A really good year for TFC.

My usual cynicism and pessimism will soon return, but buoyed by a 2 game winning streak to end the season, and in the spirit of reconciliation, with MLSE playing nice, I'm going for a positive season review, so here we go, the 8 reasons why this was the best year yet for TFC.

1. We won the home opener.  The home opener is always a special day in it's own right.  The end to 5 months or so of not going to games, the chance to hold aloft a new scarf, try the new food options (mmmm, poutine) meet up with old friends, or check out the view from your new seats, and just get back into whatever your matchday routine and way of supporting the club is.  The anticipatory buzz around the ground, the optimism not yet beaten out of the crowd, an enthusiastic singing of the anthem even in the prawny sections.  For the second straight year we got an expansion side to kick things off, but whereas last years game against Seattle was a real downer, this year we won.  OK, we didn't play all that well, and were lucky to be gifted both our goals, but what the hell.  The home opener, a win, excellent stuff.

2.  We won our first 5 home games.  Though the weather was terrible pretty much every game, we kept building on that feel good first win, making it into June before we even drew a game at home.  The peak of this run was the 4-1 win over Chicago.  Heavy winds and intermittent rain provided a trial for the real supporters to get through and led to a freak opener from Nick Labrocca, and a Jersey Shore celebration (how together the team seemed, how much fun they appeared to be having).  The second half saw Chad Barrett score twice against his old club, and even O'Brian White scored, though he nearly messed up an almost impossible to mess up chance. The combination of the weather and the result launched the brief "shirts off" phenomenom, for better or worse.

3.  We won the Voyageurs cup with the minimum of fuss.  This time there was no Miracle needed, we beat Montreal twice and drew in Vancouver, and that was enough for the cup to be clinched before we even played the last game.  That led to a pressure free game with academy kids playing and supporters able to celebrate throughout the game, with no need to worry about the result.  A trophy presented at home for the first time, players diving into the corners to celebrate, good times.

4.  We had a 2 month unbeaten streak.  Between May 1st and July 17th, we went 11 games without a loss in all competitions, including away wins at San Jose and Montreal, and important away draws at LA and Vancouver.  At the end of this stretch, even Fuad Ibrahim scored, to give us a 1-0 win over Colorado.

5.  We beat Motagua over two legs.  The first game, we played really well but only got a 1-0 win to show for it, so we would have a hard time to defend that.  Yeah, Motagua were only just out of pre season, but a Canadian side went to Honduras needing a result, went down early, but still got it, Dwayne De Rosario and Barrett with the goals, both set up by an excellent Maicon Santos.  I watched this game at Shoeless Joe's and the Red Patch Boys "qualifiers! qualifiers! ole, ole, ole!" chant was as inspired as it was emotional.

6.  We went 14 games unbeaten at home to start the year.  Our away form was nothing special again, but BMO Field really was a fortress, 21 goals scored and only 6 conceded giving us a record of 9 wins and 5 draws in those first 14 games.

7.  We beat Cruz Azul over two legs.  The game at home is probably my favourite TFC game so far, an early goal, 2-0 before half time and then defending comfortably before letting in a goal from a very good free kick that was too late to cause real worry.  Again, we beat Cruz A-fricking-zul, in a game that counted.  The second leg, after the firing of Preki but with Champions League progress still a real possibility was an excellent backs to the wall performance, grinding out a 0-0 that never really felt in danger.

8.  We've got some good academy kids.  Doneil Henry was the first player to be signed to the big club from the academy, Ashtone Morgan put in a great performance against Arabe Unido, but the real find was Nicholas Lindsay.  Signed to the first team late in the season, he put together a series of good games that suggest we might finally have ourselves a dangerous winger.

So there you go, without even having to resort to " there's hope for the future under a new regime" or "at least things got bad enough that they finally got rid of Mo" there's a lot of things that happened on the pitch that, despite the way the season unravelled, made 2010 a very enjoyable year.

Ladies and gentlemen, Rita Macneil!

So after a 1-1 tie with Real Salt Lake, combined with a win for Cruz  Azul, we're officially out of the champions league, along with being all but mathematically eliminated from the MLS playoffs.

It wasn't actually a bad game today, Jacob Peterson continued his improvement under Dasovic by actually scoring a really nice goal, and the boos the players received were harsh, though understandable if taken as a comment on the season as a whole.

