I'm a new MLS convert here. So i was wondering...... Now more and more big shot youth players come into the league each year to bump out not-so-good players. If teams have players who don't deserve to be on the roster, MLS will get better faster than usual. Are there players like that? save a bunch of last year signees.
There are still players that "don't deserve" to be in the league but the numbers have decrease every year. Teams still can't afford to pay for quality players 1-24(or whatever the player total is). It's just the nature of the best right now.
I'm going to take this more to mean guys that actually see playing time, because there are lots of guys at the end of the bench that really belong in a reserve league. In Chicago, I nominate Orlando Perez.
There are guys in every league in ever country in every sport that don't deserve to be there.......be it a roster spot, or a starting position. it happens.....
Are there players who don't deserve to be in MLS? Yes. They're commonly referred to as "the Dallas Burn".
There is at least one on every team. It will get slightly worse when MLS expands to 12 teams soon. Unfortunate, but true.
I think it's sort of a meaningless question. If you mean, are there a bunch of guys in the A-League or in college who are loads better than the guys playing in MLS, then the answer is no. Sure, there are a few guys who move up and displace an inferior player. That's what happens in every league in every sport. Younger, better players replace older, inferior ones. I don't agree that there are many players who are being given playing time in MLS when there is a clearly superior alternative. Kenny Arena may not be a very good player, but after a few games that became obvious and he lost his playing time. That's the way it's supposed to work. I can name dozens of current and former MLS players who got or are getting significant minutes despite not being very good players. The real question is, is there a superior, currently-available alterative? My observation is that when such situations arise, the clearly superior alternative gets the job pretty quickly.
There was an expansion thread where a few of us were talking about its effect on the quality of the league. We'd tried to figure out just exactly who'd been bumped out. I'll try to dig it up. But it was sort of asking the same kind of thing you are but in a different way. https://www.bigsoccer.com/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=83037 That's the thread. It's a pretty in depth discussion as to the sort of MLS version of the Mendoza Line.
What's up with anti-McBride sentiment? Regardless, there are countless players who don't "deserve" to be on MLS rosters. In fact, there are quite a few on San Jose's roster. Players that most teams would pass over, but out of whom, Frank Yallop exhumed solid play and consistency (well, not always.) These would include the likes of Jon Conway, Craig Waibel, Chris Roner, Ian Russel, and Manny Lagos. None of these players are exceptional, but they were all essential to the Earthquakes's success this season. Yes, there are A-League players that would be better suited to MLS, and vice versa. Correct me if I'm wrong, but it seems to me that most of the players that succeed in MLS from the A-League are forwards or keepers. While the jury is out on Thiago Martins at D.C. United, Dwayne DeRosario has certainly shown he is capable of hanging with the best of them in MLS.
Kenny Arena. However...... Clint Mathis thinks he doesn't deserve to be in MLS, but I don't exactly think that's what the author of this thread had in mind.
Actually with the small cap, to me it seems that the cap bumps out some decent players who have experience and forces teams to throw young pups to the lions in hopes they can play.
https://www.bigsoccer.com/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=83037&perpage=15&pagenumber=4 quoted from Kenn: Actually, I can help you a little bit. There were 289 players who played in MLS in 2001. There were 240 players who played in MLS in 2002. By my unofficial count, 94 guys who played in MLS in 2001 did not play in MLS in 2002. Now, that could be because they rode the bench the entire 2002, or were injured, or whatever. There are some guys who I don't know if they actually made a team in 2002. Some retired. But if they played a minute in 2001 and didn't play a minute in 2002, they should be on this list: Adams, Kevin (Columbus) Agogo, Junior (Colorado-San Jose) Aguilera, Roland (New England-Columbus) Allnutt, Yari (New England) Alvarez, Leonel (New England) Alvarez, Pedro (MetroStars) Ammann, Mike (DC United) Anderson, Kevin (Tampa Bay) Aunger, Geoff (Colorado) Bankov, Kalin (Tampa Bay) Bardales Jr., Isaias (Los Angeles) Beasley, Jamar (New England-Chicago) Beskovic, Mersim (MetroStars) Bilyk, Jeff (Miami) Bishop, Ian (Miami) Bower, Scott (San Jose) Bravo, Paul (Colorado) Brose, Dario (San Jose) Burciaga Jr., Jose (Kansas City) Burns, Mike (Kansas City) Butler, Michael (MetroStars) Caligiuri, Paul (Los Angeles) Cannon, Scott (Tampa Bay) Cassar, Jeff (Miami) Cate (New England) Causey, Jeff (New England) Ching, Brian (Los Angeles) Chulis, Matt (Chicago) Comas, Alex (MetroStars) Cooks, Judah (DC United-Miami) Cooks, Micah (DC United) Dade, Eric (Dallas) Dawes, Chris (Colorado) DeBrito, John (Columbus) Demmin, Craig (Tampa Bay) Dougherty, Mark (Columbus) Duhaney, Mike (Columbus) Eck, Ted (Dallas) Elcock, Ansil (Columbus) Fernandes, Narciso (Kansas City) Fernandez, Jose (New England) Gibson, Neathan (Colorado) Gilmar, (MetroStars) Gramenz, Don (Tampa Bay) Green, Michael (Kansas City) Gregor, Andrew (Kansas City) Guthrie, Rivers (Colorado) Hayes, David (Chicago) Hernandez, Luis (Los Angeles) Jair (Tampa Bay) Jakins, Tahj (Kansas City) Johnson, Brian (Kansas City) Johnston, Mo (Kansas City) Joseph, Miles (Dallas) Kartes, Gus (Tampa Bay) Keller, Josh (Tampa Bay) Kelly, Brian (Tampa Bay) Key, Lance (Colorado) Klinger, Fausto (MetroStars) Klinger, Martin (MetroStars) Krakowiak, Wojtek (Tampa Bay-San Jose) Kubik, Lubos (Dallas) Lewis, Andrew (Chicago) Longo, Mario (Columbus) Lowe, Onandi (Kansas City) Maessner, John (Tampa Bay) Marino, Pete (Miami) Martinez, Chris (Colorado) Mayard, Josue (Dallas) Merkel, Randy (Miami) Munoz, Albert (Tampa Bay) Myers, Roy (MetroStars) Okoh, Matt (New England) Pena, Danny (Tampa Bay-Los Angeles) Prince, Chad (Chicago) Sahaydak, Tim (Miami) Santel, Mark (Kansas City) Schneider, Paul (Tampa Bay) Semioli, Mark (MetroStars) Simmonds, Greg (Miami) Simpson, Mark (DC United) Snitko, Chris (Dallas) Sonora, Diego (Tampa Bay) Sunsing, William (New England) Trittschuh, Steve (Tampa Bay) Valencia, Adolfo (MetroStars) Vanney, Greg (Los Angeles) Watson, Mark (DC United) Weinstein, Cordt (MetroStars) Woan, Ian (Miami-Columbus) Wood, A.J. (DC United) Woods, Alan (New England) Wright, Mauricio (New England) Wynalda, Eric (New England-Chicago) Those 94 guys averaged 11 games in 2001, 7 starts, and about 677 minutes. The guys who played the most minutes in 2001 who did not play in 2002 were: Chris Martinez, Colorado (2189) Mike Duhaney, Columbus (2164) Mauricio Wright, New England (2156) Ian Bishop, Miami (2115) Greg Vanney, Los Angeles (2032) I don't have time to check on what happened to all those guys, though some of the names you'll recognize and know immediately what happened (like El Matador and Wynalda). So it didn't take the whole offseason. But I've spent enough time on it already. Maybe more later.