Revs acquire Kei Kamara from Columbus, 2nd most prolific active MLS scorer to help with their scoring woes. They give up A LOT to get him - 2017 first rounder, allocation money, International slot. Any thoughts?
Picking up the castoffs, the Revolution Way. It's exciting that he's a legit scoring threat, but I worry about the attitude over the mid- to longer- term. Edit to add: Do we know if this latest dust-up with Higuain is the norm for Kamara, or an isolated incident?
I said this in the roster thread where we were discussing this trade this morning that I really liked the trade but that I was concerned that Heaps is going to stick to a 4-5-1 and strand Kamara alone up top. I would love to see a few games of Agudelo and Kamara up top with Lee playing behind them in a central position.
I love it! I'm glad to see the Revs makes a bold move to address the biggest problem area in the first 1/3 of the season. And "giving up a lot?" I dunno. I was expecting they might have had to give up maybe Rowe or Agudelo or some kind of useful player asset, and that was not the case. I just hope Heaps realizes that what he needs to do to put Kamara in a position where he can succeed and score the boatload of goals (and have it rub off on others). It would be a total waste of everything if he tries to force a square peg into a round hole, in order to "fit the system."
Kamara should improve this team immediately. He's a proven goal scorer in MLS at this point in his career; exactly what this team needs. We certainly are giving up a lot in this trade, although it's a situation of giving up unknowns (allocation money we may not use or use effectively, draft picks, etc.) for a known quantity in MLS. I like Kamara but he is towards the end of his career. As long as we can get 1.5 - 2 productive season out of him I'll be happy with the deal.
Crew ran a 4-5-1 last year with Kamara up top and it played to his strengths. Curious what forward is seen as surplus in NE?
Kamara can be a great addition. He will be pissed off and wanting to prove himself like Jones is currently dong. This is exciting. We now have a few tactical options. Remaining with our standard 4-2-3-1 formation is not one of them because it leaves too many forwards on the bench. Agudelo or Davies paired with Kamara up top in a 4-4-2, with Nguyen at left mid cutting in (opens the channel for Tierney/Smith to raid the left) or a central midfield pairing of Nguyen/Koffie or Nguyen/Caldwell. Two of Agudelo, Davies, Fagundez, Bunbury (IMO in that order) in a 4-3-3 with a midfield of Nguyen-Koffie-Caldwell; with Rowe off the bench in the midfield. And we could mimic our 2014 tactic of high forward press, low midfield/defensive block, with allowing opposition possession in the midfield to tempt their fullbacks up the field to spring 3 v 3 breaks. Agudelo or Davies paired with Kamara in a 3-5-2 in front of a triangle of Nguyen-Caldwell-Koffie, with wingbacks of Tierney/Smith on the left and Rowe/Bunbury on the right. Unclear where Fagundez fits in this one. Either flank spot plus backup for Nguyen during the Copa. I really hope we try all of these formations in games. We have the pieces to be very unpredictable; the total opposite of what we are currently. Another big part of this is that the Crew's starting forward for two months (until the next transfer window) will be Conor Casey. A major rival is significantly weakened in the short term.
Another reactionary move by the Rev's over proactive moves. Oh well. I'm down with it because we need something. Just like we did when we got J.J.
cherry picked this off the Major League Soccer Soccer.com article on the trade. No idea if these are Crew supporters answering the question but food for thought anyway - OP: Just curious (not arguing). But there was the preseason contract hold out and this PK bust up. Anything else that we know of? Did guys inside the team insinuate anything more serious? 12 minutes ago Soccer Fan he cried alot about missing the golden boot. he did a lot of blaming...most likely vocal about it in the locker room. he under-performed at the start of 2016. he cried again after GB gave him his one-game suspension. i think that is all that's publicly known 7 minutes ago Ralph Long Also the fact that he said he would have retired with a year left on his contract if Columbus had won the cup, and THEN held out for a long DP contract.
I know a lot of people want us to go with 2, or more, forwards, but I don't see that happening, especially if Kei played as a lone forward last year, and seemed to do pretty well. Also, even with the one forward system, we created a lot of chances this year that were just fluffed. Unless we move Nguyen to the wing, or remove him, I can't see him playing in the middle of a 4-4-2, never mind a 4-3-3. As I've said before, the numeric designation of how many backs/mids/forwards there are matters much less than how the team plays within the structure. You can be very defensive in a 2 forward lineup, and very attacking in a 1 forward lineup. For me, it wasn't the number of forwards that was the problem, it was the pace of play and the movement off the ball. Having a guy that defenses will definitely have to respect should open things up a bit more for the rest of the team as well.
