MONTREAL – The long black pants, the cap worn backwards, the glasses… We didn’t have the blues. The previously unidentified player who was running like hell to prevent defender George Campbell from moving the ball forward was Hernan Losada.
While the third week of CF Montreal’s training camp is well underway, its new head coach is showing his colors more and more.
Wednesday, it is by inserting himself in the heart of the action that he wanted to transmit a principle which is dear to him. When Samuel Piette mentioned that the team “works a lot on pressing, being aggressive” at the end of the session, he didn’t surprise anyone who had just attended.
“It’s good to have a coach who participates, commented the midfielder. Yesterday he participated in the least pleasant part, which consists of running without the ball. It is precisely to motivate us, to show us that we have to do it and that he is with us, that we are in the same boat. He was a player, he knows what it is. And I think as a veteran, he misses the pitch a bit, so he wants to participate. »
In the Montreal ecosystem, comparisons between Losada and its predecessor will never generate the level of obsession that the Subban-Weber barter generated across town. But they will nevertheless be inevitable and will probably fill the conversations until the Argentinian’s stay in Montreal comes to an end.
While waiting for the results on the ground to provide more tangible answers, there are the training sessions and the little that can be gleaned from them at this time of year. From the inside, however, Piette says he sees little difference.
“It’s hard to say because for Losada, it’s really new for him, relativizes number 6. He takes time to get to know us as people and as players while Wilfried [Nancy] already knew us, he already knew how we played. It was somewhat similar to what we did with Thierry Henry. He simply took things on and brought his ingredients to him. »
“Hernan has to start by getting to know the players, which he is doing at the moment. But it’s very intense. I would say that at the physical level, we work perhaps more without the ball than we did with Wilfried and Jules [Gueguen, l’ancien préparateur physique]. We are starting to get into the tactical aspect, but not too much into the details. It’s coming, I think it’s something we’re going to see more of when we’re in Florida with the preseason games. But I find that the intensity is there, as with Wilfried. »
Piette notes that so far, Losada seems to be leaning towards a similar tactical scheme to Nancy’s. The coach has, however, expressed a desire to advocate a more direct style in possession.
“I think that when he says that, it may not be with the idea of projecting himself forward naively, understands Piette. It’s more about trying to move forward a little more quickly, whereas last year we were perhaps more into the theme of ‘cooking’, as Wilfried said. But after that, football remains football. You don’t just have to swing everything forward to play vertically just because the coach said he wanted to play vertically. »
Torres gone, Miller mute
Official confirmation is still pending, but be informed: Joaquin Torres will not be back with CF Montreal.
The small Argentinian striker was not seen at the Olympic Stadium on Wednesday. The finding is consistent with rumors circulating in the morning on social networks to the effect that he was about to take a flight to join his new teammates in Philadelphia, where he would have been traded.
“I don’t know what was announced, but he wasn’t there and we all know what’s coming, didn’t hide Piette. I talked to him. He has done good things for the club. It was good to be able to count on a player as creative as him, who ensured a good presence in the locker room. I only wish him well. »
Kamal Miller, whose fate is also generating a lot of speculation, took part in the training. He was to meet the media for the first time in the camp at the end of the session, but ultimately never appeared in front of the microphones. A representative of the club made the pretext that he had to receive physiotherapy treatments.
Striker Kei Kamara, whose absence from training on Monday Losada regretted, was at his post on Wednesday. He too has not been made available to the Montreal media since revealing on social media that he asked CF Montreal to trade him.
