What needs fixing for next season?

New England Revolution decline contract options on nine players, including veteran Shalrie Joseph
December 8, 2014
MLSsoccer staff
MLSsoccer.com

 

No real stunners there in my opinion. The 2 forwards picked up mid-season didn't show what they needed to. Overloaded at GK and F, logjam seems to be cleared at those positions. Knocks more holes in the Rhinos roster than the revs for the most part.

 

At $330k, Castillion was the third-highest paid player on the team behind Jones and Gonçalves. If they decided he wasn't going to be a key player, that's a budget-busting salary and we're better off reallocating those dollars elsewhere.

So it's possible to interpret this trade as a salary dump. However, in the Rapids press release they mentioned that they did not exercise options on Castillion and Imbongo. I suspect the Revs would have done the same had the pair stayed on the Revs roster.

So it's not really about a salary dump, because I think Castillion and Imbongo were being shown the door trade or no trade. It was purely about reducing the number of required int'ls on the protected list from three to two by reducing the total number of int'ls on the roster from five to three. (SEE CHART) So in effect we paid the Rapids a small fee to take the rights of GC and DI, thereby allowing the Revs to protect someone like Alston or Shuttleworth instead of Castillion.

A team who didn't handle this situation well was the Chicago Fire. They also had five int'l players, three of whom had contract options declined (Ward, Earnshaw, Sinama-Pongolle). But because they didn't get any of them "off the books" and on someone else's roster like the Revs did with GC and DI, they actually had to protect Earnshaw, a player they've already gotten rid of. That's wasteful, even for a team without much talent/depth like the Fire.


I think the Revs absolutely would have exposed DK if they could, but they were required to protect two int'ls and it makes more sense to protect him than Bengtson. It's too bad that Bengtson is on the books - if we had managed to sell him earlier and had two total int'ls at this time, we'd be able to protect an additional domestic like Mullins instead of DK.

 

If Colorado didn't exercise their option on Castillon, could we still end up with him anyway if we sign him?

 

LOL! I can see the Revs picking him back up in the Re-entry Draft and negotiating a lower salary with him...

 

Surprised that Sundly was let go. He seemed to do very well in Rochester.

 

I'm with you, but that horse has probably left the barn

I don't know if all those guys are [gone] gone. Declining their options means they would essentially be trying out again to make the team (unless they chose to move on). It's possible that some won't be invited back to camp, but since we don't have many draft picks, there are clearly roster spots available.

And, speaking of not having many draft picks, I think we're fairly likely to have 2 academy products pushing to make the roster: Zach Herivaux straight from the academy and Cole DeNormandie finishing up at BC.

Herivaux is a creative attacker, and while BC usually used DeNormandie up top, I don't think that's his best spot. He's more of an intelligent passer, with size, and a facilitator. I liken his passing sense to Caldwell, in that they both seem to know what their passing options are before they even receive the ball. They're both heady players in the same way, but Cole has much better size at over 6'. We could end up with two CD's from BC.

 

I really don't see DeNormandie being a pro player. I wouldn't be surprised if we didn't even sign him; if we do, I think he'll be loaned out to Rochester and eventually cut in a year or two.

 

You could be right, but I think he's got a few things in his favor. He's got good size and speed and has been in and around the Revs organization for years. I think when we saw Caldwell fit right in, it was for the same reason - he'd been practicing with the team, knew the players, the organization, the pro environment.

And, I think the BC experience leaves him somewhat underrated. I think they rarely used him well and heady players aren't a great fit for the go-go-go college game.

I think the biggest obstacle for DeN. is that there isn't a clear spot where he'd fit in. I could see him playing a similar role as Neumann, but, at least for the moment, we still have Neumann. He'll have to show a lot of versatility, because the Revs are pretty set at most positions, so we'll see. Rochester is a likely option, I agree.

 

Caldwell fit in because he had been training with the Revs senior squad for during his collegiate off-seasons. You're also ignoring the fact that Caldwell was one of the best players on one of the best teams in the country. I just don't see them being good comparisons for one another.

 

Yes, Fagundez is the only surprise to me as well... especially with Daigo and Alston protected, not that I don't like those players, I just think Fagundez has a much greater upside and value overall to the team. But, they said they have a trade with the two teams to make sure they don't select Fagundez... not sure how that works but whatever.

We do have the largest unprotected list... now you know why they went out of their way to fill the roster spots this year.

