Edit Note: This thread originates AFTER the MLS is Back tournament. ie: It's late to the party but here's a thread focusing on this year. Will move some posts from the lingering 2019 thread.
DSS now talking about a guy named Jonathan Gonzalez from Monterrey... US-born, plays for Mexico now... we'll see.
That would be a really good buy. I’d gladly let Remedi and Adams go for Gonzalez, even if he turned his back on the US.
Cubo Torres signed. I guess this means Erik Lopez is not coming??? Either way, I’m okay with this move. Clearly, JJ Williams and Adam Jahn aren’t the level we need them to be, and for a non-DP level forward, I always thought good things about Cubo Torres. I know he is getting a lot of flak as being a crappy player, so I hope he proves me right and not wrong.
Wow. Torres, Damm, and possibly Gonzalez. I'm not hating on the players themselves, but the timing. Might have been wise to wait on a permanent manager so he could have some input on the club he's going to manage? We did get Damm before Frank left, but Torres is new, of course. One of these two is a loan, just can't recall which OTTOMH. The negatives I've read about Cubo are from the loony FB brigade, but their stats aren't wrong. I hope he can get better here. This might be a sign that we're looking at Mexico for a manager? Is Aguirre big enough for United? In other news, Josef is done until 2021. That's good news IMO- I wouldn't want to risk rushing him back for this 2020 sortakinda season.
No way I’d rush Josef in this crazy year. It’s not even worth it. This is the kind of year that Orlando City could win, and no one would give a damn. Nonetheless, I agree with you in the sense that there does not seem to be much room for the new coach to influence the roster. To add to that, I’m disappointed with Bocanegra’s picks. The roster is all sorts of disjointed. More so, at this point, it would be a mistake to hire anyone who is not from Latin America. Hell, we’re more Chivas USA than Chivas USA could have ever been.
If they win it, they'll dance in the streets with the Mouse. They're a lot better than they looked a couple of years ago, or that loss to us just took their heart. They were on a six-game win streak at, like ten matches in when Tito hit that screamer, and then they scored 11 points the rest of the way. I may be off a point or two, but it's close to what actually happened. The next year, they reached the Open Cup semis and lost to us. But right now, they look like contenders for a real MLS Cup. I fear he's not getting the guys he really wants. We heard about Lopez, just like we heard about Arzamendia and Villasanti last season. Neither came, which leads me to... ...the sense (mine) that we're so shackled by the status of the league we play in that we can't bring class aboard without a name manager. Tata had Messi's stamp of approval, which is how we got Barco. Pity showed up probably thinking we'd get a name Latino, and then we got de Boer instead. Actually, we still have more Argentines than Mexicans (I think), and more Americans than either. From this post: https://www.bigsoccer.com/threads/on-de-boer-pity-and-management.2105087/#post-37977023 "...there's a point beyond which both Pity and Barco need to look even better than they did at River and Independiente. If they're still struggling by (I'll say... generously) the middle of next season, we will be in serious trouble. Those two guys pretty much have to succeed --shine-- or we'll lose some ROI. We can't waste money, and we can't have our two biggest signings ultimately concluding that they made a mistake coming here. That'll hurt us no matter who anyone thinks deserves what percentage of the blame. I mean, it ain't like they ain't trying..." ...and this one: https://www.bigsoccer.com/threads/on-de-boer-pity-and-management.2105087/#post-37981927 "If Pity continues to have either playing issues or locker issues with Frank (and those are the issues we know about- there may be more), it may affect how we're seen by South America in general. Tata had Messi's stamp of approval, which means something to Argentine players specifically- those guys didn't come here to play MLS ball, but Tataball... We've spent double-digit millions on two guys with the intent of turning a profit, and then pulled them out of their comfort zone with our choice of a manager. Now, it's quite possible that we can win A LOT without either of them becoming superstar players (relative to MLS) in de Boer's system. But if they don't show what we saw in them when we spent the money, can we sell them to Europe for what we thought we'd get originally? Probably not." And we saw it play out during this tournament. Frank lost the team, even tho we won two trophies in 2019, because we never looked like 2018, and because our two most expensive signings haven't ever looked as good as they did playing against better competition in a better league. At this rate, Pity may never again become his old self. Barco is younger, and might end up being restored to his former greatness in La Liga. But we'll probably take a bath selling him, because the tactics we played in 2019 set him back. Playing for Frank may have cost them money, literally. We need someone who can reassure potential up and comers that they will be comfortable in the new system. Having seen us get de Boer, they now need to see who we get before they make a move to come here. And that guy probably needs to be a Latino, yes, whether he's coming out of UEFA or CONMEBOL.
Note: This thread originates AFTER the MLS is Back tournament. ie: It's late to the party but here's a thread focusing on this year. Will move some posts from the lingering 2019 thread.
