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Well. Now what?
Bob Bradley is no longer in charge of Toronto FC and the Reds have seemingly made a major step toward change. Seemingly, anyway. From my 10,000-foot view as a league-wide writer, Toronto have just taken one big step of the many needed to get things back on track.
Bradley is gone and, all considered, it isn't all that surprising. We’re team “Managers Don’t Actually Matter Much, According to the Research” here at The Daily Kickoff, but Bradley had two counts against him that factored in. Clearly, there were problems in the locker room. You didn’t need that deep-dive piece from The Athletic to guess there were issues after Federico Bernardeschi’s public comments on the team a couple of months back. But that piece sure as heck confirmed it. It's hard to come back from things like that.
On top of that, the crux of the “Managers matter less than you think” argument is the players and those in charge of building the roster matter far, far more. Bradley’s joint role as sporting director gave him the kind of say in the roster managers typically don’t have. That role means there is a heavier load to bear when things go wrong, and things have certainly gone wrong in Toronto this year. It’s hard to tell when they’re going to be right again.
This team has 19 points on the season and three wins in their last 20 games. Reporting from The Athletic indicated a disconnect between players familiar with Bradley and Toronto’s high-priced DPs, Bernardeschi and Lorenzo Insigne. There were even indications of a possible disconnect between Bernardeschi and Insigne. The locker room isn’t suddenly going to magically repair itself. Although, now is a good time to mention all of the pressure on Bradley is about to be refocused onto the two DP wingers. If they don’t start performing at a high level without Bradley, well, then they’re out of excuses.
That being said, the rest of the group will have to improve as well. It seemed like Toronto made all the right signings this offseason to correct what was a league-worst defense in 2021. To be fair, that’s largely improved. But the Reds still can’t put together complete performances and have a habit of giving away goals at inopportune times. Did we mention they have 19 points and three wins in 20 games? That’s the lowest mark in the conference by the way.
Point being, it’s hard to see this magically improving now that Bradley is gone. Which means Toronto are in a terrible place to be in any sport: Stuck with a “win-now” roster that isn’t winning. The group as a whole is old, the young players have struggled to improve and there are a whole bunch of contracts that are relatively new, relatively expensive and really, really hard to move on. It feels like they need to do a renovation of the entire thing beyond Bradley, but parting ways with Bradley is the easy part. Reshaping the roster will take time.
There’s a long road ahead for this team. I can only imagine how frustrating that is for Toronto fans who already watched this team part ways with a coach midseason in 2021 as the team finished in second-to-last place in the conference. Now, they may be set to see their team finish in second-to-last in the East for the third straight season, maybe worse, with no quick fix in sight.
Vancouver Whitecaps FC's Gauld named Player of the Matchday: Playing as a left wingback instead of his normal central spot, Ryan Gauld excelled in Saturday night's 3-2 victory at LAFC, contributing to all three 'Caps goals with a 1g/2a performance and taking home Player of the Matchday presented by Continental Tire honors for Matchday 21.
- Here’s how to watch and stream Canada vs. Guadeloupe. And how to do the same for USA vs. St. Kitts & Nevis.
- Charles Boehm picked out the best young-player performers in Matchday 21.
- Check out the Team of the Matchday presented by Audi.
- Take a look at all the All-Star Week events on the way.
- Kehlani will headline the MLS All-Star Concert on July 17.
Good luck out there. Give the people what they want.
