Expansion Draft: Who To Protect

It's not really a choice. Friberg HAS to be protected because he's the 3rd International. So then it's a choice of Evans, Riley, Neagle, and Fucito for 2 spots. My picks are Fucito and Neagle, with much better production per $ and more upside.

Montero
Ochoa
-------
Fernandez
Rosales
Alonso
Zakuani
Friberg
-------
Hurtado
Parke

 

owch gotta go with Ajas's list. it's a bummer to lose Riley

 

Yeah, well that's exactly what everyone said 2 years ago...

Instead we lost Le Toux.

I feel like all 3 of Neagle, Fucito, and Ochoa could be a Le Toux-esque loss of talent in the future (especially since all 3 of those guys should be on minumum-salary 2+ year club option deals)

Riley, Evans, and Gonzalez are all known entities we can do without, while Wahl may have further excellent set piece prowess... he just sucks ass at defense. Slow and clumsy, although can maybe win a header. Still, I'd like to see RB and LB upgraded, and don't care who among those substitute players gets taken... ZS backs them all up.

 

in the case of letoux its not that it was a loss. Letoux never fitted, does not fit, and will never fit in the system we play now.

he is a decent striker/winger when being the point man. but he would be overshadowed with our current attacking talent. love the guy absolutely do expecially after all he has done for the ECS, but he does not fit in with our talent pool and tactics.

 

lol...so basically all the former MLS players on our team? ahah...gotta love it...and I dont disagree.

 

I dunno.. I think Le Toux could have solved a lot of the problems we had filling the Blaise Nkufo shaped hole we've had the last two season (aside from when Nkufo filled it, of course). He obviously wouldn't have been a permanent replacement (unless he could have put up the numbers he has in Philly), but he's easily better than the revolving door of crap we had prior to settling on Fucito and I think he'd do better than Fucito has done as well.

 

Graham essentially had "trials" with MLS teams and was always let go. KC, New York and San Jose passed on him. He has been an overpaid emcee for the Sounders. Shit, if he at least wore the Sammy Sounder suit he would have earned some of the money he has gotten over the past three seasons. His carreer in MLS has always been a joke. Jaqua was an expansion signing. We are not an expansion club any longer. Noonan was a band-aid for an injured Jaqua in 2010. The rest are bench depth at best. However, Sigi seems to like to play guys he's familiar with over the more talented players available. That is why I would like to see Riley, Wahl and Evans sent packing.

 

Here's my 11:
Hurtado --- Parke
Fernandez --- Olonso --- Neagle --- Rosales --- Friberg
White --- Zakuani --- Ochoa --- Montero

We need to upgrade both outside backs (even Hurtado is iffy - loses his mark too often), Neagle has too much upside to lose, Fucito, although still young, I think is close to maxing his potential and is way too injury prone. I think Ochoa and White deserve a longer look unless the team has some outside signing at forward. Everyone else is expendable without suffering to much pain.

 

Why would you protect white? He is coming back from a double blood clot surgery.

 

Why is anyone protecting Hurtado? I though he has been less then stellar this season.

 

Hurtado was not as good as in 2009... But I think he played better with a hulking hack like Tyrone Marshall standing behind him, clearing out everything in swiping distance. Parke is a better CB than Marshall, but he's not a dominating presence like Chad Marshall, Gonzalez, Borlave, Cameron, etc...

He also re-injured his knee right as he was coming back from ACL surgery... So I don't think we've really seen him 100% healthy.

We do need a top-class big CB to alternately pair with Hurtado and Parke, since I don't think they're a good pairing... but letting Hurtado go for nothing when we play 45-50 games a season would be awful decision-making.

 

think letoux would serve as a more technical version of fucito?

 

And who would you replace him with?

 

I dunno about technical, but Le Toux does seem to be a more consistent goal scorer. Fucito has his moments, but he also seemed to get flustered and lost that scoring ability later in the season. However, Fucito is stronger than Le Toux, and because of that he probably freed up Montero better than Le Toux would have done because other teams had to put their strongest CB on Fucito.

 

Prost Amerika has their list up: http://www.prostamerika.com/2011/11/15/our-sounders-fc-protected-list-52486/

Spoilers:












Defenders: Jeff Parke, James Riley, Jhon Hurtado, Tyson Wahl,

Midfielders: Osvaldo Alonso, Mauro Rosales, Alvaro Fernandez, Erik Friberg, Steve Zakuani,


Forwards: Fredy Montero, Lamar Neagle

 

Okay that list is crazy. I understand protecting 1 outside back but 2? especially over Fucito. If we lose Fuctio then seattle would be even more weaker up top. Seattle doesn't have much quality up top outside of fuctio, ochoa and montero.

IF fucito is leaving the team i rather we get something out of return then to see him go for free.

 

Protecting one of our outside backs is silly... protecting both is outright stupidity.

I find particularly hilarious the argument that:

When Wahl and Riley have both had plenty of opportunity and shown that they aren't safe bets at this level. Haha, that article is worthless.

 

They are safer bets than no one at all though.

 

I can understand Riley, since we're looking at basically nothing if Riley gets taken, but Wahl? Gonzalez is better at defending than Wahl, so while we'd take a hit on the set pieces and offensive end, It's not that big of a loss on the defensive end.

 

For me I worry about Leo playing 90 minutes. He's just too slow and it seems like Sigi started to only bring him on for 1-1 challenges and late game subs. I was more surprised that OBW got left off but I can understand how he is a risk after multiples of the same injury.

As for holding onto Whal and Riley, I can't identify a ready replacement on the open market that would also take the same money as these guys. Unless you want Levesque messing around in the back line again.

 

I'm not sure why I would protect either left back because no matter what happens I have at least 1 remaining. Unless Wahl is considered such an upgrade over Leo, you leave both unprotected, and the worst case scenario is you lose 1, which is the same scenario if you protect 1 and not the other. Plus, I'm not sure either of our left backs would be the big prize amongst our available players. It's all about playing the odds but I think i'd roll the dice that way. I'd protect Riley because there isn't ANYONE right now who can replace him.

 

Had anyone even heard of Gsprnng until he linked himself to SSFC? I firmly believe the FO has been scouting outside backs for months and have 1 or 2 lined up for a winter transfer. It's such a glaring weakness... And Sigi has already mentioned it.

Remember preseason 2009, Sigi told Adrian that CB was our team weakness and inside of 2 weeks, Adrian and Chris traded to acquire Ianni and Marshall for almost nothing and signed Hurtado for around $60k.

It's just that they can't make moves until after the expansion draft.

 

Had anyone heard of any of the internationals on our team befire they were linked to the team? Hanauer has confirmed they are interested in the guy, which is what he did prior to Friberg's signing. Granted, he also did it with Tagoe...

 

Exactly my point. The "I haven't heard of any available outside backs who are better than Riley/Wahl at their salary $, so therefore we should protect them" argument just cracks me up.