I could make at least 2 MLS Cup winning teams with all the players out there... I'm not sure anyone on our list is that appetizing, that we need to worry about losing too many.

I love all the moves they've made for this, though. Dumped a lot of salary and contracts we wouldn't want to eat up. So far, gotta give them an A+ heading into this, which, given the proximity to MLS Cup, deserves an extra +.

 

Sometimes you gotta realize a team is more than the sum of it's parts. Each part of this team might not look like much, but they know how to play well with each other, and that's the hard part... building chemistry. We got it, I hope they hold onto it.

 

Tierney is one of the faster players in the league. I'm shocked so many people keep saying he doesn't have pace.

The reason he isn't beating people on the dribble is because they know to lean over to the left side all the time on him, because he's got the reputation for only using his left. He needs to work on making moves to the inside and crossing with his right foot to make the defenders honest.

He also doesn't really try to beat people on the dribble often, and usually plays the smart ball back, rather than chance a giveaway.

That's part of what makes him good, because he's a smart player, and an experienced veteran. He was definitely not one of the ones playing nervous out there in MLS Cup. He showed up big in the playoffs when it was needed.

He's a great one on one defender, he's bad at team defense, organizationally. However, he uses his speed to be able to track back and help out.

Ideally he's a flank in a 3-5-2 or 3-4-1-2 which would be great for this team.

Davies Bunbury
Nguyen
Tierney Jones Caldwell (Dorman?) Barnes
Alston JoGo Farrell
Shuttleworth

or

Mullins Davies
Nguyen
Tierney Jones Caldwell (Dorman?) Bunbury
Alston JoGo Farrell
Shuttleworth

or...

Davies Top-rated-striker-to-be-purchased-later
Nguyen
Tierney Jones Caldwell (Dorman?) Bunbury
Alston JoGo Farrell
Shuttleworth

 

hmmm..., you must be talking about a different Tierney, not Chris, the one who plays for the Revs, right?

 

He may want more than just under $500k, especially seeing what Jones is making... without Soares, there's added leverage into his argument.

Are the MLS Cup caliber Revs going to want to revamp their entire line-up and change to 2 new CBs, after losing both their Captain and Defensive Player of the Year? I don't think so.

The salary cap may be going up, but he might be taking up most of the cash that was freed up recently... as will Nguyen.

Did Barnes nail your wife? I don't know why you have such animosity built up about Barnes. He's a fairly decent player.

Midway through the season, when we had the injuries, Barnes came on and looked outstanding. He was our starting right back if he didn't get injured. Then he got the injury and didn't see time again. He didn't lose his position because of bad form. It just happened that while he was out, other players besides Nguyen started to score, and we picked up Jones, and then went on a run, that no one was going to be changed up from. With AJ Soares gone, Farrell will now slide to the middle of a back 4 and Barnes comes on as your right back.

Now you almost need to sign JoGo.

But, we don't play a 4-5-1... I don't know where you got that.

We've switched back and forth between a 4-1-4-1 and a 4-2-3-1... which has showed that Heaps is beginning to work on different tactical arrangements and strategies. If he continues to progress, he will make use of the 5-3-2, 3-5-2, and 3-4-1-2 to benefit this team.

I'm not sure you can label anyone as a bust necessarily on this team. Who has been used enough to truly say they were given a shot to find their place with the team?

I'd say Sene and Imbongo performed, in their limited time, especially considering down that they were moved to midfield for part of their time here.

Bengston may have been a flop, by DP standards, but his time has been interrupted by international duty often. He's never really played significant minutes. The national team he plays on uses a 2 forward system, and he seems to fit well within it. We've never used that 4-4-2, but when we had Agudelo, Bengston, and Fagundez across the top a lot of Agudelo and Fagundez' production came off runs by Bengston freeing up space, or being able to play the ball back and forth with him. If we've gone away from that 4-3-3 you can't fault that on Bengston... Agudelo left...

Sadly we never got to see what we could out of Taylor and Castillion, and I think Akpan you knew would never see the field, but may have been able to contribute.

Now we're down to Davies, Mullins, Bunbury, and Fagundez. But if we're going forward with these 4 players as our forwards on the roster, you can't say it's because they've outperformed the "flops".

