Make your moves Alexi!

You do know they acquired Ruiz and are in process of signing Babyaro (apparently). Those moves are every bit as big as the ones other teams are making. So what's your point?

 

We are still only half way in my opinion. And if you count the off field things like making the game day experience more interesting and fun to regular fans, I think LAG is down to 25% of accomplishing anything this off season.

 

My thought is that we've made enough moves over the past 9 months. Probably too many moves. And with Ruiz and Babayaro (probably) in and Albright, Cannon, Pavon and Glinton (not counting Mathis) out, in addition to our draft picks, I think we have done as much as we're going to do.

 

Well since we dropped so much in the salary cap and gained 800,000 with allocation money, i think we can still do more....also we still havent officially signed babayaro yet so if dont sign him, then we def have much more we can do

 

It is very frustrating. We still have a desperate need for central defenders, where we are not only weak, but an injury away from being very weak. Alexi is lazy, methinks.

 

If there is one thing Lalas isn't, it's lazy.

Answer this. Bravo is the new honcho of scouting. Did he not go to South and Central America to identify players? Where are these players? Not so much as a rumor about anyone coming here from SA/CA. Maybe Bravo isn't quite cut out for this gig?

 

Does Bravo even speak spanish?

 

I agree. I hope we are done making moves. Perhaps if you can bring in another defender without shipping anybody out, you do that, but otherwise it's time for Ruud and Cobi to start earning their paychecks, build some team chemistry, and coach these guys up.

 

Him's tinkin'

Lalas is adding by subtracting.

here is a scary thought.

We are 21 days away from our first Pan Pacific tournament game.
We are 36 days away from our first Asian Tour game.
We are 60 days away from our first MLS league game.

The team is posting a 20 man roster (with Mathis).

Injured Jazic, and unknown whereabouts of Abel Xavier.

Donovan & Cronin - at least getting some training in with US nats.

Randolph will be gone for some of Feburary and March in training and olympic qualifying.

And of course mega-twat becks on a global whirlwind tour to promote himself and his alio-wife and her bands pneumatic drill bit sounds of "up with people" ahhem... i mean the Trite-girls, I mean the space-girls, spicegirls, yah thats it.



And the G's announce official training camp the first week of February.

A. - who will be there?
B. - How long does it take to teach sexy football to this lot?
C. - We can't sign Babayaro cause he died breaking his leg chasing down a hermaprodite with dreads in a Tyneside rave club. So I read that they are shipping his corpse to Churchill downs to be buried under a racing stanchion.

All I know is this team is short on time, talent, and fan patience..... we have in abundance of empty promises, empty suits, empty ideas, and empty roster spots waiting like a beckham cross to be filled.

 

I just can't agree that we should be done with making moves. I don't want another roster overhaul but we have a very unbalanced group of guys that don't form an obvious 4-4-2 because we lack talent on outside midfield. And doesn't form a real 4-3-3 because we lack defensive bite in the midfield with the personel that would likely be on the field in that formation. No matter what formation we play we are weak in central defense.

With our personnel we are most likely going to play a 4-4-2 with a box midfield without any wingers but that option is weaker now too without Albright's ability to attack up the flanks.

We need a few pieces still to balance out the group we have now.

 

I'm not as harsh as you guys on Alexi/Bravo.

The reality is that we were late to the South American game and that hurt us. Next year is the real test for how well we recruit in SA.

Say that we get Babayaro and line up like this:


-----------Ruiz--------------

----------Donovan----------

Randolph----Beckham----Klein

-----------Harmse-----------

Babayaro--Harberts--X--Franklin

------------Cronin-----------


Our problem is not so much the quality of the players, but the age.

I put the young players in italics. IMO this is too much youth to be successful. However, there is the potential for us to be pretty good next year if the talent develops.

Which leaves us in a difficult position this year. We're basically looking for someone to come in and cover one or two of those positions for a year while the young guys develop. But it's difficult and expensive to do that.

Given all our allocation dollars, we probably could bring one player in addition to Babayaro. And I'll be disappointed if we don't. However, I think we need to be realistic about how many players we can bring in.

