Youngsters in MLS (1997 or later)

Bruce was an excellent GM. Klein and Kirovski have been the opposite.

Galaxy probably could've hired Berhalter this past offseason instead of panicking and hiring Sigi last midseason. Might get lucky and have Omar Gonzalez return to MLS, LAG are #1 in the allocation order.

 

It's not that Schmid has gotten worse, it's that others have gotten better. Frank Yallop was MLS Manager of the Year twice. By the end of his career as an MLS manager his teams were a constant tire fire.

I think the reality is that the upper tier of MLS managers is stronger than it has ever been. We have managers who have established strong club identities, are tactically flexible, have teams that have visibly been given clear instructions, and can respond to in-game situations with swift and effective tactical changes. Does Schmid excel in any of those areas?

Managers who are closer to the Harry Redknapp "roll the ball out and play" end of the spectrum are getting exposed, particularly on rosters with glaring holes in the lineup and/or mismatched pieces. Look at Petke's RSL. If the roster is balanced and the players are in sync on their own, great. If you have to solve a DM problem and proactively organize the defense, look out.

Of course, LAG's problems are not all on Sigi. Chris Klein is proving to be a terrible executive and it's amazing he still has a job. There have been a lot of risky, uninspiring, or just plain dumb managerial hires, but how many hires in the last 10 years have been as obviously terrible as Curt Onalfo?

 

Shrug. I just think of Sigi in a different category to Yallop.
Sigi has won trophies with three different MLS clubs in three different eras.
I'm not saying he's the second coming of Jurgen Klopp.
Its just that I think folks are throwing dirt on his grave too early......................

I mean........call me when they've missed the playoffs. It's early.

As for their recent homegrown shortage, I put that on Arena. The last couple years of his tenure he showed no interest in developing youngsters. He was just adding veterans for one last run at a trophy. Now we're on the edge of a wave of their youngsters. Shall I run thru the list of youngsters that Sigi has introduced into first team soccer in this country with his three different clubs? Its extensive. I have faith that when the kids are ready, Sigi will use them.

 

Those younsgters such as McBean, Villarreal, and Sorto is on Arena? They didn't deserve to start because they aren't any good.

Arena had no problems playing Omar Gonzalez, Franklin, de la Garza, Zardes.

Also, Sigi won't be able to play these kids until LAG actually signs them. Alvarez is the only one under an MLS contract. Llanez, Mendez, etc. don't even have a USL contract at this point.

 

I think it’s important to note that Pulisic had a chance to join the Union Academy but didn’t. I wonder if he would have had they had the residency program and had the talent gap that exists now between the two clubs.

 

The competition.....................

Liga MX re-institutes youth development rule #ligamxeng https://t.co/ERq6bGwWbI https://t.co/ERq6bGwWbI

— Tom Marshall (@mexicoworldcup) May 24, 2018

 

Meanwhile....MLS just instituted YAM. I get it, with rapid league expansion you need an influx of foreigners to fill rosters. It’s just disappointing to see teams like Portland, NYCFC, etc that play 1-2 Americans a game. It almost seems impossible that that could happen....

Many leagues around the world institute relative protectionist policies to promote domestic development, will MLS do the same?

 

Required to give out 1765 minutes for players born in 1997 or after for the 2018-19 season. Three point penalty for clubs that don't comply.

MLS teams that would likely be penalized if this was the rule for this season: Chicago, Toronto, SKC, Houston, LAG, Minnesota, Colorado

Maybe Penalized: DC, Orlando, New England, Montreal, San Jose

There's a chance that half of the teams in the league might be penalized.

If you changed it to domestic players of those ages, maybe DC, maybe Atlanta, maybe San Jose would meet the requirements. NYRB, RSL, FCD, Philly, Vancouver likely would. The rest likely wouldn't. 2/3 of MLS clubs can't give 5% of their team's minutes to young domestic players. And people wonder why MLS is called a retirement league.

 

The number of American mids and attackers playing regularly in MLS is only going to decrease. The rules and increased investment is increasingly targeting and favoring foreigners.

Counter that with increased opportunity for our youth elite abroad, that they'll want to follow the Pulisic/McKennie footsteps and they see MLS not playing youth that much and the exodus of our elite youth will ramp up. It's also going to bring even more foreign scouts here to raid our youth.

Finally, the Nguyen/Benny/Kljestan types won't be around that much longer. They're in their 30's. The mediocre American attacker like an Ethan Finlay will be replaced by younger foreign talent.

A rule to enforce playing of youth here would not help given our salary structure and handicaps on the ROI for playing youth. Younger American defenders will continue to get time as that's what the salary structure dictates will be the cheap labor for the most part.

