I'm in line with this perspective. Last year we had high expectations with the people we brought in and they just simply underachieved. Now we have a bunch of unprovens that must gel with our still strong (but aging) core. Someone not named Miguel Berry better have a career year this year to give us a chance of making the playoffs.
We don't have any new forwards, so not sure how that's improved. Yes, we did find out during 2021 that Berry can be an MLS level scorer and was an unknown at the start of 2021. We also had BWP coming off a 10 goal season as a spot starter and sub, on paper that looked pretty good and he was expected to give more than Berry did. CB is potentially better, but based on pedigree I don't agree that the new guy is better than what we hoped Wormgoor would have been. I absolutely am hoping that he is. As I said, nothing jumps out at me as a definite improvement from where we started last year. We had gotten a couple of vets to add depth to a team that won the cup in '20. They were MLS proven guys and had risks involved but there was no way to say that if they brought 3/4 of what they did in 2020 that they wouldn't be great additions to the team. It just didn't work out that way and they brought zero. I gave Bez the benefit of the doubt on this. It was a risk to bolster a championship winning team, it was a valid idea. I see nothing close to that kind of expected production from the guys that are new to the roster in 2022. Of course I have not seen a single minute of actual game play from these guys (highlight videos really don't count). Bez may be a genius and i may be wrong and I really want to be wrong. This time of year I'm usually sunshine and rainbows. I'm struggling to find ways to be optimistic. We're coming off a bad season we've not improved with new players, a decent chunk of the existing players are either still hurt or just returning from major injuries so are an unknown quantity. We have the same coach who circled games and lost 7 straight. I said this in the roster thread, but I see this team as basically the same as last year. Good enough to squeak into the playoffs if things go our way or just miss out if they don't
Bez said we have the ability to add a DP. I hope we try to bring in a home run hitter in the summer. Give Lucas creative help that is top shelf.
IMO Bez did a pretty good job for 2020 and 2021. Not so much this offseason. It's not clear how much flexibility the team has with GAM or if Molino's contract is preventing other moves. Without Molino, we could probably have, say Kemar Lawrence and still have an open DP slot. It seems like they are waiting until the summer window to add more talent. It only counts at half price then so maybe we're cap-strapped. This is still a pretty underwhelming offensive group. Zardes/Berry might get us 25 goals combined. But maybe only 20. No sure things for scoring from the wings. Lucas is deadly on direct free kicks but we can't expect 5 of those again, though 5 from the run of play is reasonable for him. Right now it's hard to see where the 55 goals or so we'll need to make a playoff run come from.
Has the Crew ever exercised the league's buy-out option? I don't know how long the one-buyout-per-offseason rule has been around, but I can't recall us ever doing it. Not that that's a bad thing, obviously.
We have already invested, why not see how he comes back hopefully before the summer transfer window and then pull the trigger. Money is already sunk.
See, here is an interesting thought. Over and over again Haslam apologists have suggested that they have no reason to believe the owners will make the investments needed to better the team. What if the investment needed is acknowledging a sunk cost in order to make the team better? I don’t see this ownership group doing that. I don’t see Bez accepting responsibility for a mistake. I’d love to be proven wrong.
Yes, it’s already sunk. Use that money to get a real DP and buydown a current DP. His number, if boughtout, doesn’t count against the cap, no consequences.
One would be to have the actual music/accompaniment playing so that the timing is correct. But I'm not a concert singer--nor did I stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night.
For those of you not on Twitter, caption this photo from tonight's Crewsmas Eve event at Land Grant: Source tweet
Guy in winter hat: I’ll give you five bucks if you turn down the goddam volume during pregame! Bez: I think you’re mistaken. I’m not DJ Leek.
This roster stinks ! we have a rich owner who has big money yet we make no big moves. Need better ST, winger, CB & GK Porter can definitely get some blame but he doesn’t have a very good hand. Owen Gol is now working against us so we need trade him too !
Paging @TKyle or @hardhead for a merge. https://www.bigsoccer.com/threads/fire-tim-bezbatchenko.2119510/