On Monday the Montreal Impact held their end of season post-mortem with the media in attendance. It gave manager Frank Klopas and some of the players a chance to express themselves after a very disappointing 2014 MLS regular season campaign. After making the playoffs last year, the Impact took a major step back in 2014 finishing dead last in the league.
Lack of Leadership:
An overarching theme that was expressed by the players on Monday was a lack of leadership on and off the field this season. Current Impact captain Patrice Bernier specifically cited the loss of Alessandro Nesta and Davy Arnaud as big gaps that were not filled during last off-season. Although both Nesta and Arnaud were criticized last season at points by supporters, their on-field leadership was sorely missed.
Unhappy Campers:
A number of players truly took the opportunity to sound off on Monday including former starting keeper Troy Perkins. Perkins had been a core member of the Impact over the last year and a half and arguably one of the most solid keepers in the MLS. However, this season he struggled to maintain his form and lost his starting position to back-up keeper Evan Bush. Perkins was quoted as saying, “I wouldn’t want to return to a place I’m not wanted. I don’t think I deserved the blame for what happened in the first half of the season, and I think it was put on me.”
Canadian International Issey Nakajima-Farran was another player that expressed his unhappiness on Monday. Nakajima-Farran was acquired in a trade early in the season with Toronto FC however saw very little playing time. When he was given the chance to play he was certainly one of the hardest working players on the Impact. The Calgary-born midfielder stated, “I’m not too familiar with how things work here, but being traded you expect to play more, and to be honest, I pretty much got binned.”
Monday was not just another end of season media debrief, as there was truly an air of unhappiness among the players. At a club that has had three different managers in three years there are a lot of questions that must be answered about the future direction of the club.
Changes Coming:
Manager Frank Klopas accepted the blame for the poor performance this season and stated that the coaching staff would have to re-evaluated the roster before the start of next season. This is a concerning comment from a coach that seemed all over the map this year in terms of his personnel. Supporters were often confused by the lack of logic that was often displayed in the team selection and in game substitutions.
During the 2013 season there was a certain confidence in the lineups that Marco Schällibaum would pick. Even by the end of the season when the Impact were struggling, Schällibaum stuck with his character players. Not only did Montreal lose leadership last off-season, they lost a lot of character.
The passion from Club President Joey Saputo is there, as is a solid foundation for growth. However, the front office and players on the field must pull together to move the team in the right direction. With the Impact playing their next game at the end of February in Mexico as part of the CONCACAF Champions League quarterfinals it does not allow for much time to make the necessary adjustments.
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