. It starts with everyone. All 11 players on the field and the bench. So, it’s just a collective from all of us. We just need to have a little more fire in us from the start. And like that, we can be better in this.

Fernando Alvarez

Q:. Can you explain your big save in the game? Do you think at this moment your mindset change of your teammates?

FA: Well, every game, I’m trying to be full focused. It’s the last thing that I can do. Try to help my teammates, the team, the club, the fans. I think it’s my first job to defend. So it’s at least I need to do this. But yeah, I will change this save for a win. I think the team deserved the win. We were fighting a lot, but we need to fight more. We’re not fighting enough. We need to be really strong on our home. And then from there, keep pushing on the away games. But, yeah, we need to be more focused and, you know, don’t concede and score the chances that we have. But this is soccer So it’s like this.

Q: Hi Fernando, In the second half you see all the offensive players in front of you. What’s your mindset as a defenseman? Do you push forward and continue to push forward?

FA: Yeah, we change our shape to a back four. So it was to try to give our best on the offensive part. I think we get the chances we need to be better. We need to create more. But the team was with this desire to win. I think that’s the best thing of today, the desire of the team. But I mean, we need to win these games. We were playing better than, than the other team, but it’s not enough. We need to score, and we need to keep the clean sheet. So again, tomorrow we start working for the next game. And everyday work and talk less and work more. That’s the thing that we can do.

Q: With Joel Waterman gone, we’ve seen you in the middle and left side of the center back three. We’ve seen you a bit of both. Where do you think that you maybe play best? And what’s it like adapting to playing in the middle where I’m sure there’s more responsibility?

FA: I mean, in the middle, you have like the biggest responsibility, but I don’t know what I’m going to play next game. Maybe I will be in the bench. I will always try to do my best. I always try to push, to help my teammates, to give my best face and the defensive part and the offensive part. But yeah, today I was playing as a right center back. I’m used to play on the left as a left center back, but I don’t know if tomorrow I’m going to play as a forward. I need to play whatever the coach wants. He’s trusting me, so it’s the least that I can do is to fight at every moment of the game.

Q: Just to bounce off one of your previous answers, George was telling us earlier that he feels like sometimes the team’s lacks fire to start the game properly. What do you feel is going to take for you guys to play a consistent 90 minutes effort game in and game out instead of those one good half, one bad half that we see too often?

FA: Yeah I think the, the results of the last games don’t, don’t help this like this moments for us on the, on the game. I know we want to win the game but we don’t want to lose. So we’re trying to get this confidence that we need. But yeah, we need to be sharp on every moment of the game. Yes, we need to manage better because you cannot run the 90 minutes and you cannot be walking the 90 minutes. So you have to be smart. But yeah, I think we need to talk with the teammates, with a coach. How to manage the moments. Here, obviously at home because yeah, I know the fans want us like to score ten goals, eight goals, but we need to be smart and yeah, at least to be fully focused every the 95 97 minutes of the game. But yeah we need to be more sharp on the offensive part and on every minute of the game.