CF Montreal - 2023 Season Thread

[phil03]

16 hours ago, Bison44 said:

Oooops! All my grade school french got me was detention.  I did pick up some good swears from the french kids at school though.  

French Canadian swearing is best swearing, that just a fact!

8 hours ago, Ozzie_the_parrot said:

Definitely strange. Four years of O grade level French in Scotland was enough to more or less make myself understood in shops and restaurants etc any time I am in Paris or Montreal, but then I find small town Ontario dudes who must have sat through way more French language lessons than I ever did will start asking me for help any time I am in Quebec as if they had suddenly landed on another planet...

We are getting a bit away from Soccer but IMO a big part of the issues we, has a country, have with bilingualism come from the fact that we just teach second languages the wrong way. We are obsessed with grammar rules and teaching the how when what we should do is just make people speak, read, listen to and write in the language they want to learn, so that they can absorb it on an unconscious level instead of batering them with stupid rules.

Like, the number of time some English Canadian asked me why something was written a certain way and my reaction was pretty much ''Sorry, I have no clue whatsoever. For me it just is!''...

I might be wrong but my take is that in Europe they have better teaching methods for languages.

[Big_M]

Nancy is gone..who is the next head coach of cf montreal?

 

[narduch]

I know the rumours were around for weeks but I still can't believe it.

Wonder if any players join him

[RichV]

What? Why was he not happy in Montreal?

 

[RS]

17 minutes ago, RichV said:

What? Why was he not happy in Montreal?

 

Joey Saputo

[SoCalTransport]

It should be an interesting off season for them this year

[An Observer]

Yeah.  After having the year they had and seemingly being positioned well for next year, they have lost their manager plus possibly 6 starters (Mihailovic, Johnston, Kone, Wanyama and possibly Waterman and Miller).  That will be a huge problem for any club.  Let’s hope they spend some of that money wisely to plug some of the holes, and then give some time to some more kids.  You gotta think that ZBG fills Johnston’s shoes even if for the fact that they need as much continuity as they can get in this scenario.  Choiniere should get more minutes in central midfield but I suspect they bring in a DP or two to fill Mihailovic and Wanyama’s shoes.  Rea may get some minutes but don’t think he can be relied on as it will be his first year in MLS.  Possibly Zouhir but I think he is still only 19.  If Miller and Waterman go, in some ways I think those are bigger shoes to fill especially as they didn’t retain Yao’s services.  I don’t think they have any young CBs ready for prime time so that leaves Camacho and Cordo

[narduch]

Apparently it will be Smyrniotis for manager 

 

Edited December 6, 2022 by narduch

[Ozzie_the_parrot]

 

[PastPros]

23 minutes ago, Ozzie_the_parrot said:

 

No French (insert grimace emoji).

Good luck, Bobby!

[phil03]

What is at least possible is that the rumours come from the club itself: they know they are gonna pay a price if they hire a coach who doesn't speak French from the get go but they want an idea of how big it is and they also know they are gonna face some questions for hiring someone who doesn't have experience at a level similar to the MLS so they might wish to gauge the level of willingness to give a chance based on CPL success.

[SoCalTransport]

Since Montreal has all this cash now, will they sign a couple DPs, and who would those DPs be?

[An Observer]

1 hour ago, SoCalTransport said:

Since Montreal has all this cash now, will they sign a couple DPs, and who would those DPs be?

Wanyama is leaving and I think he is their only DP so I suspect they will at least sign one.  And probably use TAM to sign someone to replace Mihailovic (or the other way around, DP for an AM and TAM for a DCM).  I am not sure they will use transfer cash to sign two.  Tbh, I wouldn’t recommend blowing in on that unless they come across someone they really think they can develop and sell on.  Better to use the cash to invest in the infrastructure of the club and the academy/scouting network as that will pay greater dividends down the road.

[Unnamed Trialist]

On 12/3/2022 at 4:38 PM, phil03 said:

French Canadian swearing is best swearing, that just a fact!

We are getting a bit away from Soccer but IMO a big part of the issues we, has a country, have with bilingualism come from the fact that we just teach second languages the wrong way. We are obsessed with grammar rules and teaching the how when what we should do is just make people speak, read, listen to and write in the language they want to learn, so that they can absorb it on an unconscious level instead of batering them with stupid rules.

Like, the number of time some English Canadian asked me why something was written a certain way and my reaction was pretty much ''Sorry, I have no clue whatsoever. For me it just is!''...

I might be wrong but my take is that in Europe they have better teaching methods for languages.

In Europe we have proximity to other languages and then many people around you who are multilingual. Plus regions where more than 1 language is spoken. Once you've learnt one then you pick up others.

But there are plenty of unilingual  Europeans. The majority in fact have their language then maybe a bit of English, most of Germany or Italy are like that. France rather viciously represses it's linguistic heritage.

I am not good at languages, when I was younger in Quebec I was useless, my French is still mediocre though I can translate it. I learnt Spanish and Catalan by being in the milieu.

[Ozzie_the_parrot]

 

[phil03]

At the end of the day Smyrniotis wasn't going to happen. Obviously French played a key part in it but it was from alone in raising questions. For all that he deserve respect for what he did with Forge the fact does remain that he never coached at a comparable level then MTL play's in. To make that kind of jump you have to check basically all the other boxes and Smyrniotis was leaving at least one pretty big box unchecked.

Or to put it another way, either the lack of french or the lack of experience at that kind of level were significant handicaps but not necessarely deal breakers. Together, however, they were enough to sink any chance of it happening.