Most Crew fans don't like this trade but I like it for us. He was a locker room issue. He is on his 8th team in 10 years. We heard rumblings of him being a locker room cancer when we signed him. We basically just got 300k from the Revs and a million in salary back. As long as we take that money an put it back into the team I think this is good for us
if we stay in a 4-2-3-1 who does Jay select when healthy? Bob. Tierney-Farrell-Jogo-Watson Caldwell-Koffie Fagundez-Nguyen-Rowe Kamara first attacking subs: Agudelo, Davies, Bunbury
I agree with Smithsoccer. Kei will help you guys out immediately and what were getting from you will help us in the summer transfer. Kei was becoming toxic, holding out on preseason til he got the salary he wanted (was at 500 something, bumped up to around 1 mil) after just one season kicked it all off, IMO. Conor Casey probably will be backup to Ola Kamara who has shown well in recent games.
This seems like a trade of 2 teams giving up things they didn't want or weren't going to use. I saw it mentioned how he's never stayed with a team for long, and that does concern me about what he's like in the locker room, but for this season at least, I hope he'll be ultra motivated, and less prone to cause problems coming in during the middle of a season. We'll see...
I would think Bunbury would start, Jay likes his speed to get in behind, though I wouldn't guess who he'd start over, I'd prefer to see Diego play over Rowe, but I wouldn't bet on that. One question that just occurred to me, if we do stay with a 1 forward system, how will Kamara deal with Jay's formulaic substitution strategy that the forward must be subbed out with 20-30 minutes to go?
With everything we've heard about Kamara here and elsewhere, I wonder if the team's poor run of results have finally pressured Burns and Heaps to step outside their comfort zones to save their jobs?
This trade reeks of two guys (Burns, Heaps) who know that if they don't start winning games ASAP, that there won't be a 2017 for them to worry about. They had better still have another bullet left in the gun, because even with Kamara, they'll continue to struggle until the defense gets sorted out.
I think that's reading too much into this, I wouldn't assume that the Krafts had spoken to either of them and said any such thing at this point in the season. It's just strikes me as a deal a team would do when a player comes available who fits a need and they jumped on it. There were reportedly a number of other teams trying to get Kamara as well, yet the team hardly gave up a king's ransom, which is something I think would be the mark of a deal made in desperation. Seeing as it was being reported that multiple teams wanted him, I'm sure the Crew would have been telling everyone that, and trying to drive up the price, but we gave up what, money, an international slot we were unlikely to ever use this year, and a 2nd round pick? That is not the mark of people doing a deal out of fear. If anything, it reeks of a type of deal that a team with no scouting staff would have to look for if they have a major hole that needs filling: they pick up a known commodity, that might have some question marks, because they don't have the resources to go out and find a player on their own to fill the gaping hole. People tried to paint picking Nguyen up off waivers as some sort of mark of incompetence as well, but it was not, it was a mark of taking advantage of another team desperate to get rid of a guy.
This is exactly what scares me about Heapsie. He's a system guy who's built a team of Jay Heaps's. I haven't seen much evidence of Jay being the audacious or improvisational type coach.
I inadvertently called this last night when I heard he was going to the Whitecaps, and said I wished the Revs would try to jump on this if the Crew a serious about offloading him! I don't think we game up a lot. Draft picks are hugely over rated, and honestly, it seems easy to trade back up if you really want to on draft day. Lets not kid our selves and think that the Revs were actually going to use Allocation money on the foreign marketplace anytime soon. In fact history has shown that the Revs use allocation money to get known quality MLS plays and USA national teamers. This is just par for the course with them. Kamara may have a bad rap in the locker room, but that shouldn't rear it's ugly head for a while. For now, he's going to be hungry for revenge. One thing I worry about, and I worry about this with every mid-season signing, is the mindset of current starters who may lose their starting role overnight. You want and expect your players to be professional, but it's hard to not feel like its unfair. Davies and Agudelo have put in a lot of hard work, but because of injuries and results, they are both knocked down a peg overnight.