The crowd, 10, 581, is a good indication of the disillusionment the fans feel right now, I'm not sure where the demand is that Tom Anselmi think's he's supplying.

Once again, a big fuck you to Preki for his line-up and tactics for the away game against Arabe Unido, that's what really killed us in this tournament.

Not much else to say really, cue the fat lady, we're done, bring on the new regime and the next rebuild.

Chad Barrett MVP. Seriously.

If you've read some of my other posts, especially this one you'll know I feel Preki was fired very harshly, and that we were doing ok until injuries hit, especially to Chad Barrett.  After seeing us win in his first game starting since he got injured, my curiosity was further piqued, so I decided to check out the stats for this season (and they say bloggers don't do research, ha!).

Here's TFC's record in games which Chad Barrett started, in all competitions, excluding the useless Bolton friendly.  Won 9, Lost 4, Tied 5.  In games he didn't start?  3-8-5.

Add in his substitute appearances and the trend is even more pronounced, 11-6-7 when he plays at least part of the game, and 1-6-3 when he doesn't.

So translate that into 3 points for a win, and TFC with Barrett has 40 points in 24 games, which would be a 50 point season, which even the most ardent Preki-hater would have to accept as a bloody good one.

Without Barrett, 6 points in 10 games, or 18 points over 30 games.

Now I'm not about to suggest Barrett is as talented a player as Dwayne De Rosario, or that this sort of results would translate to another side, or a new style of play under Nick Dasovic, but it seems pretty clear that he was the crucial part of the team that made TFC under Preki work.  As well as his vastly improved goal scoring record, his impact is a very important indirect one, causing problems for the defence that allows others like De Rosario more room to do their own thing.  It's no co-incidence that the goals also dried up for De Ro, and everyone else, when O'Brien White was the main striker for the defence to contend with.

Best player? No.  Most valuable?  Absolutely.

One firing too many.

So while I don't think I've read one article or blog or tweet or anything from anyone suggesting Mo Johnston shouldn't have been fired, Preki's dismissal got a much more mixed reaction.  The majority certainly seems to be happy to see him go, but there's some people who feel it's a bad move, or that while a move may have been necessary, it's very unfair to Preki and that he was never given a fair shot.  Count me in the latter group.

By the time the end came, it seemed that there was a big rift between Preki and, well, everyone else.  The players certainly showed their appreciation for the moves, and their perfomance against DC in Preki's last game in charge suggested they weren't that interested in playing for him any more.  As for his coaching staff, stories surfaced of a massive bust up with Nick Dasovic, followed by Dasovic and the rest of the assistants going to management to lobby for Preki's removal with Dasovic to take over as head coach.  The supporters? They weren't going to take it any more, and season ticket renewal time is coming up.  Add all that up, combined with the recent struggles on the pitch, and the writing was clearly on the wall, something had to change and it's always easier to fire the coach than the team.  Preki's last press conference, as lethargic a performance as the players gave on the pitch beforehand, suggested he knew this as well as anyone.

So, with all that against him, Preki had to go, it's difficult to see any other resolution that would allow the club to move on, and it's probably for the best that whoever the new GM is gets to choose his own staff, a luxury that was never given to Preki, and that's the main reason I feel that Preki never really stood a chance.

In the press conference to announce the firings, Tom Anselmi spoke with obvious pride about how MLSE is committed to trying to develop the infrastructure of soccer in Canada and develop Canadian coaches and managers.  To that end Preki was asked to take Nick Dasovic under his wing.  Danny Dichio had been awkwardly moved into a coaching position only last year, so I imagine he'd have been an untouchable as well, and when Jim Brennan retired after just one game of the season, he was swiftly moved into the assistant GM spot. 

Thinking about the wider impact the club can have on the game as a whole in Canada is a very admirable goal, but surely a better path to success for the club itself would be to go after the best and brightest and most experienced people available to help TFC, or let the new coach bring in his own assistants, rather than set yourself up as a self confessed development club for a select group of people to learn their trade.  Though Preki did bring an assistant with him, Leo Percovich, he was also surrounded by inexperienced people who crucially knew that their development was seen as very important by the higher-ups, and thus knew they had more job security than Preki, and that if push came to shove, management had their back, not Preki's, which is exactly how things ended.

On the playing side, last years squad ended up well over the salary cap amid lots of talk about dressing room dysfunction, so changes definitely needed to be made.  How many of those changes were Preki's idea or were forced on him by Mo is unknown, though the fact that some of the players let go were fan favourites or people that Mo had made big trades for certainly suggests he had a big hand in that.

