Kamal Miller is outstanding. One of the many bright spots in the Canadian national team pool. Better than Aaron Long, younger and more athletic than Long, and just like with Long, no way in hell PV signs him. Fontas/Ford. Ride or die.
Agreed, I don't think we're in the running. If he's one foot out the door, that's pretty much off Vermes's list. But I don't think he is anywhere near satisfied with either the quality or quantity of CBs on the roster right now.
So I double and triple checked that this was SKC not SKCII... https://www.sportingkc.com/news/sporting-kc-signs-20-year-old-midfielder-danny-flores
Why weird? He has some talent, YNT experience, solid freshman/sophmore years in college, mechanism there to sign him easily enough. I doubt he's taking a "senior" roster spot and if we had supplementary roster spots open and no one on SKC2 or the Academy ready to fill them. Now ... it could be said that maybe you should have signed Bunbury from the Academy instead of doing this but who knows ... I don't mind this. Flores, Davis, Cisneros, and Duke all battling for playing time and likely going to find themselves in some SKC2 games. Who can step up and make a push for playing time in the Open Cup/Leagues Cup, etc.
In a vacuum, not weird. With being several CBs shy of a full back line and few to no senior roster slots left? That's when it seems weird to get another kid for a kid-heavy midfield depth pool.
I guess it's weird in the context of these sort of supplemental roster spots have more so been for HGP signings in the past. Which in turn speaks to the lack of quality in the academy ready to make the jump to the first team. And yeah I would have liked keeping Bunbury around for a spot. It goes to the overall frustration of we have all these veteran players but few young guys to be excited about for the future as well.
This doesn't effect the senior roster spots (at least I'm assuming not based on his age and likely price tag). And "several" is probably over stating it. I wouldn't be shocked if we only went 4 deep at CB at least to start the season ... meaning we're 1 short.
but if we're frustrated there aren't many young players to be excited about ... signing a 20 y/o former YNT player shouldn't be "weird". It doesn't need to be a position of need if they're young. We likely have our 2 deep at every position outside of CB. Which I guess is making this odd to most people, it's not a CB and that's where people think our only holes are. I agree with you, our holes are exciting young players as well ... and this might be one, time will tell. Will be nice to have him judged against Duke/Davis/Cineros/Hernandez and see who comes out on top (or what 2). They're likely ALL not going to be around the roster this time next year.
So, with the moves this week and fact that we're in training, it looks like 3 of our best four defenders play left back, and the one guy we know is going to start only kind of plays center back, because he's too slow to play the entire position. We only have two other center backs, and one is an MLS journeyman while the other is still learning the position. there isn't really a fourth CB. We hope the only legit right back on the squad is ready to start full time, because the other one is turning 37 during the season and has noticeably slipped down a couple steps. Backing this defense up we re-signed a 36 year old keeper whose play fell from spectacular in 2018 to crap in 2022 and two guys who we apparently don't think are ready because we re-signed the 36 year old. So, just for a really depressing moment, picture this defense with a couple injuries, which happen every year. Last year we gave up a not so healthy 54. If that's the over under for 2023, where do you place your money? OTOH, we will be starting a midfield picked from Radoja, Walter, Thommy and Kinda (among others) and a front three picked from Salloi, JFR, Pulido, Tzonis and Agada (among others). Last year, we scored a not so healthy 42. If that's the starting point on our over/under for 2023, I'm all in on way over. We may score 60 this season. We may also give up that many. .
Roster construct has never been Peter's strength. That said, this roster is extremely unbalanced. Think of all the wasted energy spent on the Ronaldo bullshit. Maybe they should have focused their time, energy, and money on players that would have actually improved play on the field. The defense has been the weak link for years, specifically CB. What is it about this front office that can't get that position figured out?
According to my anonymous sources Pete is going to innovate the game and introduce the world to a 2-6-2 formation which morphs around depending on the situation. There will be two defenders behind 6 "utility fielders" and 2 forwards. This serves two purposes: getting all Pete's favorite players on the pitch and confusing the opposition and everyone watching the game. In the defensive pairing both are generally left footed and one always has to be so slow as to appear that they are actually moving backwards at times. This is a purposeful part of the strategy used to confuse the enemy. The stuck-in-the-mudness of this defender combined with the constantly morphing formation of the 6 utility fielders is designed to wear down the mental and physical endurance of the opposition. Constantly overloading different parts of the field will force opponents to repeatedly adapt to SKCs strategy, reduce the ability for them to execute their own game plan and win dynamic and exciting games by simply outscoring the eventually worn down opponents to the delight of the team and third party fans.