Here is the AJC's Doug Roberson providing a table listing all the player acquisitions in AUFC's history, denoting simply whether they're still with the club and their key sats/highlights. Basically suggesting the movements since end of last season are questionable. It's up for debate how much of the acquisition and use of talent is down to Bocanegra, Paul McDonough, Tata, and/or FdB, but the biggest shift appears to have occurred over the last off-season. McDonough and Tata both left in 2018 so the assumption is FdB is to blame, but I think most fans would agree the acquisitions of Meram and Pogba were sound and at least one report suggested FdB wasn't pushing for the trade or release of Gressel and LGP. (It's also safe to say Atlanta scores at least 1 goal in the MIB tourney if Josef is healthy.) I'm not absolving FdB but I don't think the Stripes' clubhouse is one where the manager calls all the shots regarding personnel. Plus Barco came on board while Tata was here and it's not as if he's proven a world beater, so it's not all on FdB. For me the bottom line is this: The Atlanta roster in 2018 had DPs that were worth their designation and the surrounding cast were not utility guys but very good role fillers. Escobar and LGP may not be MLS Best XI but they suited the game plan for Atlanta and filled specific needs. By contrast the 2020 roster has 2 of 3 DPs struggling to prove value for money and several positions without a true role filler, just a utility guy trying to be the oval peg in a round or square hole. I'll give Meza a break because you don't start in Liga MX without having talent, and for all the new guys yes 2020 is proving to be a bizarre and difficult year to bed into a new city, team, and league. Still, the acquisitions of Shea, Castillo, Walkes (take 2), Rossetto, Jahn, Mulraney, Castro, and Wycke (on top of retaining Mo Adams) indicates a sharp drop in the calibre of recruitment compared to Pity, Villalba and Nagbe. Maybe the hope was if 1-2 of those guys pans out we're not having this discussion, but since the roster as a whole still leaves obvious gaps in which player should start and where, and who is a like-for-like replacement so as to keep a system intact during injuries, that suggests a disconnect between player acquisition and strategic roster building. I'm content with the back 3 or 4 and am fine with Bello, Lennon, and Hyndman as an attempt to build the midfield of the future, but those three will need both cover and leadership (beyond simply JL on the bench). Everything up top, however, is disjointed after you plug in Josef. If Hyndman is playing deeper a la Nagbe then you need a speedy midfielder to assume ball control and distribution duties, the likes of which isn't on the roster. If he pushes up you need a more dependable D-mid AND you're squeezing Pity and Barco out of the space they tend to prefer. And don't ask me where Damm fits in right now. Torres is a fair attempt to replace Josef for the rest of 2020, but if he's gonna gripe about playing time in 2021 then he'd better produce on the left as part of a Torres-Josef-Damm front three, in which case I'm assuming Barco and Pity are sold and Atlanta looks for an Almiron 2.0 to compliment Hyndman in the middle.
I've always thought the manager's input had some weight with the acquisitions and releases, but I never thought Frank wanted the Gressel decision to go the way it did. I figured that was a business decision to replace him with a younger player and hope for the best instead of taking an effective, proven winner and letting him help us continue to be successful during his last years here. They were so obsessed with (not) getting something for Julian three years down the road that they forgot what they were getting right now was quality on the pitch and a proven link to Josef, right now. It's like the FO forgot that you pay a player for his services on the pitch and not for what he'll get you before he gets older. I can't say I think Frank wanted to keep LGP or Villalba. We'll never know why Meram was let go. Sure, he made a bit more $$ that he was worth, but he was helping us win. Something in me remembers that Frank didn't even TRY Meram in that ill-fated conference final. The main change above player level was Frank. That's not up for debate. Barco was improving at a more rapid pace until 2019. I think both he and Pity would have benefited massively from a(nother) season with Tata, or with a manager who understood the playing style they were used to. Remember, Pity showed up not knowing who the manager was going to be, but all the buzz at the time was GBS and some other guy. He gets here, and then we go get Frank I'm not giving up on either of them until I see that a different manager can't get more out of them. I've used the word "cog" several times in different threads. It's rarely a positive if you have too many of them. That whole "Jacks of all trades/masters of none" thingy probably works well when those jacks are better than ours (see: Ajax). I don't have an issue at all with bringing back Walkes. I was sad to see him go the first time. He was always a suitable central defender, and he got visibly better going forward on the outside in 2017. He showed exactly the sort of improvement that I'd expect under a manager who prides himself on being some kind of developer or whatever, but that improvement happened on Tata's watch. Go figure. And he's not costing us a lot of money. Rossetto will be fine, IMO. Meza's going to be fine. Escobar struggled at first, and then got better during the 2018 Championship season. Of course, Esco had Gress in front of him and Nagbe helping us get the ball and keep it, so there's that... I don't know what the hell was up with bringing in Jahn. Maybe Frank saw "Tall" and thought it was a good idea. We're going to have to deal with this again, if we don't choose a manager whose tactics are familiar to the guys we're going out and getting without a manager. If we get another UEFA stiff, we'll be in the same position in a year. The guy who's closest to like-for-like for Nagbe is Jonathan Gonzalez, and we don't have him yet, AFAIK. If we can somehow assure him that the next manager will return us to something approaching Tata's system, he might be inclined to give us a try. We lost the confidence of the future players we need when we hired de Boer. If we want to attract them again, we'll have to give them someone they want to play for.