 

-What bugs me the most , is Lexi was a defender in his playing days....... Our defense up to midfield is a big problem.. The rest of the money better be spent on a defender or two... Why can't he see this?
-DC does it again- 4-5 players signed and apparently all will be in camp ..
-If we are going to do anything, get it down NOW... 60 days to season is not really that much, when you consider we are going to be off flying around all over
-
Other question- is Ruid and family moved in yet?

 

You really missed the point - you were saying everybody else is making moves and Lexi wasn't. Lexi added one or two starters, which is about what everybody did, more than some. And if you were looking to turn over the entire starting 11, you are completely unrealistic as to what can be done under current MLS salary cap rules and existing player contracts, to say nothing of the fact that it would be an incredibly dumb approach. What this team has lacked more than anything is cointinuity and stability. Lets see what the core players can do before we panic here about more turnover. And, BTW, I would be willing to bet we pick up one more quality player before the season starts, hopefully a central defender or a true left-sided midfielder.

 

i think what our friend is trying to say that just because DC sign about 4 players we should do the same. Yes i feel that we should have brought several player rather then 1 or 2.... but like cadaver pointed out theres cap issues. I think that if moves are made they should be players coming in and no one going out. They do not need to be starters, but we should at least have a good bench!

 

I just think our roster needs more balance.

Clearly we need another experience GK.

We are bloated in some positions and very thin in others. We need to make some minor moves to be strong accross the board.

It would be helpful to have an idea of how Ruud intends us to play. Until we (or more likely he) figures out the approach he'll take, it's very hard to play armchair quarterback.

 

Totally agree
Great post!!

 

DC did sign four players, but their losses were pretty deep too, probably more critical than ours. And if you look at who left LAG, other than Cannon and Albright, who will we miss? Nobody, really. And we haven't had any positive time from Albright in so long that his loss does not change the team much.

The South America connection is a tough one to build, and no matter what Bravo has done so far, or does yet this year, that bridge is going to take YEARS to build. You are dead right about how long it took DC to scout and sign Emilio. That's not to say we shouldn't do it. We should. But let's not be too surprised if nothing comes of it this year. Its a long term project. And we need to build a roster that competes in 60 days, not three years from now.

The previous attempt to build a relationship with Sao Paulo was a great idea. But, for whatever reason, that whole deal seems to have died on the vine. Or at least LAG has been VERY quiet about it. That would be a great topic of LAG to cover in their blog, BTW.

If we are really getting Babayaro (and the longer that goes unannouced, the less likely it seems to be happening) I think we can start the season with a competative team and evaluate what moves need to be made. If no Babayaro, I sure would like to see us pick up another defender now so the backline can develop some communication. But, this is a tweak, not a major overhaul.

 

team 1993

Forwards:

Ruiz, Buddle, Gordon, Sesay, Donovan (grade B+/A-)

Good starting group of forwards... bench good with buddle. grade takes a hit with one or more injuries.


Midfielders:

Becks, Gray, Harmse, Vagenas, Martino, Tudela, Klein (grade C)

I debate giving this group a C. take another injury to becks and its a D-.
this is essentially a mid table MLS midfield... needs improving.


Defenders:

Harden, Randolph, Kirk, Roberts, Jazic, Xavier (grade B-/C+)

This is big... If no "X" than this is the worst Defense in MLS, take into account the loss of Jazic til May. Really this isnt the starting defense I envisioned after our last regular season loss to Chicago.


Keepers:

Cronin (grade C-)

Being generous with the grade... if the G's dont make a move to shore up that defense and tell us whats up with "X" this kid could be as shot as John Busch, Nick Rimando, Jonny Walker -(retired after great hope).


I really dont think that this will be the team they start the season with.... but god help us if it is. It's definately no winner in my book if it is.

 

I like the "Harberts" designation.

Ok, now there will always be injuries, call-ups, etc. To simulate, remove two players from your lineup other than Harmes and Harberts and replace them with our bench players and see what you have. Not pretty. As someone just said, we don't need more stars, we need some solid players to provide depth. Right now if any of Ruiz, Becks, Donovan, Klein, Cronin, or X are injured, their replacement will be shaky at best.

 

This was in my MLS Confidential e-mail from Soccer America: