Off-season roster thread

It's a valid concern, but I worry about that a little less because of Ralston. The attack won't be stellar without Twellman, but as long as Ralston's on the job it should be functional.

A good defense will buy the club time to figure out the attack. The good news is very few other MLS clubs are heading into the season without multiple questions regarding their strikers, playmakers and wings. The nightmare scenario is the Revs bleed goals in the back and don't have enough firepower up front to overcome that.

 

That's a formation, not a system.

If you don't know the difference between an analogy and a metaphor, I can understand your problem (just to help you out, the comparison was about unheralded, but talented coaches with a proven, stable system continually getting underestimated - *regardless* of the sport).

Twellman's actually been out quite a bit during his career here and *most* of the time, we haven't had much trouble picking up the scoring slack (last year we definitely had trouble scoring consistently, but a lot of that was with Twellman in the lineup). When the Revs (particularly the midfield) are playing together, controlling the ball, we generally get goals regardless of who is playing forward.

I don't expect to see a 20 goal scorer emerge, but I think Dube can score some, Mansally can also, Nyassi, Ralston, Larentowicz a few here and there, Joseph, Videira, Maxwell and/or Thompson if they get p.t., Castro ...

If the Revs midfield returns to playing like it can, the midfielders and forwards will get chances. When we flamed out last season, our forwards actually had very few scoring chances.

You make a good point, but, by far the biggest influence Nicol has is before the game ever starts. He has set up a successful, quality system that prepares players and the team to be contenders.

This year, there are some players to replace so he has to develop some of the younger guys to step up and fill bigger roles. He's done that before and he'll continue doing it. It's not blind faith, he's been doing it from the time he became head coach.

The only times that the young players haven't progressed since Nicol's been here have been the times when there have been no openings in the lineup. This year there are some opportunities and there are plenty of talented young players fighting for those spots.

 

College basketball is almost entirely dependent on the coaching. The players still need to perform, but it is the sport that probably has the larget single impact from a head coach.

I'm not dismissing the importance of good coaching in soccer, but it is hardly this panacea that you make it out to be. If a side isn't good, all the coaching in the world can't make the difference.

Comparing the importance of coaching in college basketball, to that of soccer, is disingenuous at best.

I'm not even saying that you are wrong in that Nicol may work some more magic. He has done it in the past with personal moves, but it is hardly the guarantee that college basketball is. There is the possibility that a Nicol coached team could finish last in the east, and it isn't as unlikely as you keep making it out to be.

 

The end of last season certainly did suck.

A target striker with some size would have been nice, just someone to hold the ball and allow others to join the attack.

Maybe Shalrie can steal some of Jason Roberts' DNA next time he's on national team assignment and we can clone that guy.

 

Really? let's take a look at the projected positions for the other teams in the east.

CHICAGO FIRE
.......................McBride.......................
........................Blanco...........................
.......Mapp...............................Rolfe.......

COLUMBUS CREW
....................Moreno......................
...................Schelotto..................
......Rogers.......Ekpo........Gaven....

DC UNITED
.............Moreno.........Emilio.......
.....................Gomez.............
......Fred..................Olsen........

KANSAS CITY WIZARDS
.............Lopez.........Wolff.......
....Espinoza......Hirsig....Arnaud........


RED BULL NEW YORK
.................Angel...................
....Smith.....Rojas.....Richards.........

TORONTO FC
...........Vitti.........Barrett.........
..................DeRosario..............
....Ricketts................Guevara....

I would say that Chicago and Columbus know exactly what they have, and it's very good. Kansas City has some new signings but on the whole looks to be a quality outfit to my eye. All three attacks look better than the Revs' to me.

We fall in with Toronto, New York and DC. We'll be a bit better or worse depending on form and which teams' youngsters excel and/or oldsters fail. That's about it.

 

Jonny, good analysis, but given the negative bias many on this board have, if we were suddenly to become Fire or Crew fans (ewwwwww, I need shower), we'd be saying that our strike tandem (Chicago) is somewhere past decrepit and where are the goals going to come from, or that our guys (Cow-lumbus) have only had one good year together and the other shoe's about to drop.

My 2 cents on the scoring front. I'm really concerned that we're not going to score much if Twellman's out, but there's the possibility that a number of the young strikers could step up and that the mid's could pick up the scoring burden (certainly will if Rally stays healthy).

Should this happen, we have the potential to be a solid offensive team with a varied attack. I think the last team we've had that I would have said this of was probably 2005.

I'd much rather that we have 5 7-goal scorers than a 20-goal scorer and 4 3-4-goal scorers. It's harder to stop an offense that's more spread around.

 

I agree that Chicago and Columbus profile as the class attacks in the east, though the Fire are awful thin if anything happens to either of their two 36-year-old icons. I don't like KC's finishers at all (neither prolific nor young). That club looks like Davy Arnaud and a cloud of smoke to me.

Even Columbus has its issues. The Crew doesn't have a big-time finisher. It comes at opponents with depth.

That's my take too. You can come up with scenarios where any of those four will fail or succeed. I think Toronto's got the most interesting set of striker options and it probably can count on more goals from the midfield than most other clubs. The NYRB attack might hinge on Kandji and Mbutu making big contributions.