If Jonathan Gonzalez signs.... ————Cubo————— Barco——Pity——Damm —Gonzalez*—-Matheus— Bello——————Escobar ——Meza———Miles—— ————Guzan————— Rest of the Squad: GK: Kann, Moore CB: Walkes, Campbell, Wyke RB/RW: Lennon LB/LW: Mulraney, Castillo DM: Remedi, Jeff, Mo MF: Hyndman W/F: Castro, Wolff, Gallagher FW: Jahn, Williams, Josef* Honestly, we still have a very good squad, or the potential of a good squad, but the new coach is going to have to figure out how to get the most out of our key players and some HGPs. Still, I’d see about letting go of: Castillo, Remedi, JJ Williams, Castro, and Gallagher. I’d then use that cash to upgrade Meza, Rossetto, and Jahn. And, I’d see about selling Pity and Barco if we can. And get someone much better to replace them.
That's not bad but Hyndman is on starter money. Would hate to take promising, younger players like him and Lennon and see them left out too often, especially for a bunch of older players that may not be around after a couple years.
Torres is absolutely shocking the season he scored for us Dynamo it was mostly pens he will be overweight and start bitching Mark my words so overrated it’s not funny
You think they'll get another DP this year or wait till we have a coach and let him pick a player that fits his style?
The AJC's Doug Roberson says he expects the team to have a replacement for Pity within 2 weeks and I agree. Unless they really don't find a viable option the team knows that the season is completely shot if their only DP is Barco. They also know that regardless of any coach's style the tram needs a creative attacking midfielder to guide the offense because right now the only option in that regard, barring magical transformations from Castro or Rossetto, is Hyndman. If they can find another Zelarayan they'll pounce on that. If the market appears dead they'll at least get a body and then plead with fans to hold out for 2021, but that's not ideal. As to the coach, the team have all but guaranteed they'll find someone who plays an aggressive style similar to what wooed fans in '17 and '18. Not only do they want to play up to the fans and be seen as exciting to TV broadcasters but they know at the least the team needs to generate more shot opportunities than they're showing now.
I don't understand that. I'm going to hold out anyway, but if they get only a body, it'll still be a shot season, and we'll have spent a spot that could have waited for the new manager's input. The last time they went out and just got a body, it was Jahn. If this season doesn't finish, we're going to look silly buying players to finish it. We're risking the future for a present that isn't worth salvaging. Quick observation: Our top two available scorers, all-time, are now Barco (9) and... Escobar (5). That's right- our second-highest healthy scorer is a right back. The FO literally let 22 goals (Tito) and 20 (Gress) go, with no clear proven replacement for that production. If the fans can't hold out thru a season like this, they ain't fans. Period. If the team was gonna implode, 2020 was the best year to do it. Does Roberson answer just anyone's emails this way, or do you have better access to him than the rest of us? As much interest as we had been attracting, I can imagine him getting a few hundred emails a week asking random questions..
Pretty sure he's been tweeting this. At least that's where I read him saying our intention is to get replacement quickly.
I guess I'm gonna have to get a Twitter account. "Quickly" worries me. It sounds like we're going to end up settling for someone who isn't on or near the top tier of managers outside Europe. I still don't get why GBS chose the Galaxy when he could have come here. What did he see in them?
No director is going to admit we are writing off this season, so the standard boilerplate response to selling a high profile player is "we are going sign a replacement quickly". To be frank, I wish we'd focus on a coach first then he can get the players he wants, but I guess you've got work within the transfer windows.
The rumor mill has us chasing Marcelino Moreno, a midfielder at Lanus who has 6 goals and 13 assists over the last 106 games. If you take out a single game where he had 3 goals and 6 assists, that's 3 goals and 7 assists in 105 games. Why do we want this guy again?
So we can hand the new manager a lineup chosen without his input... I'm beginning to notice that we don't have much in the way of bulk. Fat, gawky teams are gonna bully us as long as the refs/league tries to pass it off as "physical". I still remember Romario soaring above a couple of Swedish stiffs to head in the game winner in the '94 semis.
Torres is a beefy Mexican, not that it does us much good because he has three left feet and a two inch vertical leap. I am with you though, time to get a manager before we start signing big ticket players.