It’s so hard for me to know where to start my analysis with this game. When I think of the fact that we managed to come back twice in the game vs New York Red Bulls at the Red Bull Arena and finish with a tie, I feel like I should feel more happiness and excitement about the next few games, no? But why is that right now I have more questions about this team? What does Laurent Courtois want to see on the field? Are the players understanding it? Is the team split as to who agrees and disagrees with the scheme chosen by their coach? These are the kind of questions that come to mind when you’ve finished two games, one on the road and the other at home, with a one-man advantage due to a red card. Again, there are a million and one question in my head that are unanswered, but I won’t waste your time with all those silly questions. Both club President Gabriel Gervais and Courtois have said that they are looking to take advantage of the current transfer window to ship off those that have “not bought into the project”. Are the recent performances a display of the “divergence” that Gervais outlined as the reason for ending their relationship with Olivier Renard?
Moving on, the Red Bulls came into this game having won one of their last five games with two away games at Colorado and Philadelphia, both ending in ties. New York was surely looking to use this opportunity to rebound and earn a win in front of their home crowd. But as mother nature would have it, the game had a rain delay at halftime that lasted more than an hour. Down 1-0, CF Montreal took the opportunity to gather their thoughts and came out stronger in the second half, scoring two goal to finish the game 2-2 with a man advantage. Again, normally, this would be something to celebrate and feel happy for most fans, but why do I feel like it only deserves a: YAY?
The game was once again something we’ve grown accustomed to seeing the past two months: a game of two halves. But it’s not just a little difference. It’s a completely different team that comes back after the break. Courtois has repeatedly said he is trying to find the right formula to make the team perform at their best in both halves, to have a complete game, and to be able to fully dominate their opponent. I know that this a collective game and the wins will not come through individual brilliance, but seeing that Courtois’s scheme demands the build-up in order to give yourself opportunities to score, then all pieces in the field have to work, and if one piece is not having the best of days, then the rest of the pieces have to work together to make up for the weakest links. But what happens if you have multiple pieces that are having a bad day or are not the right pieces in the right machine? Then you have a dysfunctional and useless machine. And when you have a dysfunctional/useless machine you have 0 shots at goal, 0.00 xG, 10/24 long balls, 0/5 crosses, 31% duels, 0% tackles won, and so on… do we get the picture yet? I rewatched the game several times and wanted to see what went wrong in the first half? Is it fixable? Did New York just get lucky bounces? Can I truly say my team was at least trying to win? No, no, and no. When I rewatched the game, it felt like I was watching a pre-season game where guys were trying to figure themselves out, there was finger pointing when players made mistakes, there were players that had their hand on their knees at the 26th minute (yeah, I’m looking at you Matias Coccaro), and just a lack of chemistry. As a matter of fact, at the end of the half in the 46th minute Mathieu Choiniere fouls a New York player and is going to talk to the ref and Sean Nealis shoves him away randomly, where are his brothers to stand up to the big guy? Where is the team spirit? I’m not one to encourage a fight with another player, but let your opponent know that you have your teammates back at any cost! Show some passion and fire! These are all things that improve as the season goes on, players start talking the same language, and friendships are naturally formed, which allows for a brotherhood to flourish in tough times. Not this team, not right now, at least not to the naked eye.
