Listen, I know this is weird. I've been mostly a lurker around here after disappearing for about 10 years. But the season's over, it's done and it has been for a good long while. I'm bored at work and figured I might as well put this out there and am not sure where to do it. Whatever! The good: -Pedro Santos. My goodness. This season has been a long slog through an almost never-ending sewer, but this guy becoming a genuine goal scorer and smashing in like 2 or 3 absolute bangers? If he was left on the side of the road during some early season road trip I don't think a single fan would've cared one tiny little bit. Him figuring it all out to become our unquestioned best player is almost genuinely inspiring. -Luis Diaz might be good. He probably is! Is he good enough to lock down a wing spot for an entire year and chip in goals/assists consistently enough for this team to contend for a single thing that matters? I don't know! I have forgotten what consistent productive wing play looks like. -Uhhhhh.... -Hmm The bad: -Pretty much everything else! -What even is Wil Trapp anymore, besides someone for USMNT twitter to curse at endlessly (justifiably!). We've all been watching this guy for so long, and he's made such incremental progress over the past what feels like 15 years. He's a Toyota Camry. I am dying to watch this midfield with something more than this 4 cylinder engine. BEZ I BEG YOU. Just sell the dude, somehow. I'd even take a Saab at this point. Something more muscular. A 4-runner perhaps. -Artur, against all odds, almost completely sucks now. I remember listening to a season preview podcast, Matt Doyle said one of the players coming into the season who could command a 10 million dollar plus transfer out of the league with a good season was Artur. WELP. -The defense is nothing. It used to be something. Mensah had a pretty great 2018. There is nothing there now. -Including Goalkeeper. Not convinced by Room yet. No command of the box at all. Pretty good shot stopper. That seems to be about it. Outlook for 2020: -Need a defense. Need a 10. Need to figure out what to do with Santos. If you keep him, where do you play him? Is he the 10? How much do you pay him? ZARDES?!?!? Other than all that we're in great shape and the rest of the league should be terrified. Oh and we probably need to fire the coach and find someone else who actually knows how to coach and can coach a soccer team.
Welcome back or welcome, or what the hell are you doing here? Can't agree with you more on most of this stuff. This team is broken and has so many sub-MLS average starters it's...sad? depressing? crazy? I don't know but there is a lot of space between 2019 Crew and 2020 Contender. I'm no sold on Santos as a winger or #10. Totally agree with you that he's been our best player (at least in the back half of the season) but is it really saying much when the rest of these guys can barely kick a ball? I just don't see him with enough speed and guile to play wide and he doesn't have the passing ability to create for others in the middle. Yes, he's banged in a couple of wonder goals, but consistently dangerous is not a phrase I would use to describe him. Trapp and Artur...what more can I say. It's great on paper to have a home grown captain poster boy out there showing what can happen if you train hard and eat your veggies. He just doesn't bring anything special to the table. Artur seems to have gotten worse, I don't know why or how. It's baffling. I love his defensive work rate and positioning. Both of these guys can't make a 30 yard forward pass on the deck to save their lives. It hurts us so much that this is the case. I'm ok with Zardes, someone has to play up top, 15 goal scorers don't grow on trees, so fine. Same with Room, he seems to be an MLS caliber keeper. As he gets more games I an see the potential to be an ok #1. I'm looking forward to having Valenzuela back, I'm hopeful he can make a full recovery, otherwise not much to be happy about in back. Crognale can't seem to get that defensive awareness up. Mensah is a very good scrambling defender but never looks comfortable in the basics. Keita has a large upside, looking forward to more. Lalas might be more in the Mensah mold than I care for. Afful's best days are behind him. He gets beat too often and is a turnover machine when he gets into the attack. If I never see Williams in yellow again I'm fine with that. It took all year of a rebuilding year to figure out we needed to rebuild. A wasted year. I'm not convinced Porter is the guy to lead the rebuild either. It's hard after a terrible season to have a positive outlook. Obviously there are going to be roster changes before we take the field in 2020. I just am not sure building a team around Trapp, Santos and Zardes is one that has it's sights set on contending.