However, it's become known that at least one trade he wanted to make was blocked, Dwayne de Rosario.  Star player, top scorer, captain and marketing face of the franchise, was never going to be allowed to leave.  Why Preki would want him to leave is another question, and a big question mark against his ability to work with big name players, but that's another person that he's forced to work with, and who knows that he's got more job security than Preki.  While I've never heard anything specific about Preki's thoughts on Julian De Guzman, I can only imagine that he has very similar status.  Preki's retort to his and De Ro's criticisms of him " It's a couple of Canadian guys making those comments. That's all I have to say about that" certainly suggests De Guzman was another of the untouchables, as well as showing Preki's disdain for the group as a whole.

So with a very comfortable and influential group of people who had no reason to fear him, Preki was always going to be vulnerable when things went wrong, and make no mistake, even the most ardent Preki apologist would agree that things went wrong.  Preki arrived with a reputation as a hard-ass coach, often unpopular with players for his training methods, which apparently involve a lot of running and not much tactics and strategy.  His defensive system and apparent trouble with the ego wrangling and squad rotation necessary in the modern game also were guaranteed to make enemies, as well as leave him unpopular with supporters.  So when TFC hit a rough stretch in mid August, the knives came out very very quickly.  Who knows what exctly triggered the confrontation with Dasovic, but when it came down to it, Preki was never going to win that particular power struggle, and thus found himself forced out after less than a season, and less than a month removed from the famous victory over Cruz Azul.

There are a lot of unknowns here, was Preki made aware of these restrictions when he signed up?  If so he only has himself to blame.  Also, it may well be that this is a good thing, and Preki was a cancer that needed to be got rid of before he could do more damage, certainly a lot of supporters feel that way, but either way, I for one don't like the idea that a small group of untouchable players and assistants have so much control.  Much like with the Leafs and their Muskoka 5, the inmates have taken over the asylum, Preki was never given a chance, and now we're going to be starting all over again.  Again.

Ceeeeelebrate good times, come on!

So, the what now question is a bit of a scary one, but I'll leave that for later.

For now, though, Mo Johnston is fired, which is very good news, Preki's getting fired as well, which I'm less happy about.  It's probably for the best, but I feel bad for Preki, he never really got a fair chance here.  But again I'll leave that for later.

Anyway, Johnston's gone, that's a good start, and hopefully after restarting many times under Johnston, this bigger restructuring will work well enough to finally turn the corner towards being a respectable club instead of the laughing stock it's become, at least at the on the pitch side of things.

There's many articles out there analysing this of course, but this one from view from the south stands does an excellent job of detailing Mo's failings and why it's a good thing he's finally been let go.

Obviously there's the fact that we're now on our 5th coach in less than 4 years, the revolving door of players coming and going without there ever seeming to be a clear plan of any kind, and the failure to make the playoffs for 3 years, most likely 4, while expansion teams from later years have overtaken us.

Most of all though for me it's his personality, which is the best thing to be rid of.  I doubt there was anyone who thought of Mo as trustworthy, and way too many players have left the club on bad terms, with rumours, innuendo and lies flying around in their aftermath.  All that unfortunately gets reflected on to the club, and make it a less attractive place to play, and in a salary cap league you can't let money talk enough to overcome objections if players don't want to come here.

The current players apparently burst into applause at the announcement, which I imagine is as much to do with Preki leaving as it is for Mo, but still, not a good sign of a happy club.  Hopefully from here, the changes will be enough to remove the toxic atmosphere and inspire a late season run from relieved players. 

In the long term, I hope MLSE puts enough thought into hiring a replacement or multiple replacements if necessary, who can make the on-pitch product as successful and respected as they are off the pitch.  Apparently when Philadelphia were starting out and figuring out what they were going to do on the business side of things, Toronto FC and Director of Business operations Paul Beirne were frequently looked to as someone to copy.  I can guarantee no-one ever felt that way about Mo Johnston.

Boooooooooooo!

The general tone and theme of this blog, and my life as a sports fan, if there is one, while not exactly a celebration of sporting failure and bumbling incompetence, is certainly an indulgence and acceptance of it as the natural lot of the local team follower.

