I thought so too, until @zman31 reminded me that we're struggling to find a full 11 to bother protecting. So, much like the Great Recession depressing our MLS Cup Winners bump, this silver lining is tainted by reality.
Honestly agree for a slightly different reason. I think Milton is one of the top left backs in the league and has a lot of room to grow.
What utter nonsense. Aside from the wide mids, the other 9 are easily worth protecting: Steffen, Afful, Mensah, Sauro, Valenzuela, Trapp, Artur, Pipa, Zardes. Put a real, quality winger on this team and we are hell on wheels. Two is treble territory. We are one game from the ECF with none (though Hansen was fairly productive in limited time).
While I do not largely disagree. I will say I don't see much that isn't easily replaceable past Steffen (probably gone, so), Pipa, Zardes, Trapp, Artur, Milton, Crognale We have enough quality CBs I'd expose the rest and roll the dice, though. I think Mensah and Sauro have too much baggage and we would be fine with any other selection. I'm happy to protect young prospects like Argudo, Martinez Opoku or Sosa, but it's not critical.
Cincinnati is getting hosed if they only get to pick 5 players instead of the 10 that teams used to get. It's not as if they have a full academy to product 1 or 2 MLS caliber players every year. MLS tried to stop them from signing some expensive players during the USL season to bring with them to MLS. Meanwhile we won't need to protect Mensah. We should protect Sauro if he's on a cheap salary for next year.
We won't need to protect anyone if I understand it correctly. We already lost Jukka. Jukka was a perfectly average MLS player with the benefit of having a left foot. I've never understood anyone bashing him as he wasn't a detriment.
Looking at the roster going forward. 1. Players we need to keep & likely will = 10. Zardes, Afful, Mensah, Sauro, Valenzuela, Artur; Williams, Abubakar, Jimenez, Hansen. 2. Players I'd love to keep & fear losing = 4 Pipa (retirement), Steffen (move), Trapp (move), Clark (retire). 3. Low risk/$$ young guys we should keep = 4. Crognale, Opoku, Argudo, Sosa. 4. Guys I would like to keep but may be too pricey for backups/their production. Only at a discount = 4. Santos, Meram, Mullins, Grella. 5. Meh = 6. Kempin, Ketterer, Lundgaard; Maloney; Martinez; Jahn.
Grella don’t need him Meram salary is ok but if he under performs next year then I would consider only at a discount Pipa needs to be just under DP level so his contract needs reworked Take Martinez off the meh list Steffen needs a raise now and hopefully we keep him unless we get a to good to turn down offer ( so hopefully we are searching for a goal keeper to acquire because I’m not sold on Kempin he is average or slightly above average at best Mensah also needs bought down We need to find a starting winger to replace Santos preferably a great scorer with a left foot Other than that I agree with most of your thoughts
I feel like you read my mind I agree with everything you said. I do think we should keep Mensah because CB on our team is vital and he was always talented and has the necessary recovery speed. He overcame his biggest problems which were just making bad decisions consistently when under pressure. He needs to be paid starter money but not at DP level. I’m ok with buying it down but think he should take a pay cut.