MLS Preview: Impact in tough without additions Montreal’s slim postseason hopes depend on landing a quality forward and having players step up to fill the gaping leadership hole on the roster, Noel Butler writes.

Noel Butler Analyst, TSN Radio 690 Montreal Archive

2017 Record: 11-17-6 (ninth in the Eastern Conference)

Playoffs: Didn’t qualify

Season Opener: March 4 at Vancouver at 6 p.m. ET/3 p.m. PT (TSN 1/3)

Additions:

GK - Jason Beaulieu

GK Clément Diop

GK - James Pantemis

D - Zakaria Diallo

D - Raheem Edwards

D - Thomas Meilleur-Giguère

D - Michael Petrasso

D - Jukka Raitala

M - Ken Krolicki

M - Saphir Taïder

M - Jeisson Vargas

Subtractions:

GK - Eric Kronberg

GK - Maxime Crepeau (season-long loan)

D - Deian Boldor

D - Laurent Ciman

D - Hassoun Camara

D - Wandrille Lefèvre

D - Ambroise Oyongo

M - Adrian Arregui

M - Hernán Bernardello

M - Patrice Bernier

M - Blerim Džemaili

M – Michael Salazar (season-long loan)

M - Shaun Francis

M - Andrés Romero

M - Ballou Jean-Yves Tabla

F – Nick DePuy (season-long loan)

Three Big Questions:

Can Mancosu and Jackson-Hamel deliver the goals?

If there was one player the Impact needed to bring in during the off-season it was a top-class centre forward – one who is not only a natural scorer in front of the net, but also fully capable of playing with his back to the goal. The Impact are in need of the kind of striker who can win the ball in the air, hold it up and then successfully link his teammates into the attack. Ignacio Piatti would thrive on such service in the final third of the pitch.

However, the reality is the Impact enters this season with a wounded Anthony Jackson-Hamel, who limped out of a Feb. 21 thrashing by the Union, and veteran Matteo Mancosu at striker.

Mancosu has only shown rare glimpses that he’s capable of shouldering the scoring burden over his time with the Impact. Last year, Mancosu returned a quite paltry six goals and two assists over his 26 appearances – 20 of those were starts.

Jackson-Hamel’s 2017 was without a doubt his best season since signing his first MLS deal and turning professional back in 2014. He had nine goals in 21 games, with only 11 starts. However, this could mean AJH, as he likes to be called, is most effective coming off the bench. You also have to consider that Jackson-Hamel’s scoring was contained to just six games, and three times last season he registered a brace.

There’s also a growing concern the Canadian international has become injury-prone. New coach Remi Garde, along with the key members of his staff, needed to address Jackson-Hamel’s fitness level during training camp. He suffered cramps during matches too often last season.

If there’s one thing more vital for the Impact this season than securing a designated player-type centre forward, it’s a decent start to their campaign. They play five of their first six matches on the road.

With Jackson-Hamel on the sidelines, the initial offensive burden falls on Mancosu. If the 33-year-old ex-Bologna man can get even close to the four goals and two assists he had during a strong 2016 postseason, he will have done much to repay the incredible faith shown in him by management when they made his loan permanent by signing him to a two-year contract heading into 2017. Mancosu’s new contract came largely based on the back of that outstanding playoff contribution.

If Mancosu and Jackson-Hamel do not respond to the goal-scoring bell early, the Impact could be in trouble by the time Laurent Ciman marks his return to Montreal the day of the Stade Saputo home opener in late April.

Who replaces Bernier, Camara and Ciman’s leadership and experience?

Patrice Bernier and Hassoun Camara lived and breathed every single moment of the Impact’s MLS existence until both hung up their well-trodden boots at the end of the 2017 season. Ciman’s astonishing trade to LAFC the day of the expansion draft last December still reverberates.

Bernier most certainly could have helped out both on and off the pitch this term for Garde. His form in the early season was so pleasing to the eye that even Italian midfield genius Andrea Pirlo took notice.

For Camara, multiple concussions and other injuries took their toll to the point that early retirement was the only rational option for the 32-year-old Frenchman who became so enamoured with his adopted city that he now calls Montreal home. His vast experience in an Impact jersey, alongside his naturally humble demeanour, will be sorely missed both on and off the pitch.

Ciman might not have possessed the greatest bedside manner but what can’t be discounted is that he was an Impact player who cut his football cloth in lowly Charleroi before going on to be part of one of the best football playing nations at World Cups and European Championships. You can be sure Ciman will want to put 2017 behind him and return to his best in 2018 with another World Cup on the horizon.

While he’s been a marvellous footballer and inspirational figure, Piatti is not the personality type to naturally slot into the gaping leadership hole that exists in Montreal. Garde said on the eve of the season that it would be “captain by committee.”

Evan Bush, now the Impact’s elder statesman, can only shoulder so much of that load. Samuel Piette, who settled in immediately after signing with the Impact last summer, will most certainly be at the forefront in effectively delivering Garde’s message and setting the tone on the pitch. His effective and consistent play shone through at times during the darkness of 2017.

Will Garde be given proper time?

Even though Montreal reached the playoffs three times in the six seasons the club has been in MLS, four head coaches have already come and gone at Stade Saputo. This trend must end with Mauro Biello’s departure.

I stated when Biello was appointed back in late August 2015 that what the Impact needed at that moment was stability over success. That is even more apparent now after the chaos and catastrophe of 2017.

Garde has his work cut out to even keep his club in the playoff hunt until the summer window. That or the Impact will need to unearth a few diamonds in the rough from the plethora of professional footballers currently not attached to a club that they could bring in immediately. He will need an entire season to find his MLS feet, and the same holds for his expensively assembled backroom team.

Garde not only takes over as head coach, but he also has a significant say overseeing academy matters and best practices. One learns through adversity – something Garde is experiencing as a number of his key players begin the season on the sidelines nursing injuries.

It’s imperative that the man who was bought in to replace Biello is given a mulligan this season.