Great.Originally Posted by Mikmacdo
I expect minimum 2 signings in next week. Ideally 2 out too.
Great.
I expect minimum 2 signings in next week. Ideally 2 out too.
Well that seems likely to cause some MLS political bullshit, for sure.
Other clubs aren't going to like us having a six-day window advantage, on principle alone. Perhaps they've already given them a "just this year, as a compromise" argument.
Not that I'm arguing it.
Does put the pressure on the front office to put up the goods, though.
My sense last time anyone had info was that they had at least three targets, including a central defender, but that they hadn't completed deals yet. But that might've been them trying to temper optimism or prevent competing bids.
They're also worried that with only 11 season games left, due the schedule being so front heavy and conflicting with tournaments, that it won't be enough time to make a difference.
Might be that TFC has a couple signed already and wants the earlier window, due to us losing Richie and Oso for yet another game.
I still think there's a chance we get Choiniere in a part-money, part swap.
Last edited by jloome; 07-10-2024 at 01:36 PM.
I hope you're right but I'm not hearing signs of any relief, other than the Mailula loan rumours. I guess that's a senior u22 spot, so that's pretty valuable, but he's the only one I've heard so far.
Given their general inefficacy and deals expiring this year, I wonder if a couple of the lads might be getting CPL or USL loans. At least it gives us the roster spot, if not cap hit (as CPL isn't going to cover most of their money, I'd assume).
If they do have anyone actually already signed, they would be wise to announce it right now.
One thing they're good it is maximizing PR opportunities that are geared towards the non-hardcore supporter lot. Pretty sure they will wait until the Copa is over so the Canada wave ends as well as the Euros. Also I figure we could possibly draw an evenly shitty Union this Saturday so announcing players early next week would have the biggest hit and then there's a road trip to get things acclimated.
it coincides with the copa and other guys missing, but the team's record since insigne has begun starting games after his injury has been abysmal.
we fall off a cliff especially defensively with him in the side.
I suspect part of this is the coaches tactically trying to press less when he's playing, as they always set the initial engagement line higher when he's not on the field, even early.
When Etienne or Osorio start on that side of the three, we always press high from early, usually picking up the weak distributor as a trigger as soon as they're more than 10 yards out of their box.
When insigne starts, our line of engagement is just ahead of the midfield line. It sets us up to be sitting back.
Even worse, when we play that way, defenders stop looking to work the offside trap and just drop into a low block automatically, even when they don't need to. The mentality is just fucked, but I think some tactical decisions also aren't working.
I'd be interested in others' take on this. Here's my list of players we should shed, by order of uselessness relative to contract values, and those to keep.
1. Aimee Mabika. Terrible defender, heartless, gutless performances. Has quit on at least three plays he could've made but just didn't bother in our end. Frequently shambolic.
2. Lorenzo Insigne. His heart isn't it, most of the time. He only plays well late in games when angry. All of a sudden, with injury time left, he starts running at and terrorizing defenders. The rest of the game he seems more worried about injuring himself. And he costs $15M a year. I told Manning that if this were England, he would be known as "Manning's Folly" in the press by now. Just not mentally up to this crazy league.
3. Sigurd Rosted - Shot blocking is the only thing he does well, and too often he's chasing the play, and therefore out of position to block anything. Is easily defeated by runners targeting his back blind spot. Steps up to make hard challenges but is often a second too late. Not worth his contract.
4. Cassius Mailula - Too many holes in his non-striker game (holding up the ball, defending) for Herdman to rate him. Also... not really getting a fair chance at his actual role. But he hasn't looked great even when scoring against semi-pro teams. Certainly not U22 slot worthy.
5. DeAndre Kerr - The footballing smarts just aren't there yet. Has some physical skill and speed but needs a lot of work to be an effective striker in MLS. Played wing most of his career before Bob and looks it. The league is too good now to just be fast, and he's not that fast. Given his age and time spent on him, probably better to move him on in favour of someone ready for prime time. No goals this year in more than 20 league games.
6. Kosi Thompson - Decent potential but ruined by years of being moved around and not getting enough position-specific training. Shows well for one game, then doesn't know where he's supposed to be or who to pass to for the next two or three. He's too old for us to fix, needs a change of scenery to reset and try again.
7. Kobe Franklin. A poor defender in a 343 or 352, which is what we play now. Easily beaten on the back post, doesn't track back quickly enough. Delivers an okay but not great cross.
