Can Toronto FC revive their sinking franchise for 2024?

Toronto FC

Things have been rough at BMO Field this season. Toronto FC is one of the biggest franchises in MLS and has the payroll to match yet the product on the field has failed spectacularly to match up to the expectations that fans have.

The team sits 14th of 15 teams in the Eastern Conference with just 19 points from 25 games. Only Inter Miami are behind them, just a point adrift, while there is a yawning gap to New York City who is seven points ahead.

Just 20 goals scored in those 25 games make Toronto FC the lowest-scoring team in the Eastern Conference with only Colorado in the West having a more lacklustre offensive output. At the back, they have conceded 36 which while too many, is only three less than the Columbus Crew who have 33 and sit 5th, the difference is that they have scored 48!

Toronto FC has made things easy for those who like to use the best betting sites in Canada to have a play on soccer when they are on the road, they are the only team who have not won any game away from home this season.

So, what is wrong with the team and can it be put right before the fans vote with their feet? Let’s take a look.

Season So Far

As we have taken a quick look at above, the MLS season has been a complete and utter disaster so far for Toronto FC. They broke a run of six games without scoring a single goal when they put two past Montreal in their most recent game but even that was not enough to secure any points 

There have been too many draws on the season, 10 of them in 25 games which has led to just three times they have taken maximum points. It is 12 games now since Toronto FC picked up their last MLS win, a run that stretches back to the end of May. 

They had 16 points at that stage, a pace that would have seen them challenging for the playoffs at present if they could have kept it up. In fact, they tasted defeat just twice in their first 10 games, the wheels have well and truly fallen off since that point.

Goalkeeper

Sean Johnson has carried the bulk of the load in net in 2023, keeping six clean sheets in 19 games in the MLS this season. His 69.9 save percentage so far is right on his career average.  Both his goals against average and save percentage are a step up on his season with New York City last year when he got 14 shutouts.

While Johnson was away on International duty with the United States, his place was filled by Greg Ranjit singh who did not have a good time in his four games, conceding 10 goals in the process with his save percentage a miserable 58.3%. 

With Johnson now out with a fractured hand for at least a month, not having him in goal could take an already disastrous season to new depths unless those in attack can finally click and score the goals the team so desperately requires.

Defence

36 goals against is not awful given the average in the league but it is too many for a team who have not been able to produce a thing in attack. Raoul Petretta has proved to be an expensive and sadly rather disappointing signing so far. At 26 he should be at the peak of his career and given his Champions League experience in Europe with Basel, much more was expected from him.

That has not been the case with fans regularly voicing their displeasure to criticise both his performances as well as those of Aimé Mabika and Shane O’Neill who have both looked overmatched at times this season.

In the case of Mabika, it is at least in some way understandable. A 25-year-old with limited experience, he requires a veteran presence who can show him how the game is played properly but even without that, his showings have at times looked completely disinterested when he should be looking to prove himself in front of the league.

O’Neill has enough experience to think he should have produced better this season. Toronto FC has lost all of the seven games that he has started this season, conceding 17 goals in the process. Toronto has given up 1.32 goals per game in the MLS this season, 2.43 in games O’Neill has started. He is not solely responsible by any means but that is a huge difference for any team to overcome.

Midfield

Although he has only played 12 games this season, Jonathan Osorio has at least made a contribution to the cause. He has five assists in that time and a pass percentage of 86.6%. The fact that five assists lead the team despite his lack of appearances says it all when it comes to the lack of attacking talent at the disposal of Toronto FC. His lack of any speed is a concern for the future though.

Jahkeele Marshall-Rutty has given some promise on the wing for a player who is just 19. It is unfair to expect too much from a player of his age but there will be plenty of weight on his shoulders in seasons to come so he will have to learn to deal with the pressure and how to channel it into performances.

Strikers

This has been the biggest problem to this point in the MLS season for Toronto FC, a toothless attack who quite simply have not done the job that they are paid to do. Federico Bernardeschi leads the line with five goals in 21 games this season. One of those was direct from a corner kick and two were in the most recent game against Montreal. There are slim hopes to cling onto that perhaps the break has done him good from a mental standpoint but we will not be holding our breath on the matter.

