"Heading into the contest, the story was the depleted Birmingham roster, as seven players were unavailable for selection. Forwards Chandler Hoffman and Femi Hollinger-Janzen, midfielders Zach Herivaux and Daigo Kobayashi . . ." From the Birmingham website -- anyone know what Herivaux injury is? And btw, they are on a 555 streak of not giving up a goal, and they are 5 wins and a draw in their last six games.
New England Revolution sign veteran goalkeeper Brad Knighton to new deal August 23, 2019, 1:14PM EDT Jonathan Sigal
Cropper is auditioning for an expansion team in Hartford. It’s kind of classy of the Revs to do that. Good luck to him..
Carles Gil, Gustavo Bou establishing dynamic duo for surging Revs August 28, 2019, 2:51PM EDT Ari Liljenwall
Gil running a close 2nd... Top 5 Newcomers of the Year: Heber, Gil or Fernandez leading? August 29, 2019, 3:55PM EDT Tom Bogert
Remember when we used to argue about whether DPs made a difference? Gil and Bou are game changers. Having two guys who can make an outrageous has fundamentally altered the DNA of this team. It's an element of constant danger the Revs haven't possessed since the Twellman-Dempsey-Ralston days.
I think we all agreed DPs would make the difference, but with Bengtson being a flop, many wanted further investment while the fear was the Krafts would get gunshy on spensing. Seeing the ROI on Gil and Bou so quickly is better than anyone probably anticipated. If Bou is on that 2014 revs team we win the Cup.
I dunno if Bengston really should count as a "DP" although he technically was. The guy was making $182,000, which is certainly more than I make, but in the grand scheme of what DPs at the time were making, I wouldn't really categorize him as that.Of course, they paid their first DP 18 grand, but who's counting. The thing is, Bengston was exactly the kind of guy the Revs should have been targeting. He was 27-28, no history of serious injuries, was a regular for a pretty good CONCACAF team, played on a good club side (Olympia, IIRC) and had scored a pretty good amount of goals. And the salary range was where the Revs were willing to spend. It is really a shame that he didn't work out. He really should have, given the above, but that happens a fair amount of time, and with waaaay more expensive players. The beef I have was with the one-dimensional thinking that, since he didn't work out, it scared them away from signing another guy with a similar background. He had literally all of the right characteristics the Revs would want in a signing from outside the league. They should have signed another, but instead, they shied away from any reasonable attempt at drastically improving the team.
But the sad truth then was, the Kraft's didn't really care about improving the team as long as the same amount of casual fan butts were in the seats every home game. Since -for awhile- the attendance didn't really appear linked to results, he chose to hold on to his money. It was only when things got so bad this past May, and the team and fan base faced total collapse that they got off their butts and cleaned house.
True, we had to go through our own "Christmas Eve 1989 at the Ceausescu house" moment with Friedel and Burns totally destroying things down to rubble before they were willing to make such a drastic move like bringing in Arena to right the ship. No way this would have happened if Jay Heaps was still here and we were playing just well enough to be competitive and be "unlucky" to lose and miss the playoffs on the last weekend of the season.
These posts are a little frightening. I’m hoping they are going to let Arena build a truly good team (without ballooning all the way out to spending LAFC, Toronto, LAG money). Please, please, please, don’t make the playoffs if we are going to consider the current roster “good enough.”
Well, there are a couple of ways to build a good MLS team. You can spend like Toronto or LA Galaxy, etc. or you can take more of a "moneyball" approach, where you play it smart and find good "value" signings. Over the years, the Revs have attempted to do the latter, but you have to work smarter and develop contacts and a scouting network around the world to make that happen. Y'really think that was going to work with Mike Burns in charge? The guy would have trouble thinking his way out of a paper bag and was clearly so far over his head in this job it wasn't funny. With Arena, I at least have the confidence in his judgment that he knows how to identify players who would be a good fit here, and has enough cache to actually have good players want to play for him. Bou wouldn't be here without Arena. He also has enough influence with the Krafts to get them to spend at a reasonable level. Not at the top of the league, but at least in the top half. And I'm OK with that.