Maybe years from now I'll chuckle at the shitshow that was TFC's game against DC, and hold it up as some kind of badge of honour to show how I deserve whatever hypothetical success may arrive in the future.  Right now though, I'm not really feeling all that indulgent, after watching one of the worst performances I've ever seen, and believe me, I've seen a lot of bad games.

Where to start?  I guess with the result.  That must win and most winnable game against the worst team in the league I was talking about?  We lost 1-0, and we got lucky, 4-0 wouldn't have been a flattering result for DC.  It pretty much guarantees we'll miss the playoffs, but I'll leave some kind of season review for later and focus on just this game.

The line-up.  Maicon Santos starting up front?  Excellent, but with Mista?  He hasn't looked like a good forward all year, and he certainly didn't correct the impression today.  When he wasn't wasting half chances by dribbling into defenders rather than trying a quick shot, he was dropping deep, thus leaving Santos on his own, as well as getting in De Ro's way at the top of the midfield diamond, who'd have thought signing a DP striker would create our very own Gerrard/Lampard conundrum in midfield.  And who was on the sides of this midfield diamond, why noted dangerous wingers Martin Saric and Dan Gargan of course.  No offence to either of them, they're both good MLS level players in their own way, but they certainly don't suggest creativity, or a threat that DC had to take seriously thus opening up space for the central players.  In defence, I can only presume Ty Harden is injured, even though he was on the subs bench, as all of a sudden, there's Raivas Hscanovics at left back.

The game .   Aside from De Ro's early effort, a fantastic dribble through three defenders and shot from outside the box that hit the post, we were absolutely terrible, saved only by DC's ineptness in front of goal.  There's just too much that went wrong to even try and analyse it. 

The post game excuses.  Preki blamed tiredness and the schedule and the rigours of having to play at 4pm after an evening game on Wednesday.  There's probably an element of truth in that, but it's a feeble excuse.  The squad just isn't good enough, and if there's a silver lining right now it's that surely it's time for Mo Johnston's to go back to Scotland.  As for Preki, I've been on his side generally, thinking he was doing a good job until injuries and lack of depth killed our momentum, but there's been a few games where I thought he's got his line up and strategy all wrong, and this is another one to add to the list.  Should he go as well as Mo?  I still don't think I'm prepared to call for that, if only because I really don't want to blow things up completely, but I'm closer than I've ever been.

So what now?  Concentrate on the champions league?  I suppose, but we're already in trouble there, having blown a glorious opportunity to be in control of the group by taking Arabe Unido too lightly.  There's a very good chance that by the time we play Real Salt Lake at home, we'll still be stuck on 3 points while Cruz Azul and RSL have 9.  Not to worry though, Mo Johnston made clear in his pre-game interview that TFC feels merely qualifying for the group stage is mission accomplished as far as the CCL is concerned.

To sum up:  BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

Mmmmmmm cliches.

So, it's squeaky bum time, 7 games left, at least 4 wins, probably 5 wins needed to make the playoffs, and we're at home to the worst team in the league.  Games don't come more must winnish that this one.  They also don't come much more winnable.  If we don't win tomorrow, then we're not going to make the playoffs, if we can't win, then we really don't deserve to.

In his pre game interview Preki talks about the need for the midfield to step up and share the load offensively, saying they've only accounted for 2 goals all season.  While this is arguably true, if you don't consider De Rosario to have been playing in midfield at all this year, it's also a bit rich considering it's his tactics that have led to that stat, as well as the welcome reduction in goals against.  Hopefully this means he's ready to go with a more attacking formation to try and get some goals and put the game away early, then rest players for the midweek ccl game against Salt lake.

In fairness to Preki, he put out an attacking line-up against Chicago, unfortunately, it had Jacob Peterson up front, so was always unlikely to bear fruit.  With that in mind, I'd love to see Maicon Santos start the game.  If he's not fit enough for the whole game then take him off, but let's start with our strongest line-up rather than have to throw him on later if we're struggling.  With Chad Barrett probably still not fit enough, I'd keep O'Brian White in the team with him up front, as I feel he's been looking much better in the last couple of games, following up a hard working game against Dallas with more of the same against Chicago, and actually looking like a threat to score a couple of times.

The status of Mista remains a mystery, Preki saying he's been having trouble with his leg, but if he's fit, I'd like to see him in the centre of an attacking midfield trio with De Ro and LaBrocca, with De guzman as the holding midfielder.  If Mista isn't fit, then, for want of a better alternative, put Peterson on the wing with De Ro tucked in behind the strikers.

