CBC-Sports

Making a case for - and against - Mo Johnston

September 8, 2009 09:20 AM | Posted by   Jason de Vos  

Football is a game of opinions, and whether you are a player, coach, pundit or a fan, you likely have a strong opinion when it comes to your own team.

Often times, we become so convinced that our opinion is the correct one that we fail to consider the other side of things. We become blinded to the facts because we allow our emotions to take over and we find ways to justify our opinion, never truly looking at things objectively.

With Toronto FC needing an incredible run of results to qualify for the playoffs, it is looking likely that they will miss out on the post-season party once again. There are already fingers of blame being pointed, and one man sure to come under fire is Director of Soccer, Mo Johnston.

So let's take an objective look at the cases for and against the man in charge of building TFC's squad.

For Mo Johnston

Mo Johnston has done an excellent job building a team full of potential. In scooping up O'Brian White, Sam Cronin and Stefan Frei in this year's SuperDraft, Johnston surprised everyone by electing to build for the future, rather than trade his picks in order to strengthen the team now. Virtually everyone agrees that Toronto came out of the draft better off than any other team in Major League Soccer.

Two of those players, Cronin and Frei, have played significant minutes in their rookie seasons, and for that Johnston deserves credit.

He also deserves credit for the captures of Emmanuel Gomez and Amadou Sanyang. The two Gambian youngsters are raw and inexperienced, but both have immense potential.

Gomez needs to learn when he should and shouldn't take a chance on the ball, as too often overplaying catches him out. He also needs to develop his positional awareness, but he is big, strong, aggressive and quick - all must-have qualities in an ideal centre half.

Sanyang is a terrier in midfield. He's quick and aggressive, loves to get stuck in and he keeps things simple on the ball - all great qualities in a defensive midfielder. Yet he is raw and naive, and often dives into tackles that he has no business making, as we saw this past weekend when he was sent off against Colorado after picking up two needless yellow cards. Still, he will learn that side of the game and he has tremendous upside to his game.

Johnston also signed Toronto's best defender, in my opinion. All of the qualities I see in Gomez I also see in Nana Attakora. If he can come out of his shell a little bit and become more vocal, he can become the leader that TFC so desperately needs at the back. I can see him becoming the regular central defender for Toronto next season, and I expect him to play a significant part in the Canada's next World Cup campaign. If he doesn't, he'll have only himself to blame, because he has all the talent needed to be successful at the international level.

Mo is also responsible for bringing in Toronto's two top goal scorers, Dwayne De Rosario and Amado Guevara. They have combined for 14 goals from midfield, and that is a fantastic return by anyone's standards. That they have outscored all of TFC's forwards combined is another matter altogether.

If the rumoured designated player signing of Julian De Guzman materializes, Toronto will have the most talented midfield in Major League Soccer - all attributable to Johnston.

And let's not forget Johnston's masterstroke from last season. The sale of Maurice Edu to Rangers was mind-boggling, and I'm still amazed that Mo managed to get $5 million for a player who was having a mediocre second season as a professional.

Against Mo Johnston

If, as it looks likely, Toronto does not make the playoffs this season, Mo Johnston should be held directly accountable. While he has done an excellent job bringing in players for the future, he has failed to bring in players who can address two of the team's biggest problems right now: scoring goals and defending.

If you look at any successful team in the world, at any level, there is a good chance that they have a solid spine to their team. They will have a strong goalkeeper, a commanding central defender, a midfield catalyst and a potent striker. Toronto have two of the four.

In goal, Stefan Frei is a contender for Rookie of the Year - and he is only going to get better with experience. Granted, he has made mistakes, but all rookies do. Johnston's biggest concern with Frei will be keeping him in Toronto, as it won't be long before the lure of Europe proves too strong for the Swiss keeper.

Toronto also has an abundance of options in midfield, and any combination of Robinson/Cronin/Guevara/De Rosario/Sanyang should be good enough to compete with the best in MLS.

However, it speaks volumes that TFC's two best central defenders are their two youngest – Attakora and Gomez.

Both Adrian Serioux and Nick Garcia are talented, but they also have serious deficiencies in their game. Serioux's positional awareness leaves much to be desired, while Garcia lacks pace and height. As for Serioux's red card last week - it was a red. If you don't think so, take off your TFC-tinted glasses and give your head a shake - no experienced defender would risk a red by taking out a striker who was second favourite to win the ball like Serioux did.

Up front, things are even worse. Toronto's six forwards, if you include Pablo Vitti, have combined for 11 goals this season, just two more than De Rosario has scored from midfield. That is embarrassing.

It is so blatantly obvious that Toronto needs a commanding central defender and a serious goal threat up front, that I scratch my head at the logic of signing Julian De Guzman as a designated player.

Don't get me wrong, Julian is Canada's best player right now and he would be a wonderful addition. But when you are crying out for a goal scorer (and have been for three years, by the way) surely it makes more sense to spend that money on someone who will put the ball in the back of the net, rather than on a defensive midfielder?

Toronto also have only two recognized fullbacks, one of whom (Marvell Wynne) has virtually no positional awareness whatsoever. They have no recognized wingers, which has forced Chris Cummins to play two misfiring strikers (Chad Barrett and Pablo Vitti) out wide.

The squad that Mo Johnston has built is talented, but it is so unbalanced it's incredible. How this hasn't been addressed is beyond me, and I'm sure that more than a few of you have noticed this as one of the team's biggest flaws.

So now it's your turn to weigh in with your opinions. Are you for or against Mo Johnston? Do you think he's doing a fine job building a team that will compete for trophies in a year or two, or are you livid that the playoffs once again look like a distant dream?

As always, your thoughts will be read with interest.

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