VANCOUVER – In the wake of the Vancouver Whitecaps’ dismal 1-0 loss at the hands of Real Salt Lake’s ‘B’ team on Saturday night, you’d think it would be easy to point fingers.

But while there are many problems evident, there are no clear solutions in sight – at least from this group of players.

This Whitecaps side, despite its assertions at various points in the MLS campaign, does not have an identity, at least not one that is particularly clear to the outsider.

At times this season Vancouver has been a prolific outfit offensively, But of late, it can hardly score at all – the Whitecaps have been shut out a remarkable four times over their last seven games.

A 3-0 win over the Montreal Impact last weekend was, we were led to believe, a turning point for a struggling side which had just two wins in its previous 10 matches. Instead, it seems that thrashing of a Canadian rival was but a false dawn.

Every player wants to win, but on Saturday a group of Vancouver’s supposed best players went up against what was essentially a reserve RSL team and not only failed to get a result, but failed to perform. They were thoroughly outplayed and outclassed by a bunch of guys who have hardly seen competitive action this year.

How did things come to this?

How did a bunch of depth players come to Vancouver and outplay the home team’s starting lineup comfortably in front of a sold out BC Place?

Part of the problem perhaps lies in the fact that the Whitecaps have never had a starting eleven, at least not a predictable one.

In goal, the team is on its third goalkeeper this season in David Ousted. At centre back, Jay DeMerit and Carlyle Mitchell made just their second starts alongside one another.

As for the midfield, Jun Marques Davidson made just his third start in nine matches. In attack, Russell Teibert started just his first game in four matches, and forward Tommy Heinemann made just this third start of the season.

With these numbers in mind, perhaps a positive result shouldn’t have been expected at all. This team lacks cohesion and coherence, and even the organization head coach Martin Rennie has supposedly brought to the Whitecaps was in little evidence on this night.

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A big complaint from critics last season was the level of mid-season shuffling that went on ahead of a late campaign nosedive. This year the club made only one significant mid-season move, acquiring Ousted.

However, there’s really no point in trying to keep your squad together if you’re going to juggle your lineup to the extent described above.

But how does Vancouver turn things around? With his team in need of goals, Rennie was uncharacteristically aggressive, bringing Darren Mattocks and Kekuta Manneh in the 54th minute to try and claw his side back into the game.

If these are the two players that Rennie relies on to make things happen, they’ll need to find sharpness very quickly because they’ve hardly seen competitive action in recent times. Mattocks had played just seven minutes over the club’s previous four games, while Manneh hadn’t figured at all in the three matches prior to Saturday’s substitute appearance.

Players do not suddenly jump into top form without a run of games, and sides do not become well oiled machines through this cut and paste, chop and change way of doing things.

Coaches need to figure out their best team early in the season, and then make sure that group plays together as consistently as possible. That’s the only way a club will find consistent success.

Given Vancouver’s schedule, which for a large period has consisted of just one game a week, there’s no need for rotation for strategic reasons. Yes, some changes have been required due to injuries, but on this night, only designated player Kenny Miller was unavailable for selection.

Four games now remain in the season and Rennie still doesn’t know who his best players are or what his optimal starting eleven is.

That’s a problem.