This is exactly the reason we won't make the playoffs again this year. Soooo many holes to fill with almost no chance that all the new pieces will just work right away, lack of depth at forward and fullbacks (just like last year) makes us way to susceptible to injury/suspension/poor form, waaaaaaay too much salary wasted on dead weight (Ciani, JP, even GdS?). MLS is too tough week after week (physical play, turf, travel, mental/performance pressures especially on high salary players, ...) and is not forgiving to those kinda issues. Sigi has never shown Bruce's ability to get his guys to lock in and scrape out a 1-0 win. We'll just keep hearing how we deserved better...
Finish: 4th Playoffs: 2nd round exit Golden Boot: Kamara Assist Leader: Lleget Surprise Player: Lleget (I think he comes back and surprises/reminds everyone how good he really is). Disappointing Player: Alessendrini (I think he just doesn't have as good as season statistically as he did last year, but we have more talent now where it's not needed) Is Sigi still the coach at the end of the season?: Yes Is Sigi still the coach at the beginning of next?: No I think Sigi retires at the end of the season and we splash cash and bring in Berhalter. I think Sigi was brought in to right the ship, and once he does that the FO looks long term. Boateng scores our first goal of the season. Feltscher has a rough start, but settles into the league and becomes a dependeable RB. Skjelvik turns into a budget JVD. Tomas Hilliard-Arce wins a starting spot and goes on to win rookie of the year.
I believe it's the first year I will do this funny predictions... Finish: 5th in the west Playoffs: we'll win the knockout round at home and maybe we'll go through the next round, but we'll be eliminated in the Conference finals. Golden Boot: Kamara. Assist Leader: Gio followed closely by Seba and Alessandrini. Surprise Player: Lletget (for the same reason Beep Boop Robot explained). Disappointing Player: Feltscher. Is Sigi still the coach at the end of the season?: Yes Is Sigi still the coach at the beginning of next?: No Bingham bounces back and will have a good year but not top-5 in the league (very much like Rowe in 2016). Feltscher will disappoint and the RB situation will be a problem all season long (like last year), Cato will get a lot of minutes. Klimenta will do terrible and comes back to USL at the end of the year. Ciani begins the season as a starter but will show his slowness and will make a few mistakes. He's benched after five games but none of his replacements (THA, Steres and Romney) will convince and we'll at least try (and manage) to bring back Omar midseason after the buyout of Ciani's contract. Skjelvik will have a little bit of trouble to acclimate to the League but will finish the season as a good CB. As for Cole, I totally agree with GalaxyKoa. He'll retire at the end of the season. Baggio is also gone at the end of the season. Joao Pedro will go back to Europe during the summer transfer window because of a lack of playing time. Alessandrini will fade a little bit, sometimes trying to do to much. He will finish the season with ~18 goals/assists. Seba will be solid and will finish the year as a starting LW and will have a ~14 goals/assists season. Boateng will be Boateng : spectacular but very low production at the end. Kamara will score 14 goals. As for depth, we'll sign Yura (5 goals in limited time) and Pontius will have a ~6 goals/assists season and is gone at the end of the year. Jamieson will have another OK year (~6 goals/assists) but will not go to the next level. Ari doesn't get much MLS playing time and goes to Costa Rica at the end of the year. Jona has a solid year in the midfield but completely anonymous as a finisher because he's not Beckham. Gio will have a better season than last year (~22 goals/assists) but will never be the leader we hoped and will just be "OK" during the playoffs. We'll go through the USOC semis but will be eliminated after defensive mistakes (like against Dallas in 2016). After reaching the playoffs but having a relatively anonymous season in MLS, Sigi will retire. We'll question the abilities of the Dos Santos brothers to lead us to titles despite having OK years and ultimately, they're gone.
I didn't see Zlatan coming, obviously. Otherwise I think I was pretty spot on. I will say that Jona surprised me down the stretch finally looking like the player we need him to be. That being said, I had way more fun as a fan last season then I did in 2017. We were a tad improved. We were utterly hopeless in 2017. Much of that is just Zlatan's doing though.