The real issue is MLS doesn't know how to develop attackers or creative players and our better youth attackers and creative players want no part of MLS.

 

With no relegation, it is amazing that Minnesota, DC, New England, and San Jose are on your list. Especially the last three, why fail with old players?

 

If you've seen the MLS academies play the LigaMX academies you know that Mexico is significantly ahead of us in terms of development. Given that MLS is approaching LigaMX in overall spending and the domestic player pool is worse, it's not surprising that MLS will have a greater tilt towards foreign players.

The Mexican standard isn't high, basically 20 player-games per seasons, and one outstanding prospect would get you that. But that's not where we are. There isn't a young player at the Galaxy that I would want to see get first team minutes right now. I think you would see a fair amount of resentment from the fans if the team had to play a young player who was consistently screwing up.

 

Why is it amazing? The teams still want to win, even if they're not very good at it. And I would expect that teams that aren't very good at putting together a roster are not going to be very good with development either.

 

Kind of a non-sequitur. MLS is very willing to play players in their 20's. Not playing teenagers doesn't make you a retirement league.

 

Minnesota only has Toye on their roster. And I doubt he'd reach that threshold.

I made a mistake on New England's roster. I thought Caicedo was a '97. He's actually a '96, so they wouldn't reach it either for foreign or domestic players. Only eligible player they have is Angking who hasn't played yet.

DC is Durkin and a Bolivian striker with some garbage minutes who plays mostly with the USL team. San Jose is Yueill (who could reach the threshold himself) along with Marcinkowski, Akanyirige, Fuentes, Calvillo, so if they are willing to use young Americans, maybe some of those players will get minutes in upcoming seasons. I think that Marcinkowski and Akanyirige should be getting some minutes next season.

 

What do you think is the disparity between minutes for players 16-19 and for 30+?

I suspect 30+ wins by a multiplier of 3-4 times.

 

Oh sure, I would expect. It's just that the whole "retirement league" thing is mostly a low-information insult. Playing a few more teenagers isn't going to change that.

 

Selling more young players because you gave them a chance as teenagers instead of ruining their careers to try to appease all the prospective fans around the world (how's that working?) with unneeded mediocre foreigners would help the reputation of the league. It would turn MLS from a league that is compared with Qatar and China to a league that could be compared with Netherlands, Belgium, Argentina, Colombia, etc.

I think many underestimate just how much MLS ruins the careers of their young American players. Some just aren't very good and not every young player will turn into a good player, but some do develop well like Miazga, Glad, D. Acosta. Those players all benefited from playing time at a young age, and it helped them develop their games. Miazga is now in Europe, the other two should have a shot at it within the next season or two, although Petke might have something to say about that in regards to Acosta.

Not everyone starts out with a pedigree like Pulisic or EPB where you can parlay YNT performances into contracts with big European teams. The fact that we are told to just shut-up and not say anything when a 21 year old like Ebobisse and a 21 year old in a couple of weeks like Williamson have no minutes this season in MLS just shows part of the problem. These players are the secondary consideration, the primary consideration are the mediocre foreigners. How low has our league sunk when our best young players can't even get time in the main domestic league? Forget about discussing whether our players will be good enough for Europe or the Champions League. They can't get playing time in lowly MLS.

What about Redding and Lindley going missing? Where have they gone? I've heard nothing on either in a month or two. They are also 97's. The clock is ticking. They take any longer to get going, and their chance at Europe is essentially gone. There is a very small window for Americans to go to Europe. European teams stop taking up interest in our players (in the overwhelming majority of cases) when they are about 22, 23. Thats why the whole 4 year college thing makes no sense if we are trying to get our players into the best leagues in the world eventually. Even if they turn out to be very good out of college soccer, they'll end up like Besler or Gonzalez or maybe Cameron (if they are lucky) with little career resume outside of MLS.

The key here should be to get as many of them first team playing time and a platform to showcase themselves to European clubs. Some will succeed, others won't. If they turn into Zach Pfeffer or Coy Craft, who cares? Better that you give them a chance at success. Maybe it works out. That is what I believe should be the aim of MLS. Instead, the 20th or so best league in the world is trying to copycat the Premier League without success. And people wonder why we missed the World Cup. Its such a shame that the footballing leaders in this country are so inept. @jond is completely right. These players now see that MLS doesn't care, so they'll circumvent MLS and just try for Europe very directly. It would probably be easier if they could take a Tyler Adams route, but so few of those are available due to the barriers that MLS sets up for young Americans.

 

Who are all these young players that should be getting minutes?

