2019 Roster Thread

Last year the option deadline was November 30, IIRC. The teams in the final got an extra week or ten days.

 

Except when i was saying that he was not the best player

 

I think one good year out of 3 year contract does not warrant a raise

 

Per https://www.americansocceranalysis.com/player-xg-2019 he had 10 goals and 5 assists. He had an 11th PK goal. MLS credits him with 6 assists.

Yes, he was better this year. Also yes, those screaming wonder goals that he scored 3 or 4 of this year most often wind up denting an Acura. His xG is 5.1, he's out performing the expectations model by 5.9 goals. Only Vela had a larger difference, scoring 31 goals on 24.8 xG.

He was the best player for a bad team. We've all anointed Diaz the starter on one wing. Zardes doesn't appear to be going anywhere. Santos, at his salary, has to be a starter. So, do you put him back on the wing where he sort of looked the part the previous 2 years but didn't amount to anything? Is he suddenly going to morph into a CAM who can score 10 and dish out 12 assists?

For me he's a 5 goal 5 assist average guy that is fairly easy to replace. Diaz is just that. He had 2 goals and 3 assists in a quarter of Pedro's minutes and barely more than a quater of his salary.

Is Pedro Santos in the starting 11 for an MLS Cup contending team in 2021? I say no. So if there is anything we can do to get him off the books for 2020, we should think about doing it.

I don't think a paycut is reasonable, just a cut.

 

We don’t have to cut him his contract expired . So it’s all about how much do we pay him. I would pay him same wage which requires Tam on a 2yr deal at best. If he wants a raise ..... find another team .

again his first two years he could not produce and his play was good except in the final third where this year he finished his chances. I think he excels in the open field on the counter and never really had a chance until this year to show what kind of player he is.

the player I don’t want to see is Higuaín who hopefully retires on his own

 

This is such a good question, and I'm still not sure what to think about it. For this team to get anywhere near contention, it's not going to be helpful to just cut loose the players that are good and try to find some players elsewhere who are great. I get the thinking there, but at some point you need to keep the players around who have done the business in this league even if they are not elite talents-they are proven known commodities. Santos has settled in well and can be a useful piece going forward who can be depended on to produce numbers. Cutting him loose because he will likely not develop into an all MLS XI winger is not the answer IMO.

 

I'd say go with Cadden. He's played every game with Oxford and has looked good. Josh Williams or Jimenez or even Maloney would be subs.

 

Do you think Afful is better than Jimenez, Maloney & Josh Williams? If so ( I do) why wouldn’t you keep him . He doesn’t make that much and I hope our owners are not cheap that they need to cut salary over keeping the best players.

this team needs to get better so you cut or replace the worst players not the starters

 

We tend to forget the players have thoughts as to their role. Afful may say I dont want to be a backup. Personally I am ready to move on from most of these players. We haven’t been able to get it done with the core group. Let’s get some new players in and see what happens.

 

For the majority of the losing streak most of our "core" players were not on the field. They were missing due to injury or National Team call ups. When they returned things changed. The team that stays healthy is the one that is likely to succeed.

 

i would be fine with that if Cadden beats him out for the starting job but you can’t just hand Cadden the job

 

These players are versatile while Afful is a right-back.

 

Unknown, I think he could also play LB better than Jimenez and Maloney . There is a talent gap between Afful and your list of versatility group . We should not lower our level of talent. Now some may say there is not much of a talent gap and I would strongly disagree. Afful should stay and if he lost his starting job and wants to leave I’m ok with that. Getting rid of your best RB is not a good move in my opinion. If Cadden impressed us I’ll be the first to say bench Afful and go with the younger guy.

next year we should be a bottom tier playoff team

 

My issue with Afful is that he's a poor defender. Left side, right side, I don't think it would matter much anymore. His strength for us, historically, was in his ability to get into the attack and deliver dangerous crosses as part of Berhalter's system. Occasionally, he'd get into the attack himself (like we saw in his brilliant goal vs. NYCFC in the 2017 playoffs). That player doesn't seem to exist anymore, of course neither does that system, and I assume the two things are related.

Harrison was never a great defender. And his interest in getting forward (again, a core part of Berhalter's tactical approach) sometimes made it impossible for him to get back to defend at all. He's two years older than he was in that NYCFC game, and I think is just a bit slower to get back to defend when he gets forward. And again, even when he is back, he's just not a solid defender, IMHO.

If he's not content with a back-up/occasional starter role here, I do wonder if Harrison might be of interest to other clubs who might want to play a system more similar to Berhalter's. Because I do think he has a good reputation in this league and is a smart player. He reminds me a little bit of Hejduk in his final couple of seasons, except that Frankie really had no ability to adjust his game whatsoever as he aged. In those last years. he'd leave the defense horribly undermanned as he'd go on one of his runs, lose the ball at midfield and be totally unable to get back and defend. It helped to have a Chad Marshall back there to clean up for his messes, of course. Frankie was a one trick pony in that regard but, you know, what a pony, eh?

 

You are saying that out of context however for the time in which it occurred. There was real concern that one more head injury and that would do it for Chad. Period. Now, was anyone to know he would go on and play for years and years and thankfully never see that occur? No. Does it mean that letting him go was dumb? No.

It just worked out better for them, then for us. If GBB knew he would have had years left in his career, sure, perhaps he never would have let him go.

 

Marshall didn’t really fit the type of CB needed in GB system which needs great 1v1 defending as your constantly left on a island. When Marshall left he wasn’t the same type of athlete as they guy from his early years

 

That, to me, is a pretty solid description of Chad Marshall. Plus, he was always a threat on set pieces.

Marshall almost never put a foot wrong, always anticipated the play and got himself in the right position. This is from the the story written when he retired:

And recall, he played on turf in Seattle, which to me would have made his job as a central defender harder.

Marshall was a remarkable defender. One of the best to ever have played in MLS. It's a crime he never had a national team career. The only reason why anyone thought it made sense to allow him to leave was because of the concussions.

 

I don't disagree. I meant to imply that the primary reason why anyone in here thought it was okay to let Marshall go was because of the threat that future concussions might end his career. I don't remember which camp I was in back in the day. But I think I recognized the concerns over concussions. As I recall, too, the club was just in terrible form: 34 points his last year (2013), and had failed to make the playoffs two years running. We'd been on a steep, downward slide for several years, and little about the club seemed to make sense.

Actually, I don't recall what Berhalter said about the move (I mean, he'd just taken over, hadn't coached a game for us). Though I wouldn't have expected the club to have gone on record as saying they were worried about his health even if it was part of the equation.

I didn't shock me that Marshall played well after leaving Columbus. The extent to how well he played, and for how many years did shock me, though. That trade ended up being one of the worst decisions in franchise history (and that's saying something).

 

What I’m saying was he was not fast can’t play high up the pitch and have recovery speed . He was never fast and always well positioned but he most certainly was not as quick and fast as he once was. The injury fear and chance to rebuild the roster with your players knowing Marshall would sell for a good price was a smart move to me.

 

I thought Chad wanted out which essentially forced Greggggggg to find a deal for him? And Chad REALLY wanted to play for Fat Sigi again? Maybe I'm misrembering, but I thought it was all initiated by Chad.