TNT with the (nearly) official word: Antonio Mlinar will be introduced tomorrow as a new @NERevolution signing. 25yr old CB, club captain recently capped by Slovenia. #MLS— Taylor Twellman (@TaylorTwellman) January 24, 2017 Has one cap for Slovenia at the Senior Level, and a handful at the Youth Levels. Was the captain for Olimpija Ljubljana, who won the Slovenian League last year, and led the league in Goals Against.
yeah we are talking about this in the roster thread already. But with so few moves this winter, perhaps its own thread is worth while.
TAM signing. Olimpija Ljubljana center back. Made Slovenia debut in November. #NERevs #MLS https://t.co/2XuFlzHzM1— Kyle McCarthy (@kylejmccarthy) January 25, 2017 Relevant point here: Mlinar was headed out of contract in the summer. Likely a move to accelerate timeline. #MLS— Kyle McCarthy (@kylejmccarthy) January 25, 2017
I'm seriously questioning Jay Heaps' estimation of "huge." The chances of some rando Slovenian making an impact in MLS strikes me as exceedingly low.
He seems to leave his feet a lot. And can this guy really be worth TAM money? That fact alone makes me really dubious.
Cross posting this excellent one with my bold: This is clearly someone who did not drop into the Revs laps. So this is someone that Jay has scouted and decided he wanted.....or, if we are being snarky, this was the only player not to say NO. But it does not feel like this player specifically was their #1 target (thinking of Chicago who said Dax was their #1 priority and then worked their ass off to make it happen). So, we will have to wait and see if Jay can scout (Sambinha was a bust and we don't know yet about Koussai). In addition, his assessments of where players can be maximized has a poor track record when he has moved them around: McCarthy, Farrell, Agudelo, Rowe, Woodberry, Bunbury, Mullins, Neuman Finding a CB and playing that player at CB (even if not the most glamorous name) gives Heaps the best chance of success.....
just booked my ticket to watch the Revs in MLS cup 2017!!! What a signing. Revs beat out Orlando City B, Pittsburg Riverhounds and Charleston Battery for his services! All kidding aside this is not Huge. this is not what I was hoping or expecting. I do however wish him luck and will cheer him on should be beat out Watson or Woodbury
I dunno he takes risky tackles and the video shows awesome successful risky tackles but would he be able to do that in a fast and athletic MLS without drawing reds? Are there reds he's drawn that are ommitted from the video?
Frankly, if the Revs end up with youngish CBs who are good enough to play for Peru and Slovenia, I can't be hugely upset.
He just recently got his first senior call up. He was part of the 23 man roster for their most recent WCQ against Malta but was an unused sub. And he got his first cap in Slovenia's most recent match, a friendly against Poland (away) in November. (http://www.espnfc.us/lineups?gameId=467433) He also appears to have played for various youth national teams as well. The Slovenian national team appears to see something in him if they are starting to call him into games. I'm sure it helped his cause that he has been a featured player on the top Slovenian club team (champions last year, tied for 1st this year). Will be interesting to see if he continues to get call ups, especially with a WCQ in March. If he does get called in, it could prove to be an early test for our defensive depth (or lack thereof). Can't say I'm well versed in the Slovenian player pool though so I have no idea about his future prospects with the national team. He's not exactly a super well known or big name commodity but I'm willing to give him a shot. I don't expect him to be the next Laurent Ciman (and I'm not sure he has to be?) but if he can be a solid starting-level MLS center back that would be a welcome change, as we seemingly haven't had one of those in over 2 years (maybe JoGo but not always).
Ironically I was in Ljubljana earlier this month. The percentage of English speaks in Slovenia is extremely high and they have some extremely cold winters. Both of these could be instrumental in helping Mlinar adjust to New England.
Wasn't even rated a top two defender on his team last year. Below is the league's team of the season last year. Thinking about this more, I would have been more excited with Callens then him. Callens has 10 caps at the same age on a much better national team, and was at least thought of highly enough to be brought in by a Spanish Liga team although he didn't catch. However, neither were the impact players we were suspecting.
IMO he looks like a signing with a good chance of success. He comes from the top team in a decent league and is young, pre-peak in terms of his ability. I expect he'll do well - not all-star level, but an acceptable level. One thing that's interesting is that, from his highlights, he covers laterally frequently, running out to the sideline to make tackles, etc. So he's mobile. I wonder if we might see a 3-man back line in a 3-5-2? We know that Farrell and Woodberry are both mobile as well. It'll be interesting to see who the final defender we sign is. This does not qualify as a huge signing. There'll be no off-field bump, no increased level of attention, etc. But it's encouraging that they went out and got a guy who is not out of contract, and who looks like he had other options (staying with his current team at the very least). This would be a routine signing for many other clubs, but for us it's a step forward as we try to catch up.
That is a serious stretch. The Slovenian league is probably around the 50th best league in the world. The second divisions in England, Germany, Spain, and Italy are all probably better. This is nowhere ever close to signing a guy like Koassi or Goncalves from Switzerland.
The Slovenian league is 30th in UEFA coefficient this year. For comparison, Sweden is 20th (Koffie's new league), Scotland is 23rd, and Norway is 24th (AJ Soares's old league). Those European leagues are often considered similar in quality to MLS. Based on that alone MLS will likely be a step up in terms of level of competition but I'm not sure it'll be an enormous step up.
Given the budget that is Revolution reality, even MLS reality, there is always going to be a trade-off between name recognition and other factors - age, health, etc. The fact that we got two guys who are unknown, but entering the primes of their careers, is one way of answering this problem, and is not bad in itself. I don't think it is more of a gamble than hiring two aging, better known players from top leagues. The team is still missing the experience and leadership that comes from having a player who has played in a top league, understands tactics, and understands what it takes to be a champion. That should not be expected from the two new centerbacks, and it won't come from Heaps either. Bottom line - If the Revs think they're done hiring, they have failed. They are still missing the Jones factor.
We don't know the name of the second signing yet do we? I know there are rumors, Maybe we are in fact signing what you are looking for----but I doubt it
Those leagues are not on par with MLS in terms of quality at this point. And the players that have moved to those leagues have been average MLS players at best or young collegiate players looking to catch a bigger break in Europe. At least's the top teams in the leagues you've mentioned have done well in European competitions; the same can't be said for Slovenia's league.