Player - Seasons - Appearances/Starts - Minutes - Goals (/90) - Assists (/90) - Pts (/90)
===================================================
Charlie Davies - 2 - 22/13 - 1166 - 3 (.2315) - 4 (.3087) - 10 (.7718)
Mullins - 1 - 21/14 - 1198 - 4 (.3005) - 1 (.0751) - 9 (.6761)
Bunbury - 1 - 31/28 - 2446 - 4 (.1471) - 6 (.2207) - 14 (.5151)
Fagundez - 4 - 88/64 - 5653 - 22 (.3502) - 14 (.2228) - 58 (.9234)
----------------------------------------------------------------
Saer Sene - 3 - 64/42 - 3637 - 17 (.4206) - 8 (.1979) - 42 (1.039)
Jerry Bengston - 3 - 36/23 - 2335 - 4 (.1541) - 0 (0) - 8 (.3083)
Dmitri Imbongo - 3 - 32/15 - 1455 - 4 (.2474) - 4 (.2474) - 12 (.7422)
Andre Akpan - 1 - 0/0 - 0 - 0 (0) - 0 (0)
Tony Taylor - 1 - 1/0 - 9 - 0 (0) - 0 (0)
Geoffrey Castillion - 1 - 1/0 - 14 - 0 (0) - 0 (0)

If you're going by the statistical performances of these players you'd have Sene as your striker, and Fagundez as your wing. Your 4 forwards you'd carry would be Sene, Davies, Imbongo, and Fagundez. Bunbury you could argue should be kept on as a mid. Statistically, you still can't just Akpan, Taylor, and Castillion.

There are plenty of pedestrian forwards out there who aren't top salaried players, that rank well above our 2 strikers in terms of goals/90 minutes. If you look down the list of unprotected players, there are numerous potential upgrades to what we have. Getting one or two of them does a lot more for this team than dismantling the defense and trying to build it back up with low paid talent.

In terms of fish... this one's a keeper.

I don't want another fish... we might flounder.

Might be better to talk about birds in hand at this point.

I don't want to be forced to have to pay big money to try and bring in a keeper because we end up with 1 that can't perform.

Shuttleworth looks like a solid reliable workhorse of a keeper... one that you can rely the greater majority of the time, and not have to worry about the position. That's what you really want in a keeper, lock him up, long term.

He doesn't do that all that well... His major problem is being way too undersized to be a midfield general or box to box mid... and he doesn't have the pace or crossing accuracy to be a flank. His long shots from center of the pitch made him dangerous... but they're not accurate enough consistently to want to keep him around.

If the choice is keep Fagundez or Rowe, I'd clearly keep Fagundez.

He was excellent in the 4-3-3 with Agudelo on one side and him on the other. He was just fine as well in the early part of the season in the 4-1-4-1, when he was being moved around the field switching off with Nguyen, Bunbury, and Rowe, with more fluidity to our attack.

He fit just fine in this system, until he lost his confidence during the losing streak.

Even with the more rigid positioning, and Bunbury coming on as the more effective flank, Fagundez has the gift to be a great flank player if he can find that spark again.

However, ideally he would play on a team that allows him to be a free range CAM, and unless we're going to "invert the triangle" and play Jones as the destroyer he ought to be, and play Nguyen and Fagundez together as CAM's, then his best option is go overseas to a country that would be able to make the most of his talent, in a 4-3-3 system like the one he flourished in.

Still... wouldn't it be great to have something like;

CF: Davies
Left Flank/Wing: Agudelo/Tierney
CAM: Nguyen & Fagundez
Destroyer: Jones
Left Wing Back: Tierney/Alston
CB: JoGo & Farrell
Right Wing Back: Barnes/Alston
Keeper: Shuttleworth

In a 4-1-4-1, 4-3-3 or other similar formation.

Davies
Agudelo/Tierney - Nguyen - Fagundez - Bunbury
Jones
Tierney/Alston - JoGo - Farrell - Barnes/Alston
Shuttleworth

Agudelo - Davies - Bunbury
Nguyen - Fagundez
Jones
Tierney - JoGo - Farrel - Barnes/Alston
Shuttleworth

BTW, Colorado left Marvell Wynne unprotected... I know that's just for the expansion draft, but if that's how they feel about him, they've already shown a willingness to deal. He could be an upgrade to Barnes as the wing back in that formation, or could play CB, to keep Farrell on the right. Plus, he had experience playing with Nguyen on the youth teams, and he would add a bit more of that experience we're looking for... Just sayin...

 

Yeah... the one who was matched up with Lloyd Sam in the NYRB series and held his own with him Sam defensively in the first leg, and was moved up with defensive support from Alston and abused them going forward in the 2nd leg.