His fellow Italian Lorenzo Insigne has netted three, albeit in fewer games but it is still a poor return for a player who netted almost 100 in his time at Napoli. Perhaps so long at Napoli has seen him struggle to settle as well as he would have liked in Toronto but it is still hard to excuse the lack of a return from his class of player.

Italians are often seen as mercurial talents and this has sadly been the case for Toronto FC as they are yet to see the quality side of these players. Both Bernardeschi and Insigne, while not absolutely top-notch in Italy, should have been good enough to make an impact in the MLS. They have failed to make meaningful contributions which have hampered the squad as a whole.

C.J Sapong has managed to find the net just once following his trade from Nashville, a team where he scored 17 times in 74 games. It is also not helpful to the team that he has been giving the ball away to opponents as if doing his best impression of Oprah, you get a misplaced pass, you get a misplaced pass.

New Manager Same Problem

Since Greg Vanney left the club in December 2020, the manager position has become a bit of a revolving door. Three full-time managers and the current interim have combined for a record of just 23 wins from 107 games.

Vanney had a 44.80 win percentage in his tenure and those who have followed combined for just a 21.49%. Terry Dunfeld is yet to pick up a single point in his seven games in charge, with the need for a new manager sooner rather than later looking more and more obvious.

It is unfair to be too harsh on Dunfield as he has inherited a squad of players who look disinterested in playing for the shirt but the lack of any real progression under him has to raise a concern with all associated with the club in a supporting capacity.

It needs to be the right person, though. Another appointment who continues to drill holes into an already sinking ship could do unrepairable damage to the franchise. If the same players are here to start the 2024 season, the manager needs to be an ace motivator, they will need to be able to deal with players who are only going through the motions and appear to be doing the bare minimum.

Is there an easy solution?

One name that has been spoken about as a potential new manager is John Herdman. The manager of the Canada men’s national soccer team since 2018, the Englishman has taken the national team to a new high in the world rankings during his time in charge.  

Managing a country is chalk and cheese from the day-to-day management of a league team though. It is one thing to be able to pick and choose the best players from across a multitude of teams to create your starting 11 and something very different having the same pool of players who, by all accounts this season, have not been good enough.

What about Bobby Smyrniotis? The Forge FC coach has won pretty much everything for years now in the CPL. Admittedly that is a lower level but Smyrniotis has done a remarkable job there and is worth something bigger to get his teeth into. 

Whether that will be a MLS job with Toronto FC or not remains to be seen but it is not like Toronto are in a position to attract a big name at present and given their recent record, they could do an awful lot worse than a Canadian who has proven to be an excellent manager.

What Toronto FC needs is someone who has rebuilt a franchise from the ground up as this is what realistically needs to happen. Whoever comes in needs the backing of the board to bring in players who are going to push the franchise forward and more importantly, score some goals.

Any hope for 2024?

LeoVegas Free Bet

October 21 is the final game of this season, at home to Orlando City. That game cannot come quickly enough for Toronto FC, with a chance to focus and rebuild ahead of the 2024 season and make sure that the product on the field is not the same mess that it has been for a couple of years now.

It is clear that the thing that the club is missing the most is a natural goalscorer. The board has said that a new manager is not a decision to be rushed and while they are correct, the longer they let this draw out, the more disillusioned the franchise as a whole becomes. 

The sad truth is that there is no one easy place to lay the blame, there is plenty of fault to go around. The players have massively underperformed as a team, they have no motivation nor a management staff to get the best out of them, while the board allows this to continue.  

New blood is going to be crucial or any hope for 2024 will be gone before the calendar even turns to January. The problem has been that the new blood that has been brought in has done the opposite of what was hoped this season. A more thorough and robust process can identify the right players mentally for the challenge rather than the mercurial players that Toronto FC currently has, whose attitude is a poison to the club. 

They say that hope springs eternal but it is tough to see the light at the end of the Toronto FC tunnel to be anything other than an onrushing freight train for 2024 as things stand. We would love to be proven wrong!

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