I can't see the Galaxy being interested in Zavaleta as he wasn't even a consistent starter for TFC. As for Omar, I should preface this by saying, I was a big Omar fan when he was with the Galaxy and even watched some Pachuca matches after he was moved there. My sense is that he isn't anywhere close to the player he was then. Now I haven't watch Toronto play at all since the 2019 MLS cup game so I could be wrong but I don't think so. I remember he didn't play well in that MLS Cup game. My sense is that at 34, he may have a couple of years left (that's a big maybe). On the other hand, he scored 3 goals and has 1 assist, which is far better than the total goals contributed by the CB position in 2021. So, while he may help the offense, don't see him improving the defense (with the singular exception of set pieces).
I'm with you on trading Lletget. But I would also say we remain sorely in need of another goal scorer. Chich is one year older, more injury prone and, for some weird ass reason, Vanney won't let Joveljic* on the field. *On the Current Roster page Joveljic's Player Status is listed as "unavailable." I have no idea if this is updated nor any idea what it means. The only other players with the 'unavailable' designations are Neal and Ferkranus.
Another defensive mls player that Vanney has experience with and is available (cincy released him) is Nick Hagglund who is 29 and played with Greg before. I think he’s primarily a right back or center back. defense performance obviously needs to improve but we have a lot of players. Not sure we will see much in the way of additions. I guess outside back depth (particularly on left) nice to hear some early rumors. Feels like Greg may at least have a plan. Last offseason we were adrift far deeper into offseason.
My wish list. I'm not even greedy, none one of these guys are superstars: An aggressive, dominant take charge cb like Jelle Van Damme. A box to box, wildly competitive and passionate linking midfielder who is both skilled and extremely hard working on both sides of the ball like in-prime Marcello Sarvas. A reliable, productive second forward like Ola Kamara *(19g, 5a in 2021!) to play up front alongside Chich. * I remember my roller coaster of feelings in the winter of 2018. First our esteemed FO announces Ibra is coming!! Oh hell yeah - I love it! Then several days later, under it's breath our FO quietly murmurs - "Btw, did we mention we had to release an in prime Kamara to swing the deal?" Adding old Ibra's 20+ goals while also taking away young Kamara's 16-18 goals always struck me as not really that great of a deal. And that decision has haunted us every since, as we endure year after year of single scorer, non-playoff-competitive teams. I hope Vanney can finally figure out that we can't win this way.
Love this thread! Who are we as a team? Are we going to be defensive and play to win 1-0, or are we looking to 'open up' more and score several while playing attractive soccer? I think Vanney has an idea of how he wants us to play, and hopefully we have a purpose in who we let go and who we acquire. That has not been true the last 5+ years. Trading Lletget makes sense if we bring in someone who fits the system better, otherwise we might as well keep him.
I'd be perfectly fine with a boring defensive Gs team that gets 1-0 wins after the disaster we've experienced with this team since 2015.
I'm in full agreement. With the G's, Bruce Arena built his winning teams with rock solid defenders. You can't lose matches if your 'keeper, back four, and d-mid lock things down in the defensive third and won't allow the other team to score. As I look back on our team for 2021, it's hard to deny that we played well in the first half of the season. Vanney's system was working, even though we lacked a true target forward and had a part-time #10 in Victor Vasquez. These shortcomings would come to the surface after losing Chicharito to injury, again. The result would be an 8 match winless streak: that's ¼ of the season. At season's end, it was clear that even when Chicharito returned, the malaise that plagued us the previous year had re-emerged, which showed itself when we lost at home to FC Dallas after they were eliminated from playoff contention. When we last won MLS Cup, we had a solid defense, a midfield with teeth, and two aces up top. And this is worth pointing out: when Mr. Leiweke ran the club, we were the gold standard for MLS. Respectfully to Mr. Klein, our current team it's not good enough. Our fans deserve better. We are the Los Angeles Galaxy.