Our best 11 lineup Salloi...... Agada...JFR ...............Pulido..... Kinda, Thommy, Walter ...............Radoja Leibold Sweat Logan N.
If we signed him to an SKC contract but loaned him to SKC2, does he take up a first team roster spot? I found Vermes' take on him interesting, comparing him to Busio. It would be nice to be working a future 6 (in that busio style) up through the roster, and at his age he has time. One year deal with three options, though?
You can open up 1 roster spot by loaning a player: An MLS club can receive roster relief and budget relief for a maximum of one player loaned to its MLS NEXT Pro or USL affiliate or a lower-division club in the U.S. or Canada; provided, however, that: The player is under the age of 25 (i.e., he does not turn 25 prior to the end of the calendar year); The player's Salary Budget Charge is less than or equal to the MLS Senior Minimum Salary (including any loan fees, transfer fees, agent fees, housing, car, etc.); and The loan must be a season-long free loan; The player has not appeared on a gameday roster for the MLS Club as of the beginning of the applicable loanee club’s season; and The loan of the player to the loanee club must last for the remaining duration of the entire loanee club’s season; provided, however, that such a player may be recalled to his MLS club in the case of Extreme Hardship. https://www.mlssoccer.com/about/roster-rules-and-regulations
Well the 1 CB we've been linked with is staying in Italy. 🇱🇻 𝑮𝒚𝒐𝒎𝒃𝒆𝒓 2025 🇱🇻#Gyomber #lastoriacontinua #macteanimo #forzagranata #salernitana #uss1919 pic.twitter.com/NavbkVVpwd— US Salernitana 1919 (@OfficialUSS1919) January 14, 2023
The disappointment on missing out on a rumor about a player about whom i knew nothing comes entirely from the fact that he had CB in his position profile.I would so much rather shoot big, Miller or Callens or EPB, but we won't go near there. So losing gombi, dammit, feels like a real loss. It should not.
I feel that. We know Peter loves him some Fontas and maybe he now rates Ford (he did show some decent potential last year). But what happens if either are injured for any length of time? Why have they not bought out Uri's contract in the off-season and used that extra cap space to sign a starting caliber CB? I'll be astounded if Peter Vermes of all people goes into the season with the current CB roster.
Given Vermes quotes about Flores, I'd suspect he's heading into camp being seen as a potential 3td Dmid, behind the obvious top two of Walter and Radoja (walter starting at the 8, Radoja at the 6). If that's the case, I have a hard time seeing any role for Uri on this team. I do wish that instead of leaving for his mostly failed Portugal experiment, he'd stayed here because peak Uri was a good player. But at this point, if PV sees Flores as a potential 6 a la Busio 6, Uri is around in case there are two long term injuries at Dmid, which is odd considering 2 long term injuries at CB (and one of our 3 has a long injury history) would completely tank our season.
As I said previously, I think he's all in on the Fontas/Ford pairing. CB 4 is the totally useless Uri. That CB group would definitely be in contention for MLS worst, but given how late it is in the transfer window and the lack of rumors tied to SKC, that seems like the plan to me. Most European transfer windows close Jan 31. Many S. American transfer windows stay open into February but SKC don't have much of a history of getting players from S. America. Unless that trend ends, theirs only two weeks to save us from Fontas/Ford/Voloder/Uri.
OMFG. I really hope you are not correct on this. I mean, not just another too slow guy, but one who in 180 career games, has not a single start or sub at CB
Most 6's have played/can play CB. Especially for a coach who overvalues the CBs ability with their feet and undervalues the CBs ability to do things like run, win headers, and defend Very similar positions. Uri is not the first choice 6 on the roster. He's now utility player. Utility players need to play multiple positions and CB is the only natural fit. Otherwise you are just carrying an expensive third No. 6.