Obviously he doesn't have Klute, Yedlin, Sam, etc. speed, but not many do. When he gets going he has a bit of pace to him.

Think about just in that final alone, on 2 occasions he caught both Keane and Donovan who were played alone in behind the defense and stopped them. Then on the goal, figure how far he ran forward up from the LB spot after that ball was played forward to Mullins. He came from within our own half up into the box, and there was no one that stayed with him. Even on Keane's goal, he held him onside over on the left side of the field but he wasn't far from catching Keane over on the right side of goal box, and covered a lot of ground there.

Don't mistake a miss-timing the offside trap, or missing a marking assignment for not being able to keep up with people. I think with Tierney it's all about commitment. There's a bit of hesitation when he isn't quite sure which guy he's marking, or who is being switched off for who. However, when there's a clear objective that he's committed to, he gets there. He's cleared quite a few balls off the goal-line that way.

 

Burns told Lemieux that they didn't see Castillion getting playing time in 2015. So at that price, they needed to cut bait.

 

no spot for Fagundez or Rowe in your 3-4-1-2?

 

Totally agree with the first point.

Some people on here just seem to like whining about and bashing this team. Gotta wonder if they even want us to win. Whenever we're successful they try to discredit any move the team makes and chalk it down to pure luck, and then when we aren't successful they lump all the blame right on them. We may have lost MLS Cup 5 times in horrific fashion... but we've also made 5 MLS Cups, when most teams in the league have made 2 or less. They might not be the most successful club in the league, but they're doing something right to be able to build teams having paid such little money for players over the years.

However, I disagree about the last part. How is Mullins a definite to get picked up?

Those teams have expensive DP signings, like Kaka, Lampard, David Villa, etc. They're not going to want a target center forward who didn't produce a lot of goals. They're going to want someone with average finishing ability to just tap in the balls they're served on a platter. I think many of the Revs players will be safe. I do think we lose a couple, though, and Barnes may well be one.

Have you looked around the league at the other forwards? I fully expect players like Kenny Cooper, Eddie Johnson, and the like are all snatched up instead of Mullins.

 

I agree... and the major reason the Jones move has panned out, is because Charlie Davies kind of turned into that striker for a bit. Key goals scored down the stretch run of the season, and some key timed playoff goals scored, or else we narrowly miss out on the playoffs and/or lose out in the first round.

I'd still have preferred they went out and spent the money on a proven striker like that.

What's done is done, Jones is here now.

They have the opportunity to go out and grab both. I don't suspect that they will.

 

I'm sorry... a complete overhaul? The defense that finished 2nd in the East and made it to MLS Cup needs a complete overhaul?

Really? Some fans...

 

I was just using their existing preferences for players and making more tactical adjustments to account for the players skill sets better, to show how even without totally changing the team, we could improve.

There's room for Fagundez in several positions/formations for me.

The 3-4-1-2 wouldn't necessarily be one. Obviously the 1 is Nguyen, and without Nguyen you're not using that formation. The 2 would be 2 forwards, one a pure 9 (which I shouldn't have to explain isn't Fagundez), and the other a versitaile 2nd striker. Fagundez might be able to play as a 2nd striker. I haven't seen them use him in that role, if they even have, so I couldn't say for certain. I think it's possible, but for me Charlie Davies is the natural choice for a 2nd striker with Mullins as a center forward. A 'Plan B' or bench player option would be to move Davies up as the 9, and play Fagundez as a 2nd striker.

HOWEVER, my major preference is to go out and get a reliable pure #9, one that's a proven scorer... the way Keane, BWP, Dwyer, DiVaio, Martins, etc. are. That way we can get the best of both worlds, in getting to continue to play Davies as the 2nd striker, to see if he can continue to improve back to where he used to be, and we can also have a proven goalscorer who can take a lot of the heat off the defense by making sure we have goals on the board nearly every game. If we do that Fagundez may be able to come in off the bench, perhaps. I don't know.

All I know is, that Fagundez is having a serious confidence issue. He isn't playing with the same flair he used to, and is lacking the finishing touch he had last season and early this year. I don't know how to fix that. If he can't, he's going to be useless wherever he is played.

Therefore I think it's best to loan him out in the winter to a club overseas that might be able to help spark that in him.

When the Revs said they've worked out a trade that ensures NYCFC and Orlando City FC don't select Fagundez... I'm really hoping that means over to Sporting.