I don't think this was at all clear based upon the Galaxy's 2020 results. While the defense has been bad for years, the offense cratered in 2020, down to 1.23 goals per game. What was clear last November was that with Pavon's status uncertain, the Galaxy's returning players only scored a total of 13 goals in 22 games a .6 goals per game average. So even if the Galaxy's defense returned to their spectacular level of 2009 (a 1.03 goals per game allowed average) and a highly unlikely probability, they were still going to lose big time unless the offense was fixed. Thus, IMO, Vanney and DTK had to address both the offense and the defense, while being hobbled by 2 very unproductive, frequently injured DPs in Chicharito and JDS. I defy anyone to say they knew last November that Chicharito was going to have a productive season when he hadn't had a good season (double digits in goals scored) since he left the Bundesliga in 2017. Meanwhile, it was unclear last November if the Galaxy could bring back the 3rd DP from 2020, Pavon, even had they wanted to. At that time in November 2020, there were a ton of rumors that the league was trying to limit what 3rd DPs could make. Meanwhile Boca was asking for a MLS record fortune of a transfer fee for Pavon ($8-$12mm) on top of what the Galaxy had already paid. I have to believe the Galaxy powers also knew that Pavon would be seeking off-season surgery, which would making his signing even riskier. FWIW in 20 games for Boca, Pavon had played almost 1200 minutes and scored 2 goals with 3 assists. All in all, I think that Vanney and DTK did pretty good. The defense improved significantly dropping from 2.09 goals per game allowed to 1.59 (better than any team since Bruce left in 2016). The offense faired better between Chicharito's miracle season and the new signings but still didn't do enough. I think the objective for 2022 should be for continued improvement in both areas rather than a blanket statement that the defense alone needs to be fixed.
I am really tired of the mantra that Bruce started with the defense. Frankly, that's BS because he didn't need to rebuild the Galaxy's offense. He inherited Beckham, Donovan, Buddle and Alan Gordan and their 45 goals in 2008. And yes the defense was a shambles in 2008, but a lot of that was on Ruud Gullet (who Beckham and Lieweke hired). In 2007, the team gave up 1.6 goals per game as compared with 2008 when it was 2.08. Bruce also benefited by having high draft choices in 2009 when the college draft really meant something. FWIW, I don't think Tim Leiweke had much to do with the day to day running of the Galaxy or roster formation beyond the DPs (which he controlled). I don't know for sure, but I believe he replaced Alan Hamilton (who died in 2006) with Alexi Lalas who couldn't resist making bad trades.
I think this is a pretty balanced assessment. Vanney was also hamstrung with having to pay a CB who doesn't even make the bench a million bucks; money that could've been used on a studly Van Damme-esque CB or more LB depth, possibly both. My complaints with Vanney are more about gameday tactics. I feel we could've been a little more conservative in some games; if we turn even one of those losses into a tie, we make the playoffs. Arguably, we just didn't have a sturdy enough defense for that and he felt our best defense was possessing the ball and attacking.
A mantra? That's a little extreme,... The fact is, our defense wasn't cutting it. Bruce brought in his guys in defense (Tony Sanneh, Gregg Berhalter, etc), players with a soccer IQ that still had something left in the tank, knew his system, and knew what it took to fill the holes in our defense. That was obvious to everyone on this board. ...and this was just the starting point in the rebuild. The rebuild took a quantum leap when he used those draft picks you mentioned to draft the defensive dynamic duo of Omar Gonzales and A. J. De La Garza. In them, we had two of the best center backs in the league. Agreed. But the people running the day to day operations answered to Tim because the buck stopped with him, so to speak. Tim's the guy that fired Gullit and Lalas. ...and man, it's hard to believe that it's been 15 years since Doug Hamilton left us.
