One of the biggest complaints some fans have regarding Paul Mariner is that they feel that he favours non-Canadian players over the domestic group at TFC. It’s suggested that a player like Arron Maund gets too free of a pass, while a Matt Stinson rots on the bench.
Those that believe Aron Winter should have been given more time sugget that this is a key difference area between the two men. If Toronto was going to lose anyway, it might as well lose with Canadians.
Is the perception true? Did Winter use Canadians more than Mariner currently does. Let’s look.
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Using the data mined by the blog Out of Touch, we looked at TFC’s Canadian minutes for every game this season. Since Mariner has not yet led the team out for a Canadian championship game, we’ve excluded those numbers. Typically, managers at TFC have used more Canadians in the Voyageur Cup games, with the thought that the Canadians are more inspired by the competition.
Certainly, Winter operated in that way. Three of the top four games with Canadian minutes this year were in the V-Cup.
Again, these numbers are excluded so that we are as close to possible to an apples to apples comparison. They are listed below for your consideration:
V-Cup
Montreal 1st – 449
Montreal 2nd – 393
Vancouver 1st – 450
Vancouver 2nd – 333
So, Winter played Canadians for 1,620 minutes out of a possible 3,960 in the V-Cup. That represents 41 percent of minutes played.
Now, let’s break down the rest of Winter’s games:
CCL
Galaxy 1st – 180
Galaxy 2nd – 198
Santos 1st – 270
Santos 2nd – 291
939 minutes out of 3,960, or 23.7 percent.
MLS
Seattle – 90
San Jose – 225
Columbus – 235
Montreal – 308
Chivas – 304
Chicago – 338
Salt Lake – 355
DC United – 270
DC United – 405
Philly – 360
2,890 minutes out of 9,900, or 29.1 percent.
The total for Winter is 3,829 minutes out of 13,860, or 27.6 percent. If you include the Voyageurs Cup the numbers are 5,449 out of 17,820, or 30.5 percent.
Now let’s look at Mariner.
CCL
Aguila – 256
Santos – 180
Aguila – 195
631 out of 2,970, or 21.2 percent.
MLS
Kansas City – 298
Houston – 351
New England – 352
New York – 180
Philly – 204
Vancouver – 301
New England – 271
Chicago – 275
Houston – 263
Chicago – 258
Portland – 190
Kansas City – 216
Columbus – 180
Houston – 112
Kansas City – 90
Chicago – 60
Philly – 90
L.A. 180
3,871 out of 17,820, or 21.7 percent.
Overall, Mariner comes in at 4,502 minutes out of 20,790 or 21.6 percent.
So, Winter did use Canadians more than Mariner has so far -- 27.6 percent to 21.6 percent, a 6 percent difference. In terms of minutes that works out to 59:24 per game.
The trading of Julian de Guzman is likely the biggest factor in that difference, with Doneil Henry’s injury also contributing. Certainly, there has been a dramatic decrease in Canadian minutes over four of the last five games.
Lastly, we will compare the two men with the other two Canadian MLS teams.
Vancouver has a total of 0.38 percent Canadian minutes versus Montreal’s 6.25 percent.
CSN will allow others to decide what any of these numbers mean, or if they are important.