The defence is fairly straight forward, just replace the suspended Usanov with Gargan, and keep Harden at left back rather than Garcia.

4-1-3-2, it's risky but it's do or die time, balls to the wall, death or glory, win or bust, go big or go home, choose your cliche really.  I predict a 3-0 TFC win, with White and De Ro scoring early and shockingly, Peterson getting a third in the second half.

That's a mega juggling act!

It certainly was a mega juggling act by Chicago tonight, two handballs in the box, both accidental, sure, but both very clear and the sort of thing that regularly gets called.  Both penalties not given.  Not to cast aspersions on the ref or the Fire, they'd never get involved with this sort of thing, but can someone check the ref's bag on the wayout to see if Nery Castillo's shirt is in there.

Joking aside, this time I'd agree with Preki that we didn't get the breaks we deserved, I thought overall, even though the result was another 0-0 that leaves our playoff chances hanging by an even slimmer thread than before, we played well today, and played a well coached team to the best of our ability given the players at our disposal.

Given the extra quality Chicago have, with Freddie Ljungberg, Nery Castillo and Collins John all starting and Brian McBride on the bench, sitting back to absorb the pressure would have been suicidal, and thankfully we didn't do that.  We went with two up front with De Ro and De Guzman pushing up, and Usanov and Harden getting forward from both full back positions.  We'd also obviously been told to be aggresive and not let them play, as we quickly racked up the fouls.   That it came to nothing in the first half is down to the fact that the two we played up front, Peterson and White, is probably the most insipid forward line in MLS history, that and the non-penalties, but hey at least we were trying.

In the second half, we brought on Maicon Santos for Peterson and things immediately improved, with a bit of quality to go with the added numbers we were throwing forward, we looked a lot more fluid and dangerous up front, even if our best chances were still coming from set pieces.   He obviously wasn't fully fit though and soon faded, and when Garcia and Nane were brought on, it was obvious we were settling for the point.

So overall a good game for Preki the coach in my opinion and a much more entertaining game than we've seen recently, with Chicago also having their chances.

Now the fact that we had Peterson and White up front, is quite the damning indictment of Mo and Preki's personnel decisions, our squad just isn't good enough to withstand a few injuries, in contrast look at the forwards Chicago has as mentioned above, and you can add Guatemalan international Marco Pappa to that list who also scored a bunch of goals for them this year as well.

As for our DP, Mista wasn't playing, not even on the bench, it was mentioned that he took a knock, and I'm very eager to see what stories come out of the woodwork as far as this is concerned.

What's that Jim Mora, you want me to talk about playoffs?  Ok then.  Much like the black Knight we're not dead yet, but we're pretty much at the "I'll bite your legs off" stage. 




With 7 games left we need at least 4 wins and a draw, probably 5 games, and while it's a weak schedule so it's just about plausible, I can't see Santos and Barrett coming back quickly enough to enable us to do it.  I await the North End Elite's banner selection for the DC game on saturday with baited breath.

Please, please, please, let me get what I want.

“We will see how Maicon is doing tomorrow,” said Toronto coach Preki. He has trained today and looked o.k. but he hasn’t played for quite some time. If he plays against Chicago we will have to limit his minutes because he is not at his full speed and we don’t want to take any risks.”

The above quote, from Luke Wileman on the tfc website fills me with pessimism for tonight's must win game against Chicago, meaning as it does that O'Brian White will once again be leading the line, a job that right now he really isn't cut out for given the lack of support Preki's favoured formations and system will give him.

In the last month, since Maicon Santos was injured against Chivas followed by Chad Barrett's injury against New York, we've still been playing the same formation, with the hard work and discipline that Preki stresses, and in a way it's worked well.  Aside from that crazy game against New York when a whole bunch of irregular things happened and we lost 4-1, we've been very good defensively, letting in only 1 against New York, Cruz Azul, Arabe Unido and Dallas, and keeping a clean sheet against Salt Lake.

At the other end however it's a different story, in those games, we've scored 0 against New York, an unexpected 2 against Cruz Azul, 1 against New York, 0 against Arabe Unido, 0 against Salt Lake, and 0 against Dallas.  Given those stats, unless we change our approach, I'd suggest 1-0 Chicago is a likely result.  If TFC has good luck and gets a few bounces, then maybe we'll get a tie, or an outrageous 2-1 win.  Following Preki's complaining about bad luck after the Dallas game, I'm beginning to think that's what he's playing for, keep it tight and hope something happens.  And who knows, maybe we are due some luck, but I'd rather we weren't relying on it as our main hope.

