Is Ryan Gauld actually a legitimate MVP candidate in the MLS?

Vancouver fans vs neutral fans

Well I think the Whitecaps supporters will be easily saying yes and he is the most underrated player in the MLS, but for non-Caps supporters, if they know Ryan Gauld they would probably not even think about Ryan Gauld being in the MVP race. As Gauld is always massively underrated by the neutral fans of Major League Soccer, and I agree with that as I do not think he gets the recognition that he deserves even if it's professionals, like opposition commentators they don't give Gauld a tint of thought in the MVP race in the MLS. So it is pretty clear that Gauld is being underrated around the league, but the Whitecaps supporters certainly think otherwise, as I've seen so much Caps fans on Twitter, Instagram, even some other blog posts has discussed this topic, so he does get so much recognition by Whitecaps supporters, and they know that Gauldfather is guiding the Caps into success as the star or most supporters will say superstar. But is the not much recognition from the rest of the MLS not even be considered to be a Most Valuable Player consistent, or the support by the Whitecaps supporters will be enough to make him to be a MVP candidate.

Early Season Struggles

Although Gauld has had a wonderful last 15 games or so, there was also I would say a little slump at the start of the season. It doesn't help his MVP case as he took 3 months to finally score a goal, it took Gauld until May 31 to score a goal against the Houston Dynamo to score a late but unimportant goal, as it was already 5-2 and he just scored one in the last minute to make it 6-2. Other than failing to score, Gauld in Major League Soccer play had gone 9 games without a goal contribution, which doesn't really seem like a MVP it may have set him back too much, it took him 14 games to finally bury a goal. For the first 13 games of his MLS appearances, he has only gotten 1 assist and that was all the stats that he got. As Gauld in my opinion still contributed to the Caps a lot despite not scoring or assisting much in the first 13 games. But will the Landon Donovan MLS MVP voters know that Gauld still contributed or will they just look at the stats? So this might bump Ryan Gauld a bit back as going 13 games without scoring is not very good for the Most Valuable Player in the MLS.

After that

After the not the best start for the Gauldfather in his 2023 campaign, after failing to open his MLS bank account in 13 games. When he gets his engine it is rapid fire, as not only has he produced at a extremely high level in the passing and playmaking play for the Whitecaps he is also finally getting his goals and assists as he has gotten 21 goal contributions in his last 16 games in all competitions which is mad, as with how he started off the season a bit sluggish it is insane how he got to this form, as even Ryan Gauld from 2022 wasn't as good and last year Gauld was 100% the best player on that team. Gauld last season had 8 goals and 9 assists in MLS play, which is good but Ryan Gauld from this season has already surpassed the amount of last season. As after the slow start for Gauld in the start of the season, he has gotten 10 goals and 8 assists in MLS play, with the goals being a career high in the MLS season and the assists only being 1 shy of also being a personal career high for the Gauldfather. So Ryan Gauld has got a G+A of 17 in the last 12 games in Major League Soccer, and if he was on this pace for the whole season, he would have around 48 goal contributions per year in 34 games. So this is absolutely a benefit to his resume to a MLS MVP as the form and performances he's had recently is nothing short of incredible, as that amount of goal contributions for a person that's on the Whitecaps is kind of unfamiliar but is this part of the season deserving enough to win the MVP? Or was the poor and partly unlucky stats, a bit to far to overcome. No denying that Gauld was hugely contributing the team, but will the MVP voters be blinded by the stats and not give as much thoughts to the contributions this guy made?

Other factors

First of all, Vancouver is a pretty small market team in the MLS, a team in the village and not a really well known club in the MLS, I believe that this might affect the voters as they usually vote for players who plays for more known MLS clubs. As last year Nashville was pretty talked about where Hany Mukhtar won the MLS MVP last year, Carlos Gil for New England in 2021, New England a very popular sports city. So popularity might become a factor, also he isn't really fancy as he hasn't scored a really really good goal so far this season and some people like more fancy and stylish people and ignore the simpleness of the game which is in my opinion, also a very hard technique to pull off just to finish a goal simply as the pressure is on you, you hear whatever you hear from the crowd so it is actually way tougher than people think to score a simple goal. Also if Gauld successfully leaves the Whitecaps to a potential top 3 seed, then they'll say that both he and the Caps progressed and he will be the main point to this team, as he will be the main and the center point of focus and he might be a possible nominee, even though maybe some of the voters will argue their way into saying White was a huge part of that success judging off the goals total. So those may also be factors of why Gauld might or might not be a MVP candidate.

My Thoughts

I think unfortunately due to how underrated that Gauld gets by the neutral MLS media, I don't think that he will be a nominee. You get 5 nominees per year, with one being the winner. Each year if he continues to stay with Vancouver and the Whitecaps get better and better he will finally get the recognition he deserves but for now I don't believe that he will get nominated and maybe a possible top 10 candidate but I don't think there's much chance for him winning the MVP at least for this season. Like it is kinda ridiculous how little recognition he gets from the rest of the league, but I think it will be because of im being underrated and not being too well known that he won't make it to the nominees list as even though that Gauld has been absolutely quality, he might not be a top 5 player in the league especially if you are just a neutral fan, also I think that if the start of the season was similar to the form he has now I legitimately think that Ryan Gauld should win the MVP pretty straight, first of all your team gets better, two you will be the highest goal scorer and still get a lot of assists. But I think Gauld will need a absolutely superb finish to win the Landon Donovan MLS MVP this season, which is like 10 goals and 5 assists in the last 8 MLS regular season games to win MVP. Maybe 6 goals and 4 assists to possibly at least get some recognition in the nominating and the candidate part of thing.