I don’t buy the arguments that we didn’t have the talent to have a decent defense this past season. Our defender pool was actually fine. It included 3 very talented, top 10-20% level players - Bond in goal, Araujo at rb and Williams at cb. We also had three experienced solid starter level players in Villafana, Steres and DePuy. The only defensive position we lacked quality was left back in the 14 games Villafana missed. Even Coulibaly was physically very talented and probably could have been coached up to be a decent emergency left back. IOW there is no good reason for this lineup to not get it’s share of shutouts, given good coaching: —————————BOND ——- Araujo—Steres/Williams/DePuy —-Villafana (I’m saying pick 2 of Steres/Williams/DePuy. Or hell use all three - the one time Vanney mixed it up and used a 5-2-2-1 on the road we made it very hard hard on opponent to get a shot off, much less score. But for some unfathomable reason he abandoned that immediately.) But somehow, despite our defensive talent, we ended up tied for 3rd worst defense in the WC, yielding a pitiful 1.6 goals per game. No excuse for us being that bad even if you factor in Villafana missing games or the failed Coulibaly experiment that should have been abandoned much earlier. Even worse was the fact that our defense didn’t improve one iota over the course of 8 months. That screams bad coaching. Yes, I expect Vanney to upgrade our personnel. But why should I expect him to suddenly become tactically sound? Seriously, give me a good reason I can hang my hopes on. It is all very worrisome.
Klein selling his house - let's hope he has been fired and is moving out of state in shame for 6 crappy years.
I must say, I'm inclined to agree with you, friend. But I will play devil's advocate a bit: I do think losing Villafana was significant; Hamalainen was good for a goal-worthy mistake almost every game. Additionally, you could argue we had a leaky midfield with no real defense-first CM, especially given JDS' sharp decline. Lastly, not having a real target forward up top left us without a way to relive pressure on that midfield and defense consistently. But...even there, there were answers for that. I would've probably given Zubak more time down the stretch. What he lacks in finishing ability he makes up for in pure hustle, target presence and pressing which is an asset away from home. But really I agree with you. It's the thing that bugged me most this season.
Although this isn't the best time of the year to sell one's home, it's a seller's market here in SoCal. He paid $3 million and is asking $4.6 million. That home will fetch more than the asking price. Wow, first Dennis te Klose, and now maybe Chris Klein? Could be that Chris sees the handwriting on the wall and is moving on before his employment is terminated by mutual consent.
Les informo, que la información que manejan periodistas con buenas fuentes dentro de Unión Española, es que, si se vende, se va a vender al extranjero, no se quiere reforzar a ningún equipo chileno con él, actualmente se habla del LA Galaxy y de Argentina https://t.co/UMOOOn09XV— Vincent Married (@OsorioCasado) December 1, 2021 Rough translation: "I inform you that the information that journalists handle with good sources within Unión Española, is that, if he is sold, he will be sold abroad, they do not want to reinforce any Chilean team with him, currently there is talk of the LA Galaxy and of Argentina" Not sure who the reliable Chilean domestic league insiders are but this person on Twitter says the Galaxy are talking to Unión Española about Víctor Felipe Méndez, a 22-year-old Chilean CDM/CM. Transfermarkt values him at $1.65 million.
That's another interesting rumor of a highly thought of player that would fit our current needs. I can't say that I watch the Chilean league but the app I like to use for football inidcates he's the best player on that team (which finished in 5th place). I would hope that we'd find a way to get a player like this in the squad without using the DP spot. I'm hopeful we're going to spend big on the DP spot. It doesn't have to be someone famous (for me) but it needs to be someone high end and I would be upset if we used our open DP spot on a Cabral type signing vs. a Chicharito/Zlatan type signing. Just no GERRARD type signings please.
Exactly. That DP slot absolutely must go to a certified stud. We can't afford to waist another slot on a long term project. By the way. Brek Shea is out of contract with Miami. We could get him cheap as a leftback sub. He would be better than both the subs we had all last year that's for sure. Unless he has dropped off horribly and I am wayyyyyyyy wrong of course.