Personally, as our defence and Frei in goal have proven themselves to be reliable, I'd go for something more attcking.  Play Gargan at RB rather than the more, erm, mercurial Maxim Usanov to solidify it as much as possible, if Harden's comfortable at LB, he can replace Garcia as his reward for a couple of good performances while Nana was out, then let the midfield be much more attacking than usual to help the forwards out and maybe we'll score some goals.  Have Joseph Nane as a dm, then let De Guzman, De Ro and Mista play as fairly free roving attacking midfielders supporting White and Ibrahim up front.

It's maybe a bit on the reckless side, and therefore not something Preki would be likely to do, but I'd rather take it to them and try and score some goals, and potentially lose 3-2 rather than sit back, before they inevitably score and we never ever look like equalising, I've had too many of those matches recently.

And oh, White, if you get the ball in space in the box, for god's sake SHOOT!

Losing. So nice we did it twice! part two.

So after the Canada game, I headed to Shoeless Joe's to watch TFC vs Dallas with little expectation of a result given we were missing 5 of our best players to injury and international call-ups (despite being announced in the starting line up, Attakora didn't even play due to "an error on the paper"  thanks Stephen Hart).  The game went pretty much as I would have predicted really, we were generally solid defensively, and stopped them from doing much, but we never really looked like doing something ourselves.  While we did create a few chances, they were generally from set pieces or Dan Gargan's long throws.  The few chances we created out of open play fell to either O'Brian White or Jacob Peterson and were unsuprisingly wasted.  On the other hand, Dallas didn't really create many chances until late in the game when we were pressing more, but one of the few chances they got fell to (an offside) Jeff Cunningham, who despite his many faults, and despite the impression he gave when with TFC, does know how to score.

In his post game interview, Preki bemoaned our bad luck and that the ball didn't bounce for us, which to me is ridiculous.  Cunningham scoring a chance and White missing multiple chances isn't bad luck, that's something that's going to happen 9 games out of 10, it would be good luck if the reverse happened.  This was all about our strength in depth, with De Ro, Barrett and Santos missing, we don't have a real scoring threat who'd be able to make something out of nothing, which is what we need to be able to score within the confines of Preki's defensive system.

White actually had one of his better games recently, pressuring their defence and goalie into the odd mistake, and getting a few chances, but he just doesn't look likely to score, and he looks like he knows that.  The best example of this isn't with his easiest chance, the header from Usanov's great tackle run and cross, but a half chance shortly after Cunningham scored, he got the ball on the edge of the area with a couple of yards of space.   Did he let fly with a hard shot on goal to at least force a save?  Nope.  Did he cut in towards goal to get a better angle, or maybe draw contact to win a penalty?  Nope.  He went further wide, and slowed down enough for the defender to catch him and the chance was gone.  That was really symptomatic of his play recently when he gets the ball near goal and has a chance.  There's no sense of urgency or dynamism, he just seems so timid and unsure of himself, which means he can hustle and run as much as he likes, but he really isn't doing his job.

You could ackowledge the "bad luck" that led us to the point where we have to have White out there as our main striker - injuries to Barrett and Santos coming at the same time as De Ro getting called up for Canada.  But a) every team has to deal with that sort of thing at some point, and b) Preki knew all along that that was the case for this game.  You can't call something that you've had a week to prepare for bad luck, it's your job Preki to come up with a plan that works with what you have.  A defensive system can work well with players out, even missing Attakora and De Guzman, we looked solid, which is a testament to the discipline and focus on defence that Preki has brought.  But if the only players who can create something within that system aren't playing, then you have to change things around, which Preki didn't do, a starting midfield of Nane, Labrocca, Saric and Gargan really isn't going to create much.

Mista had a nice touch here or there but was generally anonymous.  Without other quality players causing problems for the defence to give him room to create, he's easily stifled, he doesn't have the power or pace to create things for himself, and for the money he's being paid he should be able to do that.

All in all, we got what we played for, we went to play a team on a roll, away from home, and we only conceded one goal, that's a good result.  But to suggest it's only bad luck and bad bounces that stopped us from scoring is just a cop-out on Preki's behalf.  Those players playing that sytem were always going to struggle, it's a coach's job to give them a chance, not to blame bad luck.