TORONTO – After a third loss in a row that could potentially see Toronto FC slip to seventh in the East by the end of the weekend, TFC boss Greg Vanney wants his team to regroup with eight games left in the season.
“We have more, and we have to be better,” Vanney said after Saturday's 2-0 home loss to Philadelphia. “It wasn’t good enough. We have eight matches left and a full week of training and I think it’s important that we take a good, hard look and figure out what is the identity of this team."
As far as Saturday's home debut as manager, Vanney felt his team struggled to find the right tempo and energy against the Union. In particular, Vanney said his team wasn’t moving fast enough or circulating the ball quick enough, forcing them to play around the visitors' midfield and back line, rather than through it.
“Any time we looked to get on the break, again, it was maybe one pass forward followed by a back pass and another back pass and we were unable to get out in the open,” Vanney said. “We played like we were a little bit underwater, maybe fatigued from the third game in seven days, but that’s no excuse. Then the ball needs to move faster. We don’t need to necessarily run more.”
And on the defensive end, Toronto again conceded two preventable goals: both open headers following failed clearances. Vanney offered his solution for those problems moving forward.
“For me, it’s anything that’s in and around the box we need to be more personal, locked in on guys,” Vanney said. “I know, in the past, these guys have worked on taking zones, but I’m not a fan of zones. I’m a fan of being up in the guy’s space and you fight for the ball. The worst case scenario, if you don’t fight, you’re knocking him off balance and [Casey] doesn’t get a clean header.”
But aside from a change from zonal marking to man marking, Vanney also says his team needs to show more focus on defensive plays from the start to the finish. He thought it was “always dangerous” when defenders don’t fully clear the ball because the “guys think the plays and the lines are cleared and they leave their responsibilities.”
“That’s about discipline and staying with a play and seeing out your responsibility until the ball is out – like literally out of danger – and then we step up our lines and reorganize back into our shape,” Vanney explained.
With a full week of training now ahead for his team, Vanney is looking to iron out those little mistakes so that they don’t happen as often in the future.
“In this game, if you do all the little things well, you give yourself a chance to win,” Vanney said. “Right now, we’re not doing the little things well; sometimes we’re trying more complicated things but we don’t need to do that right now. We need to go back to basics and build some confidence and unity from that.”
Armen Bedakian covers Toronto FC for MLSsoccer.com.
