CF Montreal 2024 MLS season preview: Can Courtois recreate Nancy's magic?
CF Montreal has finished in the top half of the MLS standings just once since the club’s 2016 appearance in the Eastern Conference final.
That was in 2022 under now-MLS Cup champion Wilfried Nancy. With Montreal’s points total having plunged from 65 to just 41 under Nancy’s replacement, Hernan Losada, the pressure is on chief sporting officer Olivier Renard to prove that the success of a year ago can be replicated.
It’s unsurprising, then, that Renard looked to Nancy’s Columbus Crew after firing Losada. Laurent Courtois, who coached the Crew’s reserve team to back-to-back MLS Next Pro finals, takes charge in Quebec in his first senior-level head coaching role.
State of play
Both Courtois and Nancy have generally adopted a 3-4-2-1 or 3-4-1-2 shape and while the principles are more important than the formation, it seems reasonable to expect that could be a starting point in Montreal.
Wing-back was a persistent problem for Montreal last season and the acquisitions of Raheem Edwards and Ruan, as well as a full season of Ariel Lassiter, should help considerably.
The most notable departure is, of course, Romell Quioto, whose contract has not been renewed after an injury-hit season. Renard has rolled the dice in a bid to replace him: Matias Coccaro, brought in from Huracan in Argentina, enjoyed a hot spell last summer but has not been consistently prolific, while Josef Martinez is — in MLS circles — a huge name who has struggled to return to his dominant best since an ACL tear in 2020.
What do they need?
The most obvious difference between Nancy’s Montreal and Losada’s was in attack, with their output falling from 63 goals in 2022 to 36 in 2023.
Quioto’s injuries saw his total fall from 15 goals to just three, while Chinonso Offor netted four goals in roughly the same number of minutes with which Kei Kamara put away nine. Djordje Mihailovic (also nine) was the other major loss.
A full season of Kwadwo Opoku, who netted four times in 12 games after his trade from LAFC, should help.
In an ideal world, Coccaro provides a major return on his reported $2 million transfer fee and Courtois' possession-oriented style breathes life back into Martinez at age 30.
But even if the best-case scenario does not come to pass, that duo combined with promising youngsters Sunusi Ibrahim and Jules-Anthony Vilsaint and the talented but injury-prone Mason Toye should be able to make enough of a dent to be in the playoff picture.
Burning question
Will Courtois be able to strengthen Montreal's growing reputation for player development?
2023 was not quite as fruitful as 2022 had been in that regard but Losada was nevertheless able to guide Mathieu Choiniere to the All-Star Game and Jonathan Sirois enjoyed a breakout campaign.
Notre nouvel entraîneur-chef a réalisé un de ses rêves.
— CF Montréal (@cfmontreal) January 11, 2024
"Montreal has all the ingredients to have an incredible success story."
- Laurent Courtois#CFMTL pic.twitter.com/RQT7TYoVY7
Outside recruits such as Opoku (22) and Dominik Iankov (23) appear to have no shortage of upside but a lot of attention in Montreal will be on academy graduate Nathan Saliba.
Saliba made 28 appearances, 20 of which were starts, in his debut MLS campaign and at 20 has plenty of runway still in front of him.
Outlook for 2024
MLS asked 17 of its commentators and pundits to predict Montreal's position and only two put them in the playoffs — and both in the ninth and final spot.
That feels overly pessimistic. There were certainly stretches of 2023 in which this team was distinctly unimpressive but they still finished only two points outside of the playoffs.
This is a much deeper roster than kicked off the previous campaign and if Courtois is the upgrade most seem to think he is, Montreal should be in the mix for a postseason berth once again.