8. Raoul Petretta - Seems bemused by it all. Too small and slow for fullback in this league. Decent football brain but really not evident he cares much. Too expensive for what he brings.
9. Alonso Coello - I'd move him on a good offer. His skill is obvious but he's ponderous in movement and he makes rash, arrogant passing decisions that leave us isolated. Has improved his athleticism and speed, which bodes well, so maybe they'll get his mindset in place too eventually. But a decent offer, I'd take it.
10. Jakheel Marshall Rutty - Lots of potential, still. Looks a little quicker, a little more decisive this year. But still sloppy and undisciplined, still a little confused at his role from time to time. I can see him getting better and being an asset but I'm not sold he'll make it. If we got a decent offer it's worth considering.
11. Shane O'Neill - Decent backup in MLS, not a regular starter. Gets injured and frustrated too easily. Has looked better in a 343 wide than in a 442 or 433 variant.
12. Prince Owusu - A target man. He's okay at defending, okay at reading transitional play and reading, quite fast (sometimes the fastest, in game speed measurements). But he has zero read of where he should be offensively, is rarely dynamically aware of ball location and where he should be. He's a good late pressing defender when we're holding a league but he's not good enough to start. Sell if we can, as his sticker is too high for a backup striker.
13. Debyi Flores -- A pure six anchor/wrecker. His passing and decision making are suspect, and on a good team I don't think he'd start. Keep, but with the caveat that we're listening to offers on everyone.
Players to Keep.
Nickseon Gomis - Decent young defender under too much pressure for his age and first-team experience. Should be rotating. But we should definitely keep him.
Kevin Long - Good defender by MLS standards. Occasionally frustrated by being caught high in a fast league, which is a tactical issue. Kevin Long really shouldn't be last man back at the midfield line. It's not fair to the guy, despite the fact that he's clearly also one of our best crossers.
Adam Pearlman - Maybe. Does he even exist anymore? Did we loan him or something? Haven't seen him turn out for us this year despite having a first-team deal. Long-term injury? Weirdness abounds.
Tyrese Spicer - Shamed our youth by coming out of a tiny Christian college at 23 and being substantially better than all of them. An obvious keeper, assuming the injuries aren't constant.
Richie Laryea - He'll be TAM next year, not a DP. We all know his value in goal creation, which is substantial. But we also miss his fight when he's out.
Matty Longstaff - I think he's been better-than-average, as journeymen midfielders without a key position go. Better as a two-way eight than a ten, though, by a long stretch. Decent-but-not-great passer, good work engine, doesn't make a ton of mistakes but also doesn't offer much going forward. Again, on a good team he's a backup.
Jonathan Osorio - A good two-way mid, with heart. I mean, he ain't going anywhere and we win when he's playing, so...
Derrick Etienne - Good forward, makes the right call about half the time, works pretty hard but has a tendency to drift positionally. Was trying hard at stiker against forge, trying to work the centre half back and forth to spread them, but none of our mids even tried to get him the ball.
Fede Bernardeschi - The only full-on decent player we've had this year. When he gets frustrated, still tries too hard sometimes and becomes a negative. Not a great spend of $6.25M a year, but also not a bad DP.
Sean Johnson - I was a bit surprised we signed him after his last NYFC season, which was poor. Very good reaction keeper, which has served our disastrous defence fairly well. Does let in the odd howler, though. No point getting rid of him now, though, as we have no better option and he can save the odd game and win points for us.
Luka Gavran - Great shot stopper, not smart enough to start yet. Caught out of position several times in recent weeks, which is either bad prep or bad game read or both.
basically looks good to me, but i'd move flores to keep.
he's looked very good when next to a good passer, which i suspect was the plan.
looks worse of course when asked to do more than he was brought in for.
Yeah. With him it's more that a) I think we can have a more well-rounded wrecker as a starter and b) he has some value from his play this year, so we might get decent assets or money for him.
I put him last as he's the most debatable to me.
fair. he has a moderate salary so he doesn't need to be an every week started going forward, too.
I wonder if with Manning gone there will be now substantive listening to potential Insigne suitors - unlikely they can but you never know...weirder things have happened.
I noted Fede was captain last night.