I'm not sure how much DC's main weapons have left in the tank and Quaranta is just about the only young guy there with an unrealized ceiling.

The Revs have youth - Dube, Mansally, Nyassi, Wells, Videira, Maxwell and Fernandez. It's scary because there's no net if the kids fail, but, like the Crew last season, they might have fresher legs than the opposition as the season wears on.

 

OK, it's fair enough that people see different things and have different outlooks. Bob Kupp, I recall, predicted a second place finish, and I hope he's more right than I am.

Let's all go on the record with predicted finish, playoff results, point total, SuperLiga results, and how many rounds we'll go in the Open Cup.

In November we will know who was right.

 

2nd in the East
Lose MLS Cup
Win Superliga
Lose US Open Cup final

 

I love this idea. (just for fun)

How in depth should we go?
w-l-t (no brainner)
Points (seems like a no brainer also)
GF and GA? (gauge our perception of how stong our offense and d will be)
do we also want to guess home and away records?
individual game results?

we could almost make it like sheep with weekly updates depending on how far we go (info/depth wise)

submit before the season starts. and see how it ends up?

 

So does anyone want to place bets on how many days will pass before we hear any mention of these Ghanaian targets again?

I placing the o/u at 5 days (from now).

 

That's what RevGuess is for.

 

Lets just keep it simple.

 

Yes, the quality of their play last year. The team is essentially unchanged, minus the loss of Parkhurst. Even when they were rolling last year, the Revs never looked like a championship team. It's very possible this year that they're not any better, or even worse. All this stuff that we can't possibly know how good the Revs are going to be is nonsense. We have enough information to have a reasoned prediction.

The question is, is that enough? We had a more solid core last year, and the year before that, and the year before that, and it wasn't enough. This year, we have one dominant player (Joseph), 2 elite players (Reis, Twellman), and two very good to great players (Ralston, Larentowicz). Beyond that, it's serviceable (Heaps, Albright) and question marks (Dube, Nyassi, Castro, Barnes, Alston, Videira, Valentino, etc). I'm extremely concerned about our center backs, and not at all convinced we can score enough goals, even if Twellman stays healthy. In addition, I don't see anyone that's going to bring a spark off the bench. Can you honestly expect to win a championship relying on Kheli Dube to bang in goals? I don't think so.

Except that Wynne had been identified as a top talent for years. It's not like he came out of nowhere, it was just a matter of when he turned it on. We don't have anybody like that--Nyassi is the closest thing, and his ceiling this year is like Dane Richards last year. Don't get me wrong, I'd take it, but it's not overpowering.

My concern is that Nicol can't organize what isn't there, any more than Arena could come in and remake the Galaxy's defense last year. Heaps is a warrior, Albright is decent, and you have a giant question mark at center back. Badilla's injured, and beyond that we're faced with playing a completely untested rookie (and you can't expect lightning to strike twice, a la Parkhurst), or an out-of-position Larentowicz.

 

After their 3-0 drubbing of Houston, I thought they looked like a championship team.

 

I didn't say we don't know anything, but the Revs have been drawing aces from the hole for years and more power to anyone who tabbed the Crew to dominate last season. Columbus was largely unchanged outside of picking up Brian Carroll and dropping a few regulars, including Rusty Pierce.

So how did that happen? It was cheeky a year ago even to suggest Columbus would make the playoffs.

I'm not saying the Revs won't go to hell in a handbasket, I'm just saying too many pieces of the team are too young to pretend prior performance reveals destiny.

I'm concerned about the defense too. That's job #1 for Nicol. He's got a week to figure it out.

Do I think the Revs look like a championship club right now? No, but they don't have to look like a championship club until August. What they have to do right now is get off to a decent start.

If they land a solid player this week (and supposedly they're looking), have two young guys step up (e.g. Igwe and Nyassi, just to pick two names at random), get Twellman back in May and make a big move in the summer transfer window, that'll get them to a quality 11 with some depth on the bench.

So my take is we're talking about a work in progress and the most important thing for the club right now is not to dig itself a hole.

 

fortunately this is MLS and every team out there is basically made up the same way, a handful of very talented players surrounded by mediocre talent. I think the Revs have enough talented players to sneak into playoffs however this team has zero chance of winning a championship

 

If your that sure then you'll be glad to give me 10,000-1 odds on a $1 bet.

 

But do you really think that's going to happen? I would be pumped if it did but I highly doubt it, especially the part about making a "big move."

 

I can't friggin' believe that a week before Opening Night, we're still waiting to hear on a replacement for Michael Parkhurst and we're probably going to start a rookie 3rd round draft pick in the center of defense.

 

I agree. What you say really hits home.

 

Mike, after all these years, let's be honest.


You can believe it.

 

Oh ye of little faith.

(Ducking as Monty throws his cigar butt all the way to Westmoreland and Mike spits his coffee at the computer screen).

I must say I've felt better about our teams status before the season opener in pervious years than I presently do but I think that is partly because there are still so many unknowns in the equation as I read the data. We may not know just how well this team will do this year till all the roster gets healthy and all the pieces hopefully are in place.

I'm not sure I learned much of anything about this team during preseason this year except the names of the players who will soon be cut if their African replacements can be signed.