Let’s look at the pieces:
The Goalie
After having a game against Atlanta on Saturday, which I believed was a “day out of the office” since he didn’t have much to do (luckily for us). However, Wednesday night was a little bit different. He had his hands full with the Red Bull’s constant high press defense and his own sloppy passes and defenders putting him in very difficult positions. Jonathan Sirois has been an outstanding player given the constant rotation of his defenders and their inconsistent performances throughout the season. Many people will be quick to point out the number of goals he’s given up this season, however his role is way different than that of Hernan Losada’s scheme, where Courtois’ build-up play forces him to use his feet a lot more and also makes him play much higher up the field, which obviously means that he has to put himself in a position to defend quicker than he was used to in the past. But he has nonetheless provided us with numerous outstanding saves and performances. I still think that the weakest part of his game is his long pass distribution, and when he is having a bad day, it really affects the famous “build-up”. Against New York, his performance was inconsistent on offense but very good on defense. With his 67 touches and 4 saves from inside the box, you can see the kind of game he had. The one thing that stands out to me that was obvious in the game was his 1 error leading to a shot. The stat goes against him, but it isn’t his fault entirely. In this play, Fernando Alvarez passed it back to him instead of continuing the build-up with Nathan Saliba or Samuel Piette, which led for Sirois to be placed in an uncomfortable position against the Red Bull’s high press which led to a shot (luckily not a goal). I’m not saying Sirois had an excellent game, he was 2 for 9 in long balls and had an 81% rate accurate passes, and it might not seem like much, but his role is so crucial to this scheme that any missed pass he has crumbles any attempt at an attack.
The Defenders
Last week against Atlanta, we saw a very functional defensive back three with Fernando Alvarez leading the troupe and seriously making fans and media question: How good is this kid and is he good enough to replace Joel Waterman in the middle? So, I put out a survey asking who CF Montreal fans preferred to see in the center and the majority voted to have Waterman lead the way (understandably so). But Wednesday’s night performance felt like we took 3 steps back with our defenders and threw away everything we had built while Waterman was away on international duty with Canada. Waterman and Alvarez had the help of a deep lying Piette right in front of Sirois, but it just wasn’t working, and it was dysfunctional until they substituted Joaquin Sosa out for Raheem Edwards at the 62nd minute, who has been showing he has a place in this squad.
Our backline (not including Edwards) combined for 23 lost possessions, 8/14 in long balls, and 9/15 in dues won. The statistics won’t always explain everything, but it certainly gives us a picture of how much CF Montreal was struggling to get out of their own half. When Raheem was subbed in, he made his presence felt with his 94% accurate passes, 2 key passes, 3 of 4 ground, 5 of 9 successful duels and 1 for 1 long balls. He did, however, contribute 5 possessions lost. George Campbell had a very good cameo giving 92% passing, 1 for 1 long ball and 3 of 4 duels with only 2 lost possessions.
Those are the stats, but it doesn’t tell the whole story, if you watch the game, you can tell that our defenders are still not sure what their role is the moment there’s a change in the line-up and the lack of chemistry between them and the midfielders and forwards, leading to many turnovers and stalled attacking momentum. As I mentioned earlier, just as important as Sirois is to Courtois’ scheme, so are the defenders and the reading of the game so the build-up can start. I’ll be honest, I’m not sure Sosa knows what his role is in the scheme and I can’t really tell where his natural skill fits him best, he doesn’t give us an efficient performance as a wingback nor as a left center back, so where do we put him? In my humble opinion, Alvarez has earned his spot in the starting eleven and so has Campbell, but beyond their loan obligation with Bologna, i don’t see why we continue starting him.
The Midfielders and The Flanks
Let’s start with the flanks! Laurent Courtois decided to start Ariel Lassiter on the left side and Ruan on the right side, which produced nothing in the first half, and improved a bit on the second half when Lassiter decided to commit more to spaces and Edwards eventually took his spot once George Campbell was brought in at the 82nd minute. I am going to go ahead and say it, but I have given up on the Lassiter project in any position. I just don’t think he’s good enough to feature in the starting line-up in any of the positions unless, of course, we have an injury crisis. I am always questioning what Lassiter brings to the game and how does he make himself indispensable to the team. I just don’t see it. He played for 82 minutes and was 0 for 7 in crosses, had 16 lost possessions, 0 for 3 in ground duels, and 79% accurate passes with 46 touches. The only part of his game that positively contributed were his long balls, which were 2 for 3, and provided an assist in Josef Martinez’s free kick goal.