I found Marsch's take on the national system today timely:
""We've got to find a way to demand more out of the young players. And when I say young, I mean like 14, 15, 16, not 24 25, 26. We actually have the athletes in this country. We do. But we need to now develop them in a way where they understand high-level football."
Amen.
Pearlman plays for the second team and captains them and just got called for the concacaf u20 championship for which canada has group stage games july 20 23 26...still its weird that he hasnt been involved at all with the first team this year when its this year under herdman that he got signed to a first team deal
looks like both south africans on the roster are not in the plans
Agree with all of this but would also keep Flores.
This team is toast until we have a huge roster turnover and some new guys come in without the PTSD of the past 2 years. Most of the guys on that get rid of list are too shell shocked and have to be moved on both for their sake and TFC's.
Agree with all the get rids, including Flores. A liability on the ball at times, let's be honest. Great off it, but his decision making on it, he gives away multiple key chances a game on a bad day. He isn't starting on a championship contending league in MLS and iirc his cap hit is decent, too decent to be a backup. I like him, but we have to be ruthless.
Only questions on the keeps - Etienne, how much is he on? That'd be a cost:benefit one for me, not bad, but not great. That's all about the cap hit.
Sean Johnson we extended I think so it doesn't matter too much, and I'd probably keep him - but he's slowing down, naturally. We should keep, but also actively be looking at the succession plan. I don't think it's Garvan, but, I assume he's cheap so I'd definitely keep him
And, naturally, Insigne comes with the caveat that it isn't happening. But definitely would ship at the first opportunity if one presented itself.
Nah, he'd have shed that deal on sight if possible. He wasn't enamoured of Insigne's play by any stretch. I do wonder what he would've been saying to the board or Pelley, though.
They want to minimize loss, so I imagine even now they'll try to get what they can out of him. But nobody's coming in with a number greater than he's making here, so there's no scenario in which he gives up this deal early.
The only way would be a complete buyout, an insane proposition to any company when compared with the option of trying to make him productive. Anything else -- player swap, loan, transfer -- won't get us cap relief because nobody's picking up that tab straight-up.
I think they'd rather see Herdman use him sparingly and when we need a dangerous attacker, later in games.
The one exception might be a Jozy-Defoe type situation where we get someone of stature back who isn't working at another club. But that's both unlikely and fraught with its own risks.
When are people going to realize Gomis is terrible? He started off decent and had low expectations coming in but my god he's awful. Forge had a better left footed CB who is the same age.
Not though is he.
He needs 2 older and solid cbs next to him ofc which is natural for a guy that age.
But he's very decent especially at 74k salary.
He's effectively free. Atlanta is paying his entire salary this season and 50% of it next.
Guys like ettienne and gomis are being hurt by our bad depth and inability to keep guys fit (and just bad contracts).
They're clearly meant to be subs/ rotation pieces but are being forced into bigger roles that they clearly aren't good enough for.
Flores too to an extent.
Technically I would put every player on the shed list. I wouldn't put anyone on the must keep list even though they aren't all terrible. In my eyes no one should be safe on our roster and if any offers from other teams or the players themselves to mutually terminate, we should do it without any hesitation as long as we don't take on more garbage or get fleeced for GAM.
I'm told we have signed a "really good" center back (I assume that means starter) and another player who will be a "surprise" is expected to sign next week. I do wonder if the latter is Choniere, after everything in Montreal.
Ah, yep, so if that means hos cap hit is 350k next year keep him for sure. At full cap hit it becomes a shed.
Feels nice, and alien, to be on the right end of one of those deals.
he's out of contract after next season anyways.
Great to hear about the CB, sir. Thank you again for actually doing the work our reporters should.
I do wonder if Montreal would actually deal us Choinière. Would love it if they did, but not gonna get my hopes up for that.
any indication what the 2nd player plays?
also are there any other irons in the fire (in or out)?
thanks for the update!
There's Long really good and Rosted really good and Drew Moor really good.
Will wait to see
I take it nobody at TFC wants to upset the MLS honchos by taking advnatage of the Canadian window & making signings before the MLS window opens. (would kinda be nice to shove something at Miami next Wednesday)
it better be a number 9.
They're pursuing several players. I have no idea how far they've gotten on any but the two mentioned.
I'm only guessing on Choiniere because he aptly fits the "surprise" label (Montreal, all-star, CMNT player) and because he's a free agent at the end of this year and told them he wants a move.
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