MONTREAL – Toronto FC manager Aron Winter won't be standing pat as he watched his team fall to its fourth successive league loss to start the season on Saturday.
“It’s very simple, in the coming weeks I’m going to change some things,” Winter told reporters after his team lost 2-1 to the Montreal Impact at Olympic Stadium. “Zero points out of four games. I prefer to do it different with some players who are not making those mistakes or they want to battle.”
Winter was not happy with the way the team opened the derby match against Montreal, Toronto’s biggest rivals. He felt that his team played better after they were reduced to 10 men when defender Logan Emory took a red card for a tackle in the 65th minute.
“It wasn’t a red card,” Winter said. “I think with 10 men we were playing better than [with] 11, much better. You can make mistakes, but what I didn’t like was how we reacted, how we started.”
OPTA Chalkboard: How Montreal's new-look lineup beat Toronto
The manager feels he has the players to make the changes within the squad, but he did not rule out new acquisitions.
“Everything is possible, we are going to try to bring in also some other players,” Winter said. “I have to. They are playing decent and we are a little bit weak defensively. I want to win. I want to get the points.”
The loss put the Reds at 0-4-0 to open the league campaign and takes some of the lustre away from the achievement of reaching the CONCACAF Champions League semifinals.
The CCL is over for TFC after a 6-2 loss to Santos Laguna in Torreón, Mexico, on Wednesday and the club's MLS Cup Playoffs chances may slip farther away if the slide continues for TFC.
And once again on Saturday, Toronto FC were done in by giving up easy goals. They have conceded 19 goals in eight competitive matches in 2012.
“You can prepare yourself very well, you can do everything but if you’re always making those simple mistakes, you can’t do anything [about] it,” Winter said.
Danny Koevermans may have scored a goal with two minutes remaining against Montreal, but Winter was left wondering where the urgency was earlier in the contest.
“What I didn’t like when you’re playing what you call a derby then you have to see it on the pitch that you want to battle, but I missed it from our side,” he said.
When asked if he was concerned for his job, Winter was very direct.
“At this moment not,” he said. “What I’m thinking is we’re still in the whole process of building a team. ... I don’t think about my job that something is going to happen.”