Room is a definite plus for me. I think his distribution and abilities out-of-the-back are good. The one emphatic 'win' of the season was the Cincy away game, and the only reason that felt emphatic was because of Room. He somehow slammed down into the turf and made a low-shot sky above the bar. There are so many new guys getting minutes that it would make any casual fan's head spin. Dias. Hamilton. Mokhtar. JJ Williams. Romario Williams. Cadden (who we haven't seen). And the rest of us are just over-extrapolating about them based on limited information - a handful of matches in a handful of weeks. So, putting a bow on this season and assessing who was good and bad is a special challenge. Santos should not remain a 10. That wasn't at all the plan. It happened because Pipa got broken. It was a makeshift 'solution' that we carried out during literally the worst run of games in our history. We need a Pipa replacement, not a Pipa fill-in. I'll defend Zardes. Come at me. I don't think dumping Trapp is part of any solutions here. I know, there's a ton of hometown-guy bias when taking about him. But I can get to a point where, if the Haslam-era is about raising the bar, maybe we make Trapp have to seriously compete for his shifts. As I've posted before, Bez Bez is stocking up on that TAM for a good reason. I think we make one big acquisition in the off-season with that money, and maybe some smaller changes too that are more defensive. I'm hoping it's for a real number 10, but we also need depth for when Zardes isn't available. This year was defined by that 17-game stint. And the 2020 lineup won't look like anything like that Crew. So I guess that makes me feel better.
I hope we don't get a 10, but get a true box to box mid so we can play something like a 4-4-2 and utilize the strikers we have.
I’m not as worried about the defense. Keita seems to be a diamond in the rough. Milton will be back and we’ll see about this guy Cadden. The three center midfield players are what I’m worried about. Trapp, Artur, and hopefully a yet to be named CAM. Perhaps Santos can continue his current form on the wing but I would prefer a more creative person in that CAM role.
Honestly, I would love us to go an attack minded 4-3-3. Throw Pedro as the LAM. Our new splash signing should be our RAM. Maybe if one of them comes back to form, Trapp or Artur in the CDM. If not, fill that hole quickly. ---------------------Room----------------------- Cadden-Mensah-Keita-Valenzuela New guy----Trapp/Artur------santos Diaz-------------zardes----------Mokhtar
I wouldn't mind a 4-3-3, but I'd love to see a two striker system with some thought/personnel put into it.
I'm not as convinced. I've been confused ever since his roll of good form started. Santos was hot garbage out wide. He was terrible. Then, Pipa went down, he went into the middle, and he started thriving. Was he out of position before? Was he injured and no one told us? I mean, it's hard to figure out, because the garbage he was giving us before didn't look like he was confused about his role, position or teammates -- it was just basic soccer stuff that he looked like he couldn't do. So I don't know if he was just in a funk and snapped out of it, and it wouldn't matter all that much if we put him back out wide. Or if there was something about being more central that allowed him to thrive. Or did Porter reach this guy's central brain somehow? I've never gotten it.
This is a situation where the expected goals stat xG comes in handy. Pedro was hot garbage last year, no question. But he got in to good spots and took decent shots. He just couldn't buy a goal. He under-performed, he had 1 goal v 4.26 xG by American Soccer Analysis's methodology: https://www.americansocceranalysis.com/player-xg-2018 This year he's got 10 goals on 4.77 xG. So he's over performing this year, significantly. Both years have roughly the same amount of minutes. The long and the short of it in my opinion is that you can't count on a player to smack in goals of the week every other game. Even if you give him the benefit of the doubt, his 4 assists is as much of problem for what the team needs as anything. In my mind at $700K in salary he's not good enough to be our starter at either spot and I certainly don't want to be building a team around the guy.
I think this is correct. Anyone who claims to have totally sussed Santos out...how? I’d say he’s just as likely to score 12 next year as he is to completely revert back to the guy he was in 2018. I don’t pretend to have the right answer as to what to do with him and I’d imagine it’s giving Bez headaches too.
And this is where it would be lovely if we had any idea what style/formation/tactics the team is likely to play. A year in and I'm still totally in the dark.
This years Santos is worth 700k. Let's see if he can keep it up next year. I grew up on 4-4-2, and have always wanted a partner for Zardes. And the #10 Attacking Midfielder, should be our highest paid player. I want a legit international superstar in that spot. Like can we get a $2 million dollar midfielder south/central american? I kinda think our Defense will be ok if everyone is healthy. But adding another competent body back there wouldn't hurt. So, give me a huge splash at midfield, a partner for Zardes, and a warm body in the back, and I think the black and gold will be competitive.
Btw I just have to circle back to this because it’s been driving me absolutely insane lately. My current biggest pet peeve is the Crew fans who will dump all over Zardes/Trapp on twitter during/after Crew games but somehow feel the need to defend them endlessly during USMNT games...? SHUT. UP. Just shut up forever. My God. They’re not good enough to play against Mexico and you know it. Just stop. USMNT Twitter is completely intolerable. It always has been, but especially so when the team is really bad. Alright I’m done now. Can’t wait til next year!
$2 million?! Let's go for 5 or 7 million, please. Portland dropped a $10 mil transfer fee on Brian Fernandez, the Revs spent $7 million to bring in Bou. I don't see any reason why we can't spend in that range, especially based on Bez's past performance.
