With just five matches remaining in their regular season, Vancouver Whitecaps have fired Carl Robinson, who has coached the team since 2013.
Which, well, OK — that’s kind of weird, but Vancouver can do what they want, right?
The playoff implications, though, are particularly interesting to us, so let’s talk about them.
Two things are the classic possibilities when a coach is fired: Either there is a bump in performance or a dip in performance. For Real Salt Lake upon the firing of Jeff Cassar, it was a dip. Most of what I’ve read surrounds the opposite.