Ruan is an exciting player to see develop and use his speed to perform and explore the space behind defenders. However, I do not think Ruan is the kind of player to give us the same intensity in short weeks. Ruan runs so much up and down the field every game that he is bound to feel fatigued and give up plays on the defensive end. With the signing of David Bugaj, we hope he gets game fit as quickly as possible to be able to either start or replace Ruan and allow us to see the best version of him every game. Ruan ended the game with 95% passing, 0 for 1 in crosses, 1 for 1 in long ball, 2 for 5 in successful dribble attempts, and 3 of 8 ground duels won. He also unfortunately had 7 lost possessions. But I can see the improvement in his game over time, I was the most critical of him and his decision making with the ball, but it seems like the coaching staff has worked with him to take a moment to stop the ball and look for the right pass to make and not force crosses. He almost had the winning goal in the dying minutes of the game, but it was “unfairly” called offsides.
At midfield, we had Mathieu Choiniere and Samuel Piette, who in my humble opinion, gave us a sub-par performance for their first game back from international duty. Understandably so for Piette, seeing as he hasn’t played a game in over a month while riding the bench for Canada in Copa America. But Choiniere? I mean, given the well-known context of his contractual dispute with CF Montréal, I would expect nothing short of an all-star performance from him every single game leading up to his next new contract. His own goal was not his fault. It was a freak goal, but I will say this much he did look distracted throughout the game. It could be several factors besides the contractual dispute, but he will have more games to regain the form that we’ve grown used to seeing his since the beginning of the season. The midfield of Piette, Choinière, and Saliba is awkward, and it was very obvious. Saliba was clearly struggling in his role higher up the field and was constantly overpowered by New York’s high press. Saliba had 20 turnovers! 20!!!!! I’m not going to knock on Saliba’s skill level because he’s done enough the past two seasons to prove that he could be a great player, but this game definitely wasn’t one. Does it merit a benching? No. He’s too young to use Wednesday’s game as a benchmark to what he’s capable of. He also went 3 for 10 in duels, 3 of 9 long balls, and 81% accurate passes. These past two games have kind of been a slump for him, and I’m definitely hoping the Toronto game will be an opportunity for him to bounce back.
Choiniere, as I mentioned earlier, didn’t have his best game, which included his own goal, but you can see that there’s much more to the 25 year old Quebecer. If you watch him closely, you can see his technical ability with ball at his feet and also his ability to switch the side of the field using his vision, which creates opportunities for the team. But his passing ability, especially up field, is still something that continues to impede his game. He has the vision, and he has the speed and durability but when he sees the target it’s almost like he chooses the wrong way to get the ball to his target because he wants to make the pass as quick as possible. He finished the game with 80% accurate passes, which is not the percentage you want as a midfielder, and 14 possessions lost. Again, similar to Saliba, I hope to see a bounce back game from him against Toronto.
Piette, the heart and core of this team, was clearly out of game shape and might have been inserted into the starting line-up too early. The scheme on Wednesday had him playing much lower on the field in the first half. He was between Alvarez and Waterman for the build-up and right in front of Sirois. Again, I want to give him the benefit of the doubt that he was lacking match fitness, hence why he was making some terrible decisions with the ball at his feet. The role he was asked to play is one that we have seen Victor Wanyama play and one that Samuel should be fairly comfortable with but, to the contrary, he really seemed to struggle and seemed to be learning the position. He finished with 92% accurate passes, 2 for 2 long balls, 1 for 3 in duels, and 4 possessions lost.
