Over time, a long time, it became the saga of the MLS offseason, even stretching into the season itself. At long last, though, following a protracted pursuit, Toronto FC have their man, with Alejandro Pozuelo joining as the club’s third Designated Player, filling the spot vacated by Sebastian Giovinco when he left for Saudi Arabia last month.

Being a playmaker, many will naturally see Pozuelo as the Giovinco replacement. There is some logic behind that view. TFC were left one DP short following the departure of their Italian creator-in-chief and so Pozuelo wouldn’t have pitched up at BMO Field were it not for developments in the transfer market in recent weeks.

But Pozuelo is a very different sort of player to Giovinco. As already mentioned, he is a playmaker, but the way he makes plays differ from the style of the Italian he is replacing. While Giovinco was very much a diminutive pass-master for Toronto FC, often slowing down the play in the final third to pick the lock of an opposition defense, Pozuelo is more likely to use his physical attributes to open up space at speed.

This isn’t to say that Giovinco slows things down and Pozuelo quickens them up. There’s too much nuance to their play to simplify things down that far, but TFC could find that the identity of their team changes in 2019 as they not only move on from their reliance on Giovinco, but on the similarly departed Victor Vazquez, too.

2019 could well be a transitional season for TFC. They have the quality and pedigree to bounce back from what was a dismal campaign in 2018, but Greg Vanney has a lot of work to do if he is to find a new identity for this group of players. The fortunes of Pozuelo will determine a lot and he stands a strong chance of success. Just don’t expect him to be Giovinco reincarnate.

Graham Ruthven is a soccer writer based in the U.K. He has written for the New York Times, Guardian, Eurosport, Bleacher Report, and others.