6ix on a Wave: What’s our best formation?

Hey Gang!

Welcome to Waking The Red’s newest regular weekly feature, in which I toss out a Toronto FC hot take or three, and the magic happens below, in the comments field. It’s an opportunity for us to engage with our readers as this massive, epochal year for our Reds ramps up.

Speaking of engagement, many of you may not know there is a whole other side to WTR, the Fanposts, where members of the community get free reign via quick posts, long form articles, and even, say, poetry. We plan to feature these posts on the regular in this space, so be sure to try your hand at one.

Now, for today’s hot take:

As MLS soccer analyst Matthew Doyle is fond of saying, last year, TFC won the Voyageurs Cup and the Supporters’ Shield in the 3-5-2, but clowned Seattle and took the MLS Cup in a 4-4-2 diamond.

We’ve all speculated, wildly, during this year’s silly season (offseason and preseason) how all the new signings pointed to a more regular use of the 4-4-2. We’ve certainly added enough depth and marquee players that a 4-4-2 seemed etched in stone for 2018.

And yet, here we are.

We fielded the 4-4-2 throughout preseason to great effect, less so in our two-leg CCL matchup against Colorado and home debut loss to Columbus in MLS. Last week, in one of the biggest games in franchise history, we went back to what we know best, to smashing effect.

I know it’s still early days and, as we said repeatedly in our VDW vs Auro Jr. roundtable debate, the sample size is very small, but what does everybody think, going into the decisive second leg against Tigres and onward in MLS, is our best formation?

Are we stuck in a catch-22 where we need to be patient with all the new guys and a new formation? Do we double down on the old faithful 3-5–2, and accept that we may be slowing down or complicating this process for wins in the short term?

Leave your comments below and let’s hash it out!