Break down by teams and how what they pay per position. Red indicates top 4 in their conferences, Green would be a playoff team if the season ended today ................................FWDS.....MIDS.........Def.............GK 1 Toronto FC $6,889,216 $11,563,591 $2,080,625 $497,254 $21,244,519 2 LA Galaxy $7,575,000 $6,163,038 $3,611,043 $375,000 $17,724,081 3 Chicago Fire $2,586,583 $10,774,557 $2,047,933 $664,632 $16,073,705 4 Los Angeles FC $8,708,208 $2,478,311 $1,831,958 $182,565 $13,338,959 5 Sporting Kansas City $1,794,925 $7,524,662 $2,348,998 $411,925 $12,080,510 6 Seattle Sounders FC $3,012,933 $5,386,088 $3,247,945 $337,500 $12,054,716 7 Atlanta United FC $4,733,337 $4,081,250 $1,574,012 $910,262 $11,485,111 8 Montreal Impact $1,466,000 $6,365,195 $2,196,528 $392,857 $11,470,278 9 Portland Timbers $641,500 $6,290,058 $3,056,300 $417,500 $11,105,358 10 Orlando City $4,098,958 $3,340,167 $3,077,414 $168,250 $10,684,789 11 D.C. United $3,654,118 $2,784,550 $1,949,250 $561,078 $10,414,746 12 Columbus Crew $4,765,896 $2,670,139 $2,353,271 $260,000 $10,049,306 13 Real Salt Lake $2,073,700 $5,319,173 $1,963,883 $423,363 $9,940,119 14 New York City FC $1,665,500 $4,655,639 $2,720,900 $500,000 $9,542,039 15 FC Cincinnati $2,876,675 $4,292,225 $1,647,571 $328,438 $9,488,759 16 Philadelphia Union $1,198,887 $5,061,545 $1,356,325 $842,429 $8,459,186 17 Minnesota United FC $2,417,188 $3,715,834 $1,303,789 $785,875 $8,222,686 18 New England Revolution $4,539,125 $883,000 $2,066,160 $269,711 $8,182,996 19 San Jose Earthquakes $2,349,667 $3,236,542 $2,018,780 $516,667 $8,121,656 20 Colorado Rapids $1,103,750 $1,832,712 $2,486,046 $2,613,707 $8,036,215 21 Houston Dynamo $3,447,304 $1,607,437 $2,215,008 $172,833 $7,602,582 22 New York Red Bulls $1,686,250 $3,304,471 $1,537,704 $627,000 $7,486,025 23 FC Dallas $1,421,900 $3,487,980 $2,127,189 $429,875 $7,466,944 24 Vancouver Whitecaps FC $1,240,727 $1,660,640 $1,955,795 $350,333 $5,807,495 Of the top 20 highest payrolls in the league 12 make the playoffs today if the season ended 8 do not. To me that means its not how much you spend its how you spend it and who you spend it on. You can also throw in coaching as is the case in New England. I am convinced that Bou would not be here if Brad was in charge and even if he did come the Revs would still be cellar dwellers.
I heard a discussion about the Cowboys and Ezekial Elliot's new extension, vs. the Patriot's approach. Giving huge contracts for a few elite stars means that a team (in a salary capped league) doesn't have much of a 'middle-class', which translates to [quality] depth. The biggest key to the Pats success (although there are many) IMO is their cap approach - the roster from the 5th best-ranked player on the team to the 35th is pretty likely the leagues best, by a wide margin. I think Arena's task in the offseason is to strengthen the Revs' middle class. Too many of the players in that category are under-performing and that's where the backbone and depth of the team need to be. Agudelo, Penilla, Caldwell, Fagundez, Castillo - we're not getting enough out of those guys. They're not all expensive (thus don't necessarily need to be replaced), but we need solid contributors at all three lines to provide starting quality and depth on a consistent basis.
Add Bunbury and Mancienne to the list. And I get that Bunbury is somewhat key on the current roster. One either agrees or doesn’t agree that THAT is the problem. Given his streakiness, he should be the depth not the starter. My hope is that Arena address a few starting spots with improvements AND significantly beefs up the depth (middle class?), all without breaking the bank.
These numbers are from sportrac.com if anyone wants to look at them a bit more. Its worth noting that they reflect the publicly available salary data published by the PA in may, and do not reflect any roster changes since then/long term obligations. For example Bou currently is counted as having 0 salary by this chart. Heck LA doesnt even have Pavon listed on its roster. Its a nice shorthand chart, but I wouldnt take anything it presents too seriously Oh and i'd also toss Zahibo onto the "underperforming" pile
The shocking bit in there for the Revs is their midfield - we pay the least in the league (Gil must either not be included, or considered a FWD). At first glance, it looks like we spend about half as much as the 2nd lowest team for our midfield! And, we're getting off very cheap with goalkeeping, because Turner is so cheap - at least until his extension kicks in, but even then ... Our defense is expensive - the Mancienne factor. I'd have to think that if his contract isn't guaranteed, he won't be back next year. But, the big takeaway for me, is that there's plenty of room to invest in the midfield.
Ummmmm... OK......... High-profile trialists at @NERevolution training today: @JackRodwell & @AlexButtner_28 ex- #ManUnited & #ManchesterCity— Frank Dell'Apa (@frankdellapa) September 18, 2019
Trialists must be for next year, as the roster freeze was Aug 30th. How can they be thinking of next year before January? Oh, right, Burns is gone now.
Those are interesting candidates. As much as Buttner seems like the real deal, I'm hoping that Jones is allowed to continue developing.
This is where I think the Revs need to concentrate this off season. I think the defense is ok; with a good goalie. I like the kids, Jones and Bye. What we need is a JJ or Shalrie controlling the midfield. Match that with Gil and the Revs would have a solid base to move forward.
I think the defense has 0 great players. I like all 5 guys (Caicedo, Bye, Jones, Delamea, and Farrell) but they really need one of them to be a game changer. Conversely, the weakest spot on the field is still the #8. I dont think any of Diego, Agudelo, or Zahibo are good enough. But the way teams play against the Revs they'll continue to ship goals (or rely on Turner bailing them out 5 times a game) until the defense is upgraded.