Pedro was improved at winger and had some goals before pipa was hurt . he has played well in the absence of pipa because he does well in transition and Pipa is not there to slow it down. I think that’s a much bigger factor than the fact the he plays more centrally. Also he has the freedom to freelance and he is flat out better than Pipa . Pipa needs to retire . We may need a better coach but Porter will get his chance and if we fail to make playoffs after making some substantial signings he will be fired. I think our starting backline is just fine and will hopefully be healthy but we will need depth with a lot of guys out of contract expect to see a lot of changes . We need a RB to push Afful to the bench. Cadden is 6ft -168 lbs i think he is #8 but he could end up anywhere he is like the next Hector Biggest problem is the center mids we need better players everyone we have is basically a 6. We need to sign a 10 and probably two #8s Send Clark, Guzman into retirement and bench Artur . Trapp is ok at 6 but if we could sell him i would be all for it . Porter likes more speed so don’t be surprised when we sign Nagbe as much of some of you hate him. Striker - i doubt we see any additions Winger- likely add another guy here Also what is Argudo a 8? A winger ? Idk but i like him as a back up
I dont think Porter will think outside of his own box, formation/tactics wise as some are wishing for, so I assume we still primarily play a 4321 next year. With that said, Pedro Santos future determines a lot of what we do I think. Hes never going to be paid less, especially after this season, which means his starting 11 spot will only be further solidified. I think you can lockdown Luis Diaz as one of the starting wingers. If Porter decides that the team can progress with Santos at the 10, then I think our big acquisition in the offseason will be another DP winger. The other option, obviously, is Santos moves back out wide, and we get a DP 10. So as of this moment, I can see it panning out something like this possibly... -Santos stays in the middle because Porter. - We sign another Diaz level winger. Young, not super expensive but not cheap. Probably a DP but not necessarily. Maybe this player is TAM level like Mokhtar and the two of them compete for the start on the wing. Mokhtar brings experience, new young guy brings potential. - Artur and Trapp become competitors for the same "spot" in the line up as the 6. Guzman is released or picked up in the waiver draft or something. Clark retires. We sign a TAM level central midfielder who is experienced enough and is trusted to step right in and start, like Guzman, except a lot better. - Afful may start out as the starter next season, but if hes not really in the plans going forward I can see an expansion team picking him up. If that's the case, Cadden is the starter as hes on the fringe of the Scotland NT and doing well on loan at Oxford Utd. - Valenzuela and Francis are still good starter and serviceable backup options. - Injuries have accelerated Keitas role in the team and he becomes a more routine starter. I could see Mensah moving on, and Lalas and Crognale having a final battle over the other starting spot which I assume Lalas will win. Williams stays because depth and Ohio and feelings. - No changes at Goalkeeper, unless we cycle out Lundgaard for a new draft pick or an academy product. Rooms the unquestioned starter. You dont spend enough on GK in MLS to have an excellent backup so no reason to ditch Kempin. - Gyasi is still the indisputable starting striker regardless of how anyone feels about it. We wont replace a back to back season, double digit goal scorer, even if he misses just as many, or more, than he actually nets......yet. THEN....as I move further into the future with speculation next season..... - Possibly by the time summer arrives, Santos fails to replicate his production of this season, we finally move on, and in the summer window we splash and throw down several million on a legit DP center attacking midfielder. The team gets better and goes on a tear the rest of the season building hype for 2021. - Gyasi Zardes keeps being Gyasi Zardes and puts up a respectable but not impressive goal tally comparable to this season next year, and we finally cut bait. Now we sign Gonzalo Higuain or Radamel Falcao going into our new downtown stadium and run roughshod over MLS!!! End of rant, that was fun.
Good post i love when we breakdown the roster . I agree with a lot of things in here so here is where i disagree : Pedro is not going to stay as our CAM we will sign a DP CM or Cam that will start at the 10. I think Pedro will sign a 1-2 yr deal which gives us flexibility and we loan out Sosa unless we move him to free a intl roster spot We will sign another winger if Pedro is gone but i could also sign another even if he stays. Especially if they don’t view Argudo as a winger . Just no way you go into a season with Pedro as your #10 with Sosa the back up. CB: Josh Williams is out of contract and Mensah is signed long term so he will stay. I think we do sign another CB and if we don’t sell Lalas which i think we will then he will battle Keita to start at LCB. Crognale is better than Josh and still has potential and from Cbus so I think Josh is last on the depth chart and may need a injury to to someone to make our roster. GK: Kempin is a below average back up with no potential and is out of contract he will be gone. I’m sure they will find someone who is better. Lundgaard stays to develop unless they have a better young prospect that is out of contract on their radar