The league needs to find incentives so that the quality players can play, but forced minute restrictions will just end up with players like Mathew Real who the general consensus is that both he isn't ready for MLS and doesn't have a high ceiling is logging minutes.

If every team had 1-2 Carleton/Durkin tier guys not logging minutes that is another story, but at this stage of the game this is just forcing lots of players that are not ready and not exciting prospects onto the field.

 

I'll turn the tables on you. Who are these young players that shouldn't play? I would argue its mostly just the players under 17 years old (with few exceptions) and the really mediocre HGP's from those age groups, maybe like Okonkwo or Herrera.

Nearly everyone here was saying the same things about Acosta a year ago that they are now saying about Real. Believe it or not, some players develop when they are given playing time against good competition. They were signed for a reason. These teams think they have talent. How about they give them a chance to develop? Quality 18, 19, 20, 21 year olds should not be developing in USL. Its a very low level league. If our prospects are playing every week in that league and players of the same age in Belgium, Netherlands, Argentina are playing in significantly better leagues, we shouldn't wonder why our players seem to stagnate.

Give them a chance to prove themselves. Its not asking for much. MLS teams regularly play 15-16 (or more players), 2-3 of them can't be young Americans? Do you think YNT players in Argentina or Colombia are struggling to get on the field for the first team? No, they clearly aren't because their teams don't have an obsession with trying to appease the outside world. They are focused on making money, developing footballers to sell on for a profit.

 

Not every team has a Durkin/Carleton, but that’s besides the point. This is a multiplier effect of an exodus of free transfers of US Youngsters to Europe at 18. The list of kids that left the country to play abroad, on a free, is staggering. Pulisic, Sargent, Mckennie, Akale, Perez, Wright, Taitague, Parks, Amon, Jgo...the list goes on. Parks, Mckennie, Sargent and Pulisic probably represent $100million+ in future transfer dollars...how much of that will MLS see? The same amount you and I will.

If the league actually provided a tangible platform for our youth to start their pro careers and sell them on, then there’d be no need to discuss mandatory youth PT. It’s sad that 18 year olds feel they have better career launching pads 5000 miles from home, rather than our own backyard.

 

It's not surprising that the best players leave the United States for Europe, that's where the best teams are. I'm not worried about that.

MLS has 23 teams now. If a team wanted to focus on youth development and selling players, they can do that, but apparently most teams don't see this as an effective way of generating operating revenue. And aside from a few people here, people aren't going to pay a lot of money to see teens play just to watch their development. MLS revenue is based on attendance, and it's stars, excitement and winning that helps with that.

Red Bulls and Dallas are pretty much pushing the envelope here for youth development. Still early, but I'd say it's a mixed success. I'd like to see more teams try it, but if it was forced on all teams, you're going to see teams lose because of it, and that will lead to a backlash.

 

Sometimes I hate when people refer to some MLS teams as stacked in a certain position. Real Madrid are stacked Barcelona are stacked. There is a lot now to be gained from gruezo Acosta etc. If a player has more raw talent or potential then other players the best teams find a way for them to get playing time at a challenging level.

 

He's only 15, but Efrain Alvarez is the biggest rising soccer star in the US right now. pic.twitter.com/Z18Y1RECNo

— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) May 24, 2018

https://www.lagalaxy.com/post/2018/05/23/east-la-la-galaxy-story-rise-efrain-alvarez

Efra getting some love from Bleacher Report and the Galaxy themselves.

https://t.co/BTSufX4bOp

Found Lindley (and Pierre da Silva, who hasn't made an Orlando bench all year).

 

I’d amend that to most in form a week ago. I hope he plays for the USA, but I hope this doesn’t turn into a Jonathan Gonzalez situation (with even more complaining) if he decided to play for Mexico. It seems like we like to complain more about what goes wrong and the players who choose not to play for the USA than the players who want to play for the USA and are good, likely just as good or better than the players who decide not to play for us.

 

The growth of the game and the improvement of the American player is predicated on MLS doing it right. We've are trying as a nation to have MLS bear the burden of real, sustainable, long-term professional youth player development. If they want to half ass it, or fake it then we are doomed. We should have stayed with amateur clubs sending all players to college. Your post shows that naivite. Youth development isn't about making money solely from attendance, its the incentive to 1st off have top notch players playing for the first team of such high quality that it drives quality, wins and attendance. It then participates in the International marketplace of transfers and training fees. This drives innovation, it drives improvement, its drives youth development. I agree with you its a mixed success but you are wrong that to drive and incentivize MLS teams to do what every other team in the world is doing and will lose because of it is just small thinking. Its the next step in the true growth of the sport in this country. Having the same rules for every team doesn't make teams lose, they do that themselves.