Los Angeles FC - San Jose Earthquakes (Sunday, 4/19) pre/in/postgame thread [R]

Yeah, that was one of the weak positions I notes. But Bruce seems to really like Edwards, so I don't have much confidence we'll upgrade that position. BTW Crockford is playing well with Quakes 2 and Montali seems to have dropped from the face of the earth. He's on the senior roster. He doesn't play with Quakes 2 anymore. Maybe he's been training with the 1st team and he's our insurance 2nd guy if Daniel or Edwards goes down.

 

To be fair they only brought up Chucky as an example of a DP acquisition who might work as a transactional profile, i.e. 1) existing MLS DP and 2) current club looking to dump him, if only for partial salary relief. But he has a reputation as a diva and speaks limited English, and the Soccerwise guys acknowledged it would probably be a bad fit culturally. Plus you have to kind of question a guy who is using his no-trade clause to go on a year-long vacation in San Diego rather than pushing for playing time in a World Cup year.

I wonder if it would make sense to rent a DP from a bottom-feeder team who will be out of contention by summer, like Joveljić from SKC? Not sure what the going rate would be. Aside from the CF position we should look into a few solid veteran signings to shore up the depth chart, whether domestically or overseas.

 

Not sure if we listened to the same podcast. I think he's come up multiple times on the show, and a few times in relation to SJ. The one I listened to is the one from today. It was kind of a "transactional profile" thing that required SD to cover much of his salary, but I don't think it would work if you take Chucky's salary level together with the whole "the purse is closed" thing. What does a "closed purse" look like? I think we'd be looking at acquisitions that are no more than about $1M. What are the chances SD would cover $6.6M of Chucky's $7.6M salary *and* his $12M transfer fee so he can go play with the Quakes? I think it's a non-starter.

Also I didn't hear "not a cultural fit" though they may have said it. Someone (I think Bogert) said pretty confidently he'd fit on the field and I think also mentioned "in the stands", which is probably true, in terms of fans who'd come out to see him.

 

Yeah it was just an off-the-cuff idea from Doyle, I don't think anyone was suggesting that the stars would actually align to make it happen. Either way it'll be interesting to see if they look within MLS or abroad.

 

Bruce is very much a "look within MLS" kind of guy, especially if it's depth pieces.

 

That’s a fair assessment but they’ve brought up Chucky to San Jose multiple times on the pod so they must think that it could be a fit if the $ could work. My only explanation for that is that they know that Bruce has been willing to take on potential problem players in the past. I think more than anything the $ makes it a non-starter. Also Timo is playing the left side attacker role that I think Chucky usually plays. I think the reason SJ comes up in relation to Chucky is that we supposedly have one or two open DP slots.

 

Edwards had a couple of good games toward the end of last year as I remember. I wonder how he'd be with a much improved defense.

I don't think Harkes, Buck, Skahan or Romney are great depth either. I'm worried about Jona but I haven't seen him enough.

I'd rather see Fernandez than Skahan or Marie. That dude has a future so might as well accelerate it.

 

Edwards's career numbers are *really* bad. His saves % is under 50%! It's not a ton of minutes but it's 2400 or so, and with some good teams like 2023 Revs. So maybe some kind of anomaly but OTOH, where there's smoke there's fire.

Skahan recently posted a brace for us, so we know he can be useful at times. Harkes - tons of experience in the league. We know he won't be bad even if not particularly good. I'm pretty positive on Jona again because of all his experience and he knows how to play the game. I like how aggressive he's been in trying to win the ball, just don't be that aggressive when you're sitting on a yellow. Apparently he's out of the doghouse already because Bruce played him a bit against LAFC.

Buck is the guy I'm least positive about (next to Floriani), mainly because of his lack of speed. But that guy has a cannon of a shot from distance. It's as good if not better than Beau's. He scored one in his last Quakes 2 game - a 25-yard screamer, and almost had a 2nd on a similar shot, and I think he had one against Phoenix that went off the post IIRC.

Oh, and then there's Floriani, who hasn't really shown himself to be a good Quakes II defender let alone a good MLS defender. From Munie to him is a big drop-off. There's a Quakes II guy named Dossmann from SJSU who's looked really good so far, better than Floriani. And Cano too, but I think Dossmann looks more polished.

 

Floriani is fine depth. He’s only a second year player. And he’s only sitting because Roberts is better.

Would you prefer Tanner Beason as depth?

 

I'm looking at RCB. We are fine on the left, with Romney and Roberts. The problem with Floriani is that he isn't remotely as fast as Munie - in fact he's pretty slow, and we rely on Munie's speed a lot to maintain our high line. If Floriani didn't regularly get beat in Quakes 2 games I'd feel more positive about him. He has other good aspects of his game - very good in the air, good tackler, and passes OK.

 

Floriani is a center back, like Beason.

 

Other coaches are not so much this way, but Bruce is pretty strict about playing righties on the right and lefties on the left. So Floriani's real competition for minutes is Munie, not Roberts (or Beason either if Beason was still on the team).

 

Everyone would prefer a Demarcus Beasley type.

 

Then why don't we just get *him*! I bet he could still play.

 

The question is depth, not competition for minutes. Good to know we have quality depth behind Munie. And in a pinch behind Roberts.

 

Yeah, well my point is that I think as the depth behind Munie, it's a big drop-off to Floriani. Even if we accept that Floriani is OK, Munie is really really good. He's the guy I worry most about losing to injury, with Daniel and Beau the next biggest worries. Those are all critical players for us at the moment IMO.

 

Ricketts is basically Kirkland brand Beasley.

 

Munie's the best central defender in the league. A big drop off doesn't mean Floriani isn't quality depth.

 

“Ricketts. It’s what’s for breakfast!”

 

Yeah, that's pretty much what I was trying to say. We can disagree on how quality Floriani is, but regardless, Munie is really really good, as you and I both foresaw when he first joined the team .

 

This is probably a very normal case. it depends on who you're focused on - is it the Homegrowns (Tomo, Rohan, Edwyn)? The full 1st teamers like Floriani, Buck, Crockford? Or the true Next Pro guys? I think players in the latter category are generally unlikely to make it to the MLS level so we shouldn't necessarily expect to find a Benji or an Arfsten. It's hard enough to find solid MLS players through the draft even if SJ makes it look relatively easy.

 

Of the 2nd team guys who are already not 1st team bench guys (like Buck and Floriani) I think Edwyn Mendoza could help us if we got really thin in central midfield. I think he can play in MLS. Maybe Crockford. And KK Spivey also, though he's still 16 and it might be a little early. But he's getting better every game, and by next year he might be ready. Bruce is really conservative about playing the real young guys though, so I'm not optimistic. At one point he was listed on the same level as Cavan Sullivan, who's been getting MLS minutes for like a year now and already has an EPL contract.

 

I think you need to add Roberts, because in my mind there is a sizable drop off if Romney has to fill in for Roberts. Not as bad as Munie to Floriani but it is significant.