Thinking about Brek and similar possible alternatives I wonder if MLS - and by extension the Galaxy - has become too critical of college as a source of players. Especially as defenders. Because while defending requires some technical skills it is as much about athleticism, reading plays, hard work, determination and unwavering concentration on the task at hand. During the last playoff game the announcers noted that most of NER's roster came through our university system. So it's hard for me to believe that there aren't any young, in prime college players who can defend better than the washed up overpriced pros we so often bring in (see Hamalainen). It might be a converted college star forward or just a great athlete with a winners mindset. Maybe backup would be the usual ceiling for such players but if the announcers were accurate then NER seems to have shown many college player can ultimately do much more than become reliable subs. I guess we look at these guys through some kind of draft but that route just seems under-mined these days. Watching a week long combine isn't sufficient to find such diamonds in the rough. Having connections to the best college programs and getting insiders views about such players and then following up with tape viewing could yield some bargain basement players who could become starting level Galaxy players, at least at the backup level. Added benefit is any such discovery would leave us a lot more salary dollars available for building the rest of the roster.
Technically, the Galaxy drafted Josh Drack last year as a defender, which is what he played at the combine and for most of the year at the G2s. In reality, though, he was a forward/midfielder who MLS teams projected as a left back (which is why the coaches played him there at the combine). So, he did not have college as an opportunity to develop as a defender and the Galaxy are using the G2s for the task. He was up and down this year, but showed promise. He was not surprisingly better at the getting forward part of the position than at the defending part. I wouldn't be surprised if he replaces Acosta as the developmental LB on the senior roster who gets another year of mostly G2 games.
Like many things, being a good scout takes a certain amount of talent and probably organizational support. New England doesn't appear to have much of an academy program (only 16 year olds and up), so they probably rely more on the draft then teams with great academys like Dallas. Brad Friedel moved Remi Roy from an long term assistant coach to New England's Director of Scouting in 2018. He has done a great job since being reassigned. As you can see before then, New England didn't have consistent success. FWIW, Bruce didn't arrive until the middle of the 2019 season so you can't give him credit for the draft. 2020 - 1st Round 6th Pick - DF - Henry Kessler - Virginia - Now a starting CB - (originally from the Red Bulls academy) 2019 - 1st Round 9th Pick - FW - Tajon Buchannon - Syracuse - Now the starting right winger 2019 - 1st Round 11th Pick - MF - Dejuan Jones - Michigan State - Now the starting left FB 2018 - 1st Round 8th Pick - DF - Brandon Bye - Western Michigan - Now the starting right FB 2018 - 1st Round 9th Pick - FW - Mark Segbers - Wisconsin - Not on the Sr. Roster 2017 - 1st Round 20th Pick- FW - Brian Wright - Vermont - Not on the Sr. Roster 2016 - 1st Round 10th Pick- DF - Jordan McCrary - North Carolina - Not on the Sr. Roster Meanwhile, the Galaxy didn't do nearly as well. DTK would have been responsible for 2019 and 2020, with Pete owning 2017 and possibly 2018. FWIW, I will say that in 2018, a CB was the obvious need and Hillard Arce seemed to check all of the boxes. 2020 - 1st Round 19th Pick - Traded to Toronto for 1st position in the allocation order - used to sign Giancarlo Gonzalez 2019 - 1st Round 19th Pick - MF - Emilo Cuello - SMU- Limited first team play - now with San Antonio USL 2018 - 1st Round 6th Pick - DF - Tomas Hillard Arce - Stanford - Limited first team play - now with Sacramento USL 2017 - Traded their 1st round pick to Denver for Jermaine Jones - Denver's pick is in the USL
I guess the Ilie Sanchez thing may be made up. Ilie Sanchez rumors are fake made by @sportingkcmemes on instagram #LAGalaxy #SportingKC pic.twitter.com/w74VdQ94y1— SKC Trey (@SKCTrey) December 3, 2021 wasn’t too thrilled by the idea anyway