You should check out this video; it's five minutes of Gregg Berhalter explaining how he wants the USMNT to play and it's wall-to-wall Crew video. He starts with a graphic board using Crew vs. NYRB formations and then goes to video of Crew games where they show the Crew dealing with various tactics. It's all Crew
I saw the MLS window advertised as being Feb 7-May 1 (not on the MLS page, though, so maybe your dates are right) but yeah, your point stands.
I got them off of an official FIFA site. Lists transfer windows for every country in the world. https://www.fifatms.com/itms/worldwide-transfer-windows-calendar/
Yep, the site I saw - posted about a month ago - must have taken the dates from the MLS website which, you know, you'd think would be accurate. And those were the dates last year. But the league still hasn't posted its 2019 roster rules.
Are you saying we can find another 20 goal scorer in place of Zardes by May 7? I don't believe that simply because most teams will wait for the end of their season to transfer a prolific scorer. IMO we are overly dependent on Gyasi. He had a career year in 2018 and stayed relatively healthy. If either of those things doesn't repeat in 2019, our offense will be pretty limited. Mullins is fine as a late game sub but he's not starting material for 10 games if Zardes breaks his leg.
I mean... kei, ola, zardes. Its hard, but is it really that hard? And if our wingers actually did shit, we wouldn’t need a 20 goal striker. And if ownership is willing to put some money in, then yes, it should be doable. You telling me no one in world football can replace Gyasi freakin’ Zardes? Where did guys like BWP come from? Ola Kamara? Nikolic? Corey freakin’ Burke? Monotas? Camilo? Freddy Montero? Plenty of talent out there, just have to find it. And you’re assuming that Porter can replicate Zardes’s sucess under GB. Say what you want about GB, he made stars out of every striker he’s coached. Zardes.... has had two good seasons, and like 4 bad ones.
Lots of players could be big scorers for the Crew. But our chances of bringing in any of the obvious candidates are pretty low. I agree we need more scoring from the wings. I wonder if Meram has lost his legs or something. Santos has never shown signs of being a Finlay/Meram level complementary scorer.
I don't see any sign we're about to spend $10 mil+ to bring in someone who is obviously an upgrade. Maybe Porter will regularly start 2 forwards but it seems obvious the team is counting on Zardes as the main scorer and not presently looking to replace/upgrade him. IMO we're probably looking for a winger and Steffen replacement before a Zardes replacement. Maybe even Pipa's heir.
Look at the list of strikers I wrote above. How many of them cost more than $10 million? Answer, none. Hell, most of them came on free transfers, and the rest were a couple million at most. Why do we need to spend $10+ million? Thats insane. Hell, Josef Martinez only cost $4.5 or 5 million, was making less than $1 million a season, and came from Europe!
Sure but none of the guys you listed were expected to score 20 goals a season. They were thought to be good options for their teams and likely to score 10 at least. We could certainly use a guy like that to supplement Zardes but there's no sign the team is looking for his replacement.
Freddy Montero was brought in to be the starteing striker dude. So wasn’t Camilo. And BWP. And Nikolic. And Ola (I’m convinced GB was trading Kei at some point). And Martinez. Atlanta already had Jones as a DP striker, then Tata came in and had a good chuckle and said no, I want Josef. Point being, saying you need to spend $10 million in MLS is dumb, mainly because, no one in league history has spent $10 million on a transfer. Probably about 15 players in league history have had 1) a contract total over $10 million in wages and 2) actually received the whole salary. Very disingenuous to say we need to spend that much. Especially when I already pointed out Josef, and let’s not forget guys like Wondo, who isn’t even on a million a year, never was. Teams like Barca and Madrid have trouble finding strikers good enough for their clubs. Teams in the 10th or so best league in the world? Less so. Zardes was great last year, but look at Kei and Ola. They all had career years under GB, and failed to match it without him. Ditto with Zardes, silly to assume there won’t be a fall off. I’m not saying trade him period, but like someone else said, his value will never be higher. Need to entertain the idea (though it won’t happen).
I think they probably look at it like Zardes is relatively cheap for a starting striker and delivered last season...so if it ain't broke dont fix it. They probably know as well as you and I do that under a different coach and possibly different system...we might be lucky to get 13 or 14 out of him this season. It still probably doesnt justify any large expenditure on a new player yet. With that said. We cant easily replace 20 goals. The only guaranteed way to do that would be to go out and get a world class striker, who is in their prime, coming right off of an immensely productive prior season....and that's 100% not going to happen for ANY MLS team. Somebody like Falcao or whatever might actually be a possible get for us under new billionaire ownership...and he could easily put up 20 goals...but he may also get injured....or just never acclimate/adjust/whatever and score like 12. Theres no way to guarantee you can replace Gyasis tally. What we CAN easily replace though....is the asset that we acquired this past offseason....former LA Galaxy right back, Gyasi Zardes. If Porter knows hes going to play a certain way...and that it does not guarantee Zardes tapping in goals left and right..... Bez/Porter could easily spend whatever their Dee/Pete budget is getting their own Josef Martinez or what have you that specifically fits Calebs needs/wants....and then move Gyasi on to greener pastures while hopefully getting something for him.
But Ola, Nikolic, BWP, Martinez, etc weren't expected to be 20 goal scorers when they arrived. Zlatan was and maybe JPA or Ruiz from years past were expected to be big scorers who lived up to their billing. And of course plenty of players such as El Matador haven't. Who do you nominate as a Zlatan level player we can get for the start of 2019?
I'll note that national team and club team are two different things. It's not unusual for a player to be good at the club level and not as good at the national team level (and occasionally vice-versa). I really hesitate to make a club prediction based off a couple of national team games in a transition era. I quite agree with your second paragraph, however.
Do we need a zlatan level player? (He came on a free transfer btw, played for $1.5 million last year).
1) We are not getting rid of Zardes this year. 2) He was fine for the Nats. Only the header in the first game was a clear chance missed. Perhaps header he did not get to? He set up Roldan wonderfully. Had another nice layoff. He made a couple of nice runs (one in particular) where he could have been in but the pass was off.
I haven't hung out on the USMNT board in a while, but decided to read through the post-game thread comments yesterday. That's an hour of my life I'll never get back. I do enjoy the fairly broad-based affection Berhalter is getting form US fans right now. Appreciation by former association, I guess. Thing is, I know for certain that it'll evaporate as soon as we come out flat and play a stinker of a game. Anyway, I hope he's enjoying the honeymoon period while it lasts. He ran a very success January camp and the MLS guys seem to really respond to him. I'm looking forward to seeing how well, and how quickly, the Euro-based players get up to speed when he's able to call them in.