Well, signing Cucho is a big part of the answer. But obviously gaps remain that are bigger than Crew 2 players can fill. That said, I doubt we'll see any other signings during this window. I assume the plan is for guys to get healthy and then... well, just hope we round into form.
I don’t think they plan on making a deep run in the playoffs. I’d guess, the plan is to make an appearance in the playoffs then dump a bunch of excessive salaries in the off-season.
If Matan is loaned out, we should replace him with someone. No reason to have an unfilled roster spot when we're a few weeks away from the roster lock date.
Agreed, but I'm pretty sure we went through last season with space on the roster, too. So maybe Porter/Bez see the situation differently.
This is nonsense! No respectable or successful professional sports organization sets such a goal. The plan is to win as many games as possible and as many championships as possible. Period. Whether they think they have resources on roster to accomplish said goals is one thing. Whether they are willing to expend the $ needed to acquire more resources is another. But the goal doesn't change.
I will remind everyone again, Porter and Bez said they want to challenge for cups at the start of the season. When we signed Cucho, Bez doubled down on that, he didn’t back off. That is the standard for the organization, straight from their own mouth.
I mean it could be that the areas they want to improve they don’t see a viable option right now. I guess we will find out but if we don’t add anyone that’s better than just adding someone that’s not a good fit. If they are serious we will see a lot of roster movement next year. I just wish we could cut more dead weight now and I hate to see us with limited options and having to wait next year in summer window as that’s often the time a lot of players in the world will be available. But unfortunately this is the difficult part of building a MLS roster.
Since (not sense ) hate when I’m at work and have very little time , then later on it won’t let me edit my post. Why is there time limit for editing ?
I remember him saying something shortly into the season about being a playoff caliber team. If they truly want to win championships this season, they had a hell of a hill to climb and one guy isn’t going to take them to the top of it.
They said preseason they wanted to contend with Zardes and Berry. Now they have Cucho, the team is better, not worse. Bez specifically said he didn’t want to sneak into the playoffs, he wants the team to be near the top of the conference and make a playoff run. No one made him say that, which was just a month ago.
If the club said during preseason that they wanted to contend with Zardes and Berry, then maybe we shouldn’t pay much attention to anything they say publicly, because that obviously was never the plan.
Not all space is equal. I do not recall, but I think the open spot(s?) last year were not Senior Roster spots. Even if they were, we were in a much different place, decimated by injuries and below the playoff line.
Bottom line we we need to get better in a few areas and we need to be healthy and fit in playoff stretch . we have a good team but we aren’t as good as Philly for example. If the FO thinks our roster is better than theirs and that we can expect to win a championship with these players they are delusional. now we could get hot and win it all but we could also have a few injuries and miss they playoffs or lose the first gm. we all love the Crew either way but to have deep pocket owners and make no moves just seems odd to me . If they can’t find any players that we could use to help better the team than that’s sad.
A level of coverage Jacob Myers can only dream of providing... Saw Matan with a bag over his shoulder, shaking hands with a #Crew96 person before leaving OHPC— Ty Fisher (@FisherTyler__) August 2, 2022
That could have been the plan. Wishful thinking is common in sports, especially if a better alternative isn't at hand. They could have projected Berry's goal total to go up with more minutes and Zardes to stay healthy and productive all year. Neither is absurd but rather more wishful.
Has the team even hinted that it's looking fill more roster spots during the summer window? When Zardes was sold, there were public comments about needing to sign a player who could score a ton of goals. To be fair, I don't try and track down every comment by Bez or Porter, but I can't recall either one implying that they're still looking to add major pieces to the roster puzzle. Doesn't mean they're not doing so. I'd like to be wrong, here, but I just don't expect any changes at this point.
He gone! https://www.digisport.ro/fotbal/liga-1/alexandru-matan-la-rapid-cand-va-ajunge-in-romania-1830845
"The Crew have sent Romanian attacking midfielder Alex Matan on loan to Romanian club FC Rapid Bucuresti for the remainder of the season, a league source confirmed to The Dispatch." https://www.dispatch.com/story/spor...to-romanian-club-rapid-bucuresti/10213848002/
Matan always seemed like awkward dude. I never got the sense that he had much of a relationship with anyone on the team, purely judging by what I could see on social media and watching the games. I really think that played a huge part in him never being able to establish himself here. He clearly has talent, but if you don't feel comfortable with your team it's always going to be difficult to perform well, no matter how good of a player you are.
It's not too surprising he may have been uncomfortable here. He was basically all offense/no defense and that isn't what Porter is looking for in midfield.
The winger situation is very confusing. Porter has openly talked about having his wingers play defense, but Etienne and Santos are the only wingers with any defensive abilities to note. We keep bringing in these more offensive minded wingers. Porter's winger tactics also don't make sense because on several occasions Etienne played the furthest forward, according to position maps. He's our top scorer, but Diaz or Cucho should be further forward.
For the remainder of this year, anyway. Not sure on the cap ramifications of a loan deal. It could be dependent on the terms. But I doubt we get salary relief. We do get roster relief, however, and now have an open spot.
Still a little time till the window closes but if we don't make any moved that will VERY clearly signal what the front office thinks about this teams ability to win MLS Cup. Other teams are adding pieces to try and sure up their weaknesses as we apparently are not making moves