Edited December 10, 2022 by phil03

[Metro]

Or, Smyrniotis has his own ideas on how a team should play and Saputo thought he would make a poor puppet…😉

[Ozzie_the_parrot]

18 hours ago, phil03 said:

...For all that he deserve respect for what he did with Forge the fact does remain that he never coached at a comparable level then MTL play's in...

You could make a case for quite a few CONCACAF club competition and Canadian Championship games being comparable. Think the biggest question mark would be what would happen if/when he can't use his Sigma Academy connections to assemble a stronger roster than the other clubs in the league he is coaching in.

[phil03]

6 minutes ago, Ozzie_the_parrot said:

You could make a case for quite a few CONCACAF club competition and Canadian Championship games being comparable. Think the biggest question mark would be what would happen if/when he can't use his Sigma Academy connections to assemble a stronger roster than the other clubs in the league he is coaching in.

True, but there is still a nuance between a few games here and there and a whole season. Moreover, and I know this one won't be popular with Forge fans but the results speak for themselves, outside of 2020 final, for which Forge qualified automatically, Montréal has simply performed far better than Forge in these venues, which does speak against Smyrniotis. 

18 minutes ago, Metro said:

Or, Smyrniotis has his own ideas on how a team should play and Saputo thought he would make a poor puppet…😉

On a daily level, the calls are made by Gervais and Renard and yes, Smyrniotis would have been expected to defer to them, which I imagine a good coach like him would be happy to do considering they obviously know the league and the organization better than he. Incidentally, they are also the ones deciding who will be the next coach, not Saputo, and it has been said publicly.

The problem with Saputo isn't that he is a micro-manager is that he is comparatively cheaper than most MLS owners and can be unpleasant when he is unhappy.

At the end of the day there isn't a mystery there: as stated above, not having coached at a similar level of play day in and day out and not speaking French are both individually big points against him but not necessarily deal breakers. Together, however, it is just too much for him to be hired. I do think he deserves a shot in MLS it is just that MTL isn't the right fit for him. 

[Moldy9]

Sadly the Impact will completely suck next season. They lost a lot of good players and most importantly they lost the brain, Willy Nancies. 

Unfortunately the only kind of DP the Impact will get this year is a proper one, that will leave them hobbling until October. 

 

[costarg]

2 hours ago, Moldy9 said:

Sadly the Impact will completely suck next season. They lost a lot of good players and most importantly they lost the brain, Willy Nancies. 

Unfortunately the only kind of DP the Impact will get this year is a proper one, that will leave them hobbling until October. 

 

Nah, i don't see it.  I predict continuity, surely not 2nd in the east, but still  a very competetive team.

[Moldy9]

4 hours ago, costarg said:

Nah, i don't see it.  I predict continuity, surely not 2nd in the east, but still  a very competetive team.

You’re quite optimistic my friend, I’d like to have that belief but there’s just too many missing pieces now with Spaghetti, Johnson, Koné, and Mihailovic gone, plus the loss of the mastermind in Nancy. We all know the club is hopeless when it comes to transfer windows. When was the last time we saw them be very active with good signings? Not only that, despite the profits from the sales of those players, how much do you really think Joey Saps is gonna reinvest into the team? He is quite stingy. I fear he won’t even have any DPs to start the season and was fine riding only 1 DP last year which didn’t help their run in the playoffs in my opinion. You can pay to bring in a top rate talent to secure yourself a better foothold in the cup race but you’d rather stick with the 1 DP that’s a defensive midfielder… oh boy. That’s like when they paid DP for Bernadello the first time around. 
 

[P-O]

Monopoly $ for a U20 USA International with 20+ games in MLS.

 

First move in. Corbo out?

[costarg]

11 hours ago, Moldy9 said:

You’re quite optimistic my friend, I’d like to have that belief but there’s just too many missing pieces now with Spaghetti, Johnson, Koné, and Mihailovic gone, plus the loss of the mastermind in Nancy. We all know the club is hopeless when it comes to transfer windows. When was the last time we saw them be very active with good signings? Not only that, despite the profits from the sales of those players, how much do you really think Joey Saps is gonna reinvest into the team? He is quite stingy. I fear he won’t even have any DPs to start the season and was fine riding only 1 DP last year which didn’t help their run in the playoffs in my opinion. You can pay to bring in a top rate talent to secure yourself a better foothold in the cup race but you’d rather stick with the 1 DP that’s a defensive midfielder… oh boy. That’s like when they paid DP for Bernadello the first time around. 
 

Oliver Renaud has been outstanding since he's shown up.  I feel he's the real mastermind in this operation.  Sure Nancy was good, but it was more than just him.  Renaud gave Nancy the tools and the like replacements available at every single position.  This was something CFM (or the Impact) never had, it always hurt them deeply.  They could field a good 11, but had no bench to cover for injuries and cards.

Judging by minutes played, I think this was the most used formation:

Mihailovic / Quioto / Torres 
Lapi / Wanyama / Kone / Johnston
Miller / Camacho / Waterman

This is what we'll probably see:

Miljevic / Quioto / Torres  - Subs: Kamara, Toye
Lapi / Piette / Choiniere / ZBG  - Subs: Kwizera, Hamdi, Rea, Zouhir
Miller / Camacho / Waterman - Subs: Corbo......

Mihailovic hurts, but we seemed to do pretty well when he wasn't playing if i recall correctly, i need to check the stats....
I'm not the biggest fan of Torres, but he's got talent and tools, just needs to fine tune it.
Choiniere will kick ass this year, he can play anywhere and has a high soccer IQ, much like Johnston (i'm not saying CB!)
Piette is the natural replacement for Wanyama, perhaps we're a step behind here.
ZBG's stats speak for themselves, he had a killer year, only Johnston stood in his way.
Backline seems like it might stay intact?

 

[jordan]

New coach