2015/16 Offseason Player Movement and Rumors

Boom!

 

MLS CUP BABYYYYYYYYYYY

 

He a goat.

 

We now have several soccer players that can pass a soccer ball and do other things good. Pinch me, am I dreaming?

 

Greatest
of
all
time

 

Great signing. Immediately one of the most technically skilled players to wear a Union uniform.

Barnetta, Ilsinho, Nogueira, Alberg, Edu... That's potentially our midfield. That's a crazy amount of talent.

EDIT: Also love the fact that we are shopping for guys in that 350K-750K range. It's a lot easier to accumulate more depth that way because you can buy down cap hits.

 

Earnie on Ilsinho:

"His elite-level attacking ability speaks for itself and we're confident he'll have an immediate impact"

Think he starts?

 

in all seriousness, does anyone have a depth chart mock up? I think there might actually be depth to it.

 

We can argue about who's where on the depth chart, but this is what I mentioned earlier: Illsinho puts two of Alberg/Pontius/Le Toux on the bench when everyone's healthy.

Personally, I'd say the depth chart would look something like this:

ST: Sapong, Herbers (Pontius/Le Toux as 2nd string striker??)
LW: Alberg, Pontius, Restrepo
RW: Illsinho, Le Toux, Restrepo
CAM: Barnetta, Alberg, Fernandes
CM: Nogueira, Alberg
CDM: Edu, Carroll, Creavalle
LB: Fabinho, Washington
LCB: Anderson, Tribbett
RCB: Marquez, Tribett/Yaro
RB: Gaddis, Rosenberry
GK: Blake, Jones, Badr, Creavalle, Local Helmet


Edit: opening day 18 could look like this

 

I think he does just as soon as he gets his fitness level up. He started last preseason game and had a great first half but looked really gassed in the second.

 

I've been mistakenly spelling Ilsinho with two l's but he could deserve to be called that after a few games. Didn't someone mention on here before that he used to be referred to as Il$inho?

 

That would seemingly confirm he's a DP, correct? Or that we bought him down to non-DP status with TAM? The various TAM orchestrations aren't clear to me now.

Still no out-of-pocket expense to Sugarman.

 

KK I believe. He's more up on the Ukranian league than I am ( part Ukranian, hanging head in shame............)

 

I believe that's correct. He was a free agent so no transfer fee a la Alberg. That would mean he has to make more than the salary ceiling. Not sure if Alberg is also making more than the salary ceiling, or if his TAM was just for the transfer fee.

http://www.mlssoccer.com/post/2015/...club-rosters-introduction-targeted-allocation

http://www.philadelphiaunion.com/po...-union-acquire-dutch-midfielder-roland-alberg

Edit: with no mention of Ilsinho being a DP, it would lead me to believe he's making DP money, but not taking up a DP spot.

 

Let's not forget that Coach Local started 4 Forwards (Sapong, Le Toux, Wenger, Nando) in the Opener last March.

[blah blah blah... he didn't have the depth. But still, 4?]

 

Well 3 if you count Wenger.

 

I was actually looking back at that lineup yesterday after they posted the defenders season preview article and said
"the Union defense hardly resembles what it did a year ago today". That XI made me shudder. Any recollection on the shape of that formation? Was it a 4-4-2 open bucket?

I'm in the same boat as a lot of other people on here thinking that Ayuk is going to spend most of the season at BSFC. I don't know about anyone else, but I've liked what I've seen from Restrepo so far, especially how I think he'll translate as a bench option. He seems pretty fast and tricky out wide and will be good running at defenders late in games.

To be honest I haven't payed enough attention to Tribbett vs. Anderson to say who I rate higher. I just figure Anderson will start over Tribbett because of age & experience. It's odd that we (correct me if I'm wrong) have yet to see an Anderson-Marquez paring in a preseason game.

Putting Gaddis over Rosenberry is not necessarily what I want to happen but it's what I think we'll see. Personally I don't think Gaddis is a long-term solution back there, and if Rosenberry can solidify his defensive game I'd like to see him take the starting spot before the end of the season.

 

We have players that can do things now.

 

I'd love it if Ayuk could get 30 BSFC games while still training with the Union every week.

 

good things seem to keep happening and i don't quite know how to deal with it

 

Yeah I mentioned that, was more of a FIFA player thing because he had 5 star skills but still, haha.

 

Something I noticed, and maybe I read too much into this stuff but I still think it was interesting, but has anyone checked the clubs of incoming/outgoing players this year and compared them?

Pretty much all our outgoing players are ending up either at other mid-lower table MLS clubs, or in lower US divisions like USL. Meanwhile, many of our incoming players are entering from leagues at least as good as, if not better on average than MLS.

I think it's a pretty promising sign. It's also very telling of the quality of players on the roster in 2015 vs 2016. Considering where many of our former players are now, we really were fielding a team fit for USL last year.