Toronto FC: Is Greg Vanney under-appreciated?

Greg Vanney has led Toronto FC to immense success. But is the TFC slightly underappreciated given the attention his players receive?

Toronto FC have been one of the most consistently successful teams in Major League Soccer in recent seasons. After a rough decade, with an injection of cash and revolution in recruitment and coaching, the Reds emerged as one of the elite teams in MLS. And they have remained that way ever since.

The 2017 season was their most successful, of course, winning a historic treble and notching more points than ever before in the regular season — many consider the 2017 iteration of Toronto FC to be the greatest team in MLS history.

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This week, one of the key cogs in that team, creative midfielder Victor Vazquez, spoke about the brilliance of that team, and he could not help but mention head coach Greg Vanney as he did. Speaking to TFC’s Footy Talks, Vazquez candidly said:

"“I think we were really close to the Barca way at that time. Because of the players we had, because of the system we were playing, because we could change the system because Greg thought that maybe working 4-3-3 was better than 3-5-2. And everything around the players, we adjusted to whatever we need on the pitch.”"

There certainly was a degree of flexibility and fluidity to that team. The movements of Sebastian Giovinco in behind Jozy Altidore, all fed by Vazquez inch-perfect supply lines, were very Barca-esque. It was a possession-based approach that suffocated opponents and then had the individual brilliance of Giovinco when things were not so smooth.

And at the helm was Vanney, who Vazquez compared favourably to the great Pep Guardiola when asked what his former head coach’s best qualities are:

"“How to manage the games and how to prepare against the team, he has a vision and knows they are going to play. It is so easy to come out onto the pitch and play because he gives you the perfect tips always <…> His vision and his intelligence, it’s amazing. Also, the face to face with me always was the best coach I ever had, honestly. After Guardiola, it’s Greg Vanney. With Guardiola, I had a special feeling, of course. The next one is Greg because we always could talk about everything.”"

Vanney often goes overlooked regarding the brilliance of the modern Toronto FC set-up. Giovinco, Altidore and Michael Bradley attract much of the attention. The spending and intelligent recruitment, allied with the individual brilliance on the pitch, seems to take away from Vanney’s input. When it comes to attributing praise, Vanney sometimes goes overlooked.

However, as Vazquez highlights, he is an extremely intelligent, cerebral, well-prepared, and tactically astute coach. He is more than willing to change formations, he has improved the players at his disposal, while he showed the awareness to let the brilliant talents he had loose on the rest of the league. Lesser managers would have demanded control; Vanney provided a loose frame for his stars but ultimately let them fly.

You could make a very fair argument that the Toronto FC head coach is underappreciated for the brilliant work he has produced. He might have enjoyed brilliant players, but he also knew how to get the best out of them, just as Vazquez highlights. And for that, he deserves to be praised.