Whitecaps: Tuning out the noise of 2019, Montero hopes to make some of his own this year

The shouts, the anger, the vitriol directed toward Fredy Montero grew louder and louder as the Vancouver Whitecaps’ 2019 season unfolded — or, perhaps, folded, depending on your opinion of the team — with media both traditional and social hosting toxic arenas of negativity regarding the striker’s ability.“Too expensive,” fans grumbled while seated.But his exit interview last season let him turn down the volume on his detractors, tune out the hate and focus on the future.

When Montero returned to Vancouver after 13 months with Sporting CP in Portugal, the expectation was he would recapture his form of 2017, when he scored 14 goals for an offensively limited Caps’ squad. But 2019 saw just eight goals from Montero, and half of those were penalty kicks. Four goals from a Designated Player, with a salary of US$968,000, was underwhelming production — and no one knew that better than Montero.

“The message I’m trying to give is … to worry about the striker. That’s the thing we need to change. The striker is here to score goals,” said Montero, who won’t have the DP tag this year, with his salary charge being bought down with allocation money. “Yes, is going to defend. Yes, he’s going to run and help the team to defend. But when we’re attacking, we have to care about giving the ball to him. He’s going to finalize all these passes, all these crosses.

Montero isn’t using some clever sophistry to paper over the symptoms of his advancing age. He’s well aware he’s on the high side of 30, and has adjusted his game accordingly. He picks his moments to make his runs. He doesn’t stretch defences like he used to, and is accepting that he can’t be a lone striker or centre-forward anymore.

His value has been on display late in games recently, as has his versatility and embracement of his new role as a substitute. “Right now, he’s in a certain level of fitness that maybe we don’t right now see him being a starter. But he has a role for the team when he has to be in,” added Dos Santos. “If he’s in 90 minutes, 60, 15, five … he has to be there for the team. And he has been. When we called him and needed him in a certain moment of the game, he’s helped. That’s what a team has to be about. Everybody has to be ready.

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