Holy sheepsh**! Not suggesting this guy is the savior, but he makes our attack significantly better. Very pleasantly surprised.
SubcomandanteSzpara @TrueMartyParty News in Warszawa is that #cf97 representatives were at Legia's stadium and the Nikolic deal is done... 3 year contract is the word.
So how many international slots do they have? answer this myself 8 uses 6 now, unless they traded away one
This is a step in the right direction but it's very far from getting me to up for season tickets again any time soon. Even if the Hauptman Era Fire were to sign a bunch good quality players today the damage has been done to my enthusiasm and genuine interest in the club. Ten years of decline and neglect into oblivion is still fresh in my mind.
I'll be excited when he's scoring goals in the regular season and not a second before. His stats look decent but I question how they'll translate into MLSs more physical and defensive nature. He's played around 20 games with the Hungarian national team and only put up 3 goals which makes me question his production against better talent. Also, from what I've seen of his game it seems heavily reliant upon crosses into the box and decent creative midfield service and our roster currently has no one that can reliably provide either. Don't get me wrong, I think this is an ok move and I really hope it works. That said we still have several other glaring holes in the starting lineup. I know it's early in the offseason and the January transfer window hasn't even opened but the only thing I'll be actually stoked about is a team sale. What can I say, I've been let down before...
Fair enough. That makes me feel a bit better about this signing. I honestly don't know much about Nikolic and hope to be pleasantly surprised but I'm not holding my breathe.
mls is way more physical than polish league. no questions. niko will struggle with the physical aspect at times, no pace, scores mostly of his goals inside the 10 yards, came of the bench in legias cl games... all the best to him
I'll be excited for this signing when we sign someone to pass him the ball and someone to play defense.
Can't wait for the training camp reports that CFer is tearing it up and ready to assume a big CAM role on the team. lol On a related note, I think CFer being with Peru's U20s is much, much better for his development than playing pickup games in AZ.
His MLS career will be tied to NR/Pauno's ability to fix our midfield. I actually think de Leeuw would have been fine and probably scored the 15G we need if we can just fix our midfield. The fact is that Accam is an awful passer and relies on his speed in every situation. Polster can run all day but he too has poor passing ability and low soccer IQ. Goosens only has 1 foot, is slow but seemed to have some vision. Cocis also looked like he can play too but was just past it for how physical the league is. Alvarez only has one move (cutting inside) and is an average passer. There is no real chemistry, leadership, or creativity in our midfield. Even with a decent back line and a decent front line if our midfield remains a mess we will never have the ball and we'll rely on long ball/counters like we have in the past. Niko won't see the ball and he'll probably get frustrated because he is being wasted. I would sell Accam, trade Polster and start over. I haven't seen the kid Lindley and I don't know if he's ready. The superdraft is a huge crap shoot so I have no idea if we can get a decent player there. Take the transfer fee cash + Garber bucks and start over. Juninho (Galaxy/Xolos) is available and we are high on the allocation list. I could see Emerson Hyndman looking to come back in Jan. and Joe Gyau (if healthy). Other MF guys who have talent in MLS but can't get PT is Thompson for SJ, Tchani for Crew, and Villareal/Mendiola for Galaxy. But then again, we'll probably sign someone from Moldova that no one has heard of.
I am excited in a way ... but know the Fire will f' this up by the end of preseason despite winning a preseason trophy. 6 months ago they made a splash for an Armenian player. He isn't even the best Armenian player in MLS.
On progress made toward adding midfield help "We have three primary targets. We believe we are making progress against at least two of those. We are working aggressively to close whichever one we can first. Acquisitions in the offseason can change for better of for worse very, very quickly. We're satisfied with where we are in our attempts, and our discussions, and our negotiations but we will not stop until we have success." On the pursuit of Bastian Schweinsteiger "We always respect players that are under contract to other clubs. We do not comment on players who are under contract to other clubs so I will not speak specifically about our interest or non-interest in any player who is under contract who is under contract to another club. I will more generally say that we would like to add a more veteran presence in the midfield. Preferably someone with championship pedigree, who has won. Someone who is comfortable with the ball under pressure and can either play us out of the back or break the line to advance the ball to more forward positions. We'll continue to monitor those players that we feel have those attributes. We are going to aggressively pursue at least one player who we feel shows those qualities." Sounds like there is still pursuit of Schweinsteiger. Any rumors on who the other three Mids could be?
When we signed Deleeuw he was described as a second striker. The joke was that we had a second, second striker because Gilberto was also a second striker. Nikolic is a center forward so I assume he will be the target man and DeLeeuw will move to the withdrawn forward position where he's played most of his career. This a good move, he looks like a good player and should make us better. I'm skeptical because we still need a playmaker, 2-3 defenders and now a GK. This team is far from being a forward away from competing. If they had kept Jack Harrison, Joevin Jones and Sean Johnson, I would be buying season tickets after this move. Our FO does much more damage than good. If they were able to not f**k themselves for a few seasons we would finally be finished with this rebuild that started 7 years ago. Think about it, 7 years ago we were trying to replace 1-2 players. Think of all the talent that had come and gone and retired over that period. This disaster is the result of 7 years of compounding holes created by mistakes, age and "family issues." Think about it, we still haven't been able to replace Blanco.