Thank you for clarifying. I picked up that quip on a different soccer board. I figure it’s something that might have legs and I was trying to get ahead of it here.
Two former RSL homegrowns starting for Houston tonight. Corey Baird just drew the PK that brought Houston level at 1-1. Tate Schmitt has held down the starting LB job and has played every minute of the season for Houston thus far. He has a goal too. I guess we decided Tate Schmitt wasn't good enough to be our backup left back this year, and we instead preferred someone who makes 5X the salary, uses an international slot, and has been injured for the last 2 games.
Bofo went to Mexico, had a great early season, then faded away. Schmitt had 2 game winning goals for RSL early last season, then didn’t do much. Baird’s a drifter and gets a call now and then. All of them needed to go away from RSL.
Tate retained as a backup made a lot of sense given his contract amount and relative performance. As a regular player, no thanks; it'll come back on Houston too.
*not as a fullback under Pablo Lennon has shown that a positional limitation on a player should be viewed through what the coach wants to play, not the player
I agree with this premise. My post was in the context of ‘Pablo is the 2023 coach”. Regardless though, I don’t think Schmitt has the talent to be consistently competent at fullback.
To me it's an example of how Fall is just a poor roster-builder - he invested significant resources in upgrading our backup left back instead of just being OK with somebody who is fine. Nobody in the league has a world-beater as their backup left back. Schmitt was cheap and domestic and homegrown and he didn't embarrass himself, which to me is all that's required. But Fall really, really wanted a much better backup left back I guess. Adding depth at outside back like Oviedo is the kind of thing you do when you've addressed the major holes on your roster and have a spare international slot burning a hole in your pocket. It's not that he's a bad player, it's that it is insane to invest there, instead of the major glaring holes everywhere else on the roster.
Playing devil's advocate: fans have wanted a quality LB for years. Brody (playing out of position and not left-footed as the coach wants) and Schmitt weren't cutting it. They bring in a possible quality starter in Oviedo. There is not a clear backup LB currently on the roster. There are players that can play there in a pinch. This all assumes that they don't plan on playing Vera as a LB and making Oviedo the backup. That would be a poor use of limited resources.
Speaking of ex RSL players, Jordan Allen should be entering his prime about now. What a bummer his injuries were.
I know it has been two games and there have been injuries that forced the issue, but I see Vera as a CB. Not at all excusing Fall on all accounts, but I don't think this one is as big a deal as it is being made out to be on these boards.
The team has said as much. Just hard to see spending $1.8m (plus salary and international spot) on a CB (it's a long term need, just not necessarily this year, pre injuries) when there are more immediate needs. I think I want to see a 3-4-3, but I'm not sure who are the best players for that. Not to mention when they'll be healthy enough to play 3 CBs.
Right now, a team that's above the playoff line thinks that Schmitt is good enough to be their starting left back, while a team with a -10 goal differential is saying he's not even good enough to be the backup. Why do you think he wasn't cutting it? How good do you expect our backup left back to be? Again, I don't think it matters very much how good our backup left back is. I'm wondering why Elliott Fall disagrees and invested tons of resources into our backup left back. I'm especially wondering why he did this while leaving so many other positions untouched. It is harder to address the other holes on the roster because of how many resources Elliott put into our backup left back. That's the problem.
Brody and Herrera as outside backs in a team that had a new striker and defensive mid makes sense. the path fall has picked to build this roster is truly bizarre.
You say RSL has put too many resources into the backup LB. I say the team doesn't really have a true backup LB. I guess we disagree. Right now, Oviedo is the starter and apparently Brody is the backup. I don't know if that's the plan for the whole season, but there are no resources put into the backup LB this year under these conditions. The only other LB on the "roster" is Luis Rivera, who will likely be listed as "Unavailable" all year and we won't see him with the first team.
Unfortunately this RSL team looks like it's full of back up players getting lots of minutes. Rubin Musovski Julio Loffelsend Chang Kreilach Brody MacMath Meram
Problem is Kreis and Lagerway found success with bringing in players that "nobody wanted" so it became a part of the team culture. Only difference is they brought it quality players, whereas Elliott brings in USL quality players and thinks RSL will be able to compete.
I think it was less that these players back 15 years ago were "unwanted." I think "forgotten" is the more correct term. So much scouting and keeping track of domestic talent has improved, and there isn't a cache of those types of players around anymore. Those types of players are now getting paid staying home in a league of 29 teams. There were only 10 teams in MLS in 2004!
I've been on that bangwagon for a couple years now. I've posted (probably too much) about where RSL is in team values at transfermarkt. I was optimistic that Pablo could make the most of an under-talented team (he did for about 1.5 seasons), but it's not looking great right now.
Javi Mo is an assistant with the first team in Miami. https://www.mlssoccer.com/mlsnext/n...miami-academy-to-first-team-you-do-everything Pablo replacement?
Bobby has earned a PK (kicked a ball into a CB’s hand) and scored a goal (long ball where he caused a CB to miss and way too easily turned the other) against Aaron Herrara’s Montreal. Herrara doesn’t seem to be at fault on any of the 3 NER goals.