Bryce Duke came in as a substitute to Samuel Piette and he definitely seemed to open the game more in the later part of the game but something I have noticed from Duke is his tendency to hold on to the ball too long before passing it to an attacker which leads to frequent offsides passes from his end. Duke is at a part of his career where this needs to be automatic. He has the ability. He just needs to pick his moments better, and he will have more chances on getting on the assists stats sheet. He has also shown us that he’s been capable of the role in the past few weeks, but has he lost his starting spot in the squad? Has he been relegated to a replacement? He finished with 78% accurate passes, 0 for 1 long balls, 1 shot on target, 1 for 2 in duels, and 5 possessions lost. I certainly liked his play in the middle, and I think he can produce and contribute a lot more in that Choiniere like position.
The Attackers
Our attack was as close as to non-existent as you can get in the first half, as you can see in the stats I provided at the beginning of the article. But was it that Coccaro was having a bad day? Was Mason Toye inefficient as a supporting role to the 9. Does he have a role in this team? When I re-watched the game, I tried to pinpoint where the inefficiency started, and it simply seemed to be a lack of understanding of each other. Both Toye and Cóccaro clearly want to score, but the crosses we misplaced, mistimed, or simply not done. Again, these are the kind of conditions you expect to see early in the season, not with 12 games left in the season. I mentioned it in my X account, but something has clearly happened with Coccaro since his return from injury, he looks like a shadow of what he was at the beginning of the season providing us with 80% passing, 2 for 4 in duels, and 2 lost possessions in 10 touches in 56 minutes! Mason Toye who was absent for most of the game and seemed to exit with yet another of his millionth injuries finished the day with 83% passing, 1 for 4 in duels, 2 possessions lost with 17 touches in 56 minutes. Just a bad day at the office for these two players who are full of potential but need to regain confidence in their ability.
Once Josef Martinez and Jules-Anthony Vilsaint were brought out for the two attackers, the field seemed to open up a bit more and we seemed to be challenging New York a bit more on top and giving ourselves more opportunities. I have always thought that Vilsaint has the skill of a Djordje Mihailovic where he can be lethal between the lines with his size and speed, but he never seems to be able to finish a game. He demonstrated a flash of that this game The way he conducted the attack with the ball at his feet and his ability to seek out the open man. Last week, I mentioned that I had seen Laurent Courtois lose his mind on the sidelines because Vilsaint wasn’t running back on defense, but we saw a different player this week that seemed to be open to doing that dirty work and it made a huge difference in the game.
Josef Martinez again showed the kind of lethal player he can be for this team. However, the only thing I’m concerned about now is that at the end of the game, I saw him and Courtois having what seemed to be a serious discussion about his performance? He’s one of the players that I wonder if he fits the scheme, if he likes playing on top by himself, or would rather have another striker next to him. In any case, him and Vilsaint were the definition of impact subs with their performance Wednesday night with Vilsaint providing us 21 touches, 88% accurate passes, 1 for 1 long balls, 4 for 5 in duels!!!! And 1 penalty won. While Josef Martinez ended the day with 2 goals with 11 touches, 63% passing accurate passes (no bueno), 3 lost possessions, and 1 for 2 in duels.
There’s just no other way of putting it, and clearly, Courtois and the team are still trying to find the right formula for this team as they look to maximize their chances at earning points. Last question. Why isn’t Sunusi Ibrahim playing? He was the team’s leading scorer before the injured came back and, Courtois has simply said it’s a coaches decision, which one can respect, but that’s not what Ibrahim showed us the past months. When I talk to some of the players, it seems like there is something going on inside, but they’re all afraid to talk but will wait to have their platform to speak out. That would be great! Give us some clarity!
We have a big game coming up Saturday against Toronto FC, with one team in the middle of a downfall while the other is trying to find their form. Can you guess who is who? The game brings a lot of consequences for the playoff run for both sides and should be filled with entertaining moments. What I want to see is the team come out with energy and desire to win and not only because we NEED THE POINTS, but because the fans deserve it after what we saw happen earlier this season when Toronto pounced with a 5-1 beating down the 401 highway. The players have all said that this is a revenge game for them. Show us. We want to see it. We’ve been waiting a long time to see it.
Andy's Impact Zone 
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