Disgruntled star Federico Bernardeschi benched for upcoming TFC match

Toronto FC's disappointing season became a lot more complicated off the pitch with news that disgruntled Italian star Federico Bernardeschi has been benched for Saturday's game against D.C. United.

Coach Bob Bradley denied the move was disciplinary, calling it instead a "coach's decision."

"Fede will not be in the squad for this game. A lot going on this week, a lot of internal discussions. When you think about preparing a group for this game, we felt this was the best way to handle it," he told reporters after training Friday.

Toronto (2-5-7) is mired at the bottom of the Eastern Conference standings. And it has been making headlines for all the wrong reasons this week in the wake of Bernardeschi's unflattering comments about the team's style of play following last weekend's 1-0 loss at Austin FC.

Bernardeschi, who has not scored in nine games, dropped a bombshell in a virtual availability with reporters after the stoppage-time defeat.

"We don't play," the Italian said in English. "We play long pass. We don't have any idea to play."

"I think this city, the fans, everybody, don't deserve this," he added. "And I think maybe we need to change something. We need a little bit more tactics. We need an idea how we play, because this is the real problem for me. It's impossible to play like this when we play without [an] idea."

Bradley, in his first public comments on the outburst, said Tuesday that Bernardeschi was "out of line." On Friday, the three-time MLS coach of the year revealed Bernardeschi, who was not on the field in the portion of practice open to the media, would not play on the weekend.

But Bradley said Bernardeschi's future in the club was not in question.

Bradley chose his words carefully and tried to downplay