Rotation or all-in?: Fraser's important decision for Toronto FC vs CF Montreal | OneFootball

With the Canadian Championship rules stating three Canadians must start for each team, Toronto FC's Robin Fraser will have some decisions to make on his starting lineup against CF Montreal.

Toronto FC are set to take on CF Montreal in a Canadian Championship edition of the 401 derby at BMO Field on Wednesday, April 30th. The match will kick off at 7:00 p.m. ET. Fresh off a loss on the weekend to New York City FC, Toronto heads into a must-win match against its biggest rivals.

The Canadian Championship is also the only realistic piece of silverware either club could win in the near future, based on how the season has progressed so far. With that said, Robin Fraser's lineup on Saturday against NYCFC showed no signs of resting players ahead of the midweek match, outside of Insigne's inclusion on the bench.

Should Toronto go full strength on Wednesday? Absolutely. Ultimately, it will also be a matter of whether everyone can go full strength on Wednesday without putting themselves at risk of not being able to play next Saturday against the New England Revolution.

What bench players could start on Wednesday for Toronto FC?

One of the first players who comes to mind as a potential starter against Montreal is midfielder Markus Cimermancic. The 20-year-old Canadian signed a first-team contract this summer and started Toronto's first two games of the season, although he has not played MLS minutes since March 22nd.

If Kosi Thompson and Theo Corbeanu are benched on Wednesday, Cimermancic would be one of the logical options to help reach the quota of three Canadians needing to start in the Canadian Championship. Speaking of Kosi Thompson, if he were to be benched, Kobe Franklin would almost certainly be the option at right-back to start. It's hard to say what Robin Fraser's opinion is on Franklin, as he has played just 30 minutes so far this season.

Returning to the midfield, Alonso Coello could be in line for a start to give Deybi Flores some rest with the Honduran racking up 316 minutes over his last four matches. Coello last started for Toronto FC in the 0-0 draw against the Vancouver Whitecaps at the end of March.

It feels unlikely the veteran pair of Sigurd Rosted and Kevin Long will remain intact against Montreal. Nicksoen Gomis is the obvious choice to come in, and realistically, it can be said that his addition to the backline makes it stronger. Gomis has had some solid showings this season, particularly in his last match against Inter Miami, before being added to the injury list. The Frenchman returned to the squad versus New York, and it feels likely he will get the start beside Rosted.

While cup matches are a perfect time to swap out keepers to get those backups much-needed playing time, it does not make a lot of sense to swap out Sean Johnson, who has arguably been playing his football so far with Toronto FC over these last few weeks. Luka Gavran is not a bad option, especially in helping reach that three Canadian minimum, but in a cup match that Toronto could easily lose if they're not ready, having Johnson between the sticks makes a world of more sense.

It looks like Montreal feels the same way about the goalkeeper dilemma for this match as well. Sebastian Breza started this weekend against the New York Red Bulls, giving Jonathan Sirois his first match off of the season.

The attack is a bit harder to predict, especially with some injury unknowns at the moment. Derrick Etienne Jr was listed as out with a lower-body injury this week, as well as Deandre Kerr. In the match against NYCFC, Bernardeschi appeared to have come off injured in the 70th minute, which means he may also be unable to start against Montreal.

Options start to become fairly slim then, with Lorenzo Insigne almost certainly getting a start versus Montreal. Ola Brynhildsen, who just barely missed out on being in the squad against NYCFC, may very well be the starting striker unless Fraser wants to go back with Charlie Sharp, albeit that feels unlikely.

Truth be told, can we say this squad has the strongest eleven yet? The 4-2-3-1 formation has been yielding better results for Fraser in recent weeks, but there's still a lot of unknown, especially from an attacking perspective, on who will give Toronto the best chance to win week in and week out.