It'll be a very interesting off-season, that's for sure. I am concerned though. Just how many major moves can we make without impacting the status of other players? Can we just make Cabral go away? Do we want to eat up that contract or can we find a sucker *cough* buyer that will be willing to take him on loan? Is that even a good solution as it would only be temporary and he could get hurt or lose even more value? We saw Costa's salary numbers... Ugh, I don't think we could give him away anywhere. So unless we eat up the final 3(!) years of Cabral's contract, we have no other DP spot. Also, Cabral's "young DP" is what allows us to have Araujo/Alvarez/Joveljic count as our three U22 initiative players. Those funds/cap hits go away if we don't carry another young DP. Can Joveljic be turned into a young DP or is he past the max age for that? Does he even want to stay for another year of mop up duty behind Chich? I sense he will want to leave in search of starter's minutes and a starring role. It'd be a damn shame to lose him like that. So that basically leaves players on the periphery like Vazquez, Depuy, Zavaleta, Sacha, Gasper, Leerdam etc. to move and replace. I don't think that keeps this momentum going. We have an expansion draft as well to potentially lose a player to, possible rule/cap changes. Too early to tell what exactly we can/should do to become Champions next season, but I feel deep down we are getting there. F*ck this sucks, it's gonna be a long off-season... Go Galaxy!
For me this is what I'd like to see (of course it's AEG's money, not mine): -Buy out Costa (can be done) -Find any home for Cabral that takes him off our books. Other teams seem to be able to work "loan" magic to free up DPs etc. maybe we can too. Can't imagine that there is any market for the young man, but I'd work really hard to see what can be done if anything. It doesn't matter if we take a big loss financially if it frees up the roster mechanism of the young DP -Sign a great veteran DP Winger to replace Costa. It can be a classic Galaxy DP signing if it is effective. I'm all in on Ronaldo if that is in any way possible. It appears he's available on a free in January. Post world cup, he might be ok with it. -Get an effective young DP to replace Cabral, winger preferred, so we can keep the extra u-22 contracts. -Figure out how to play more with 2 strikers and insure Dejan gets at least twice the minutes he did last year. -Sell Efra and Araujo if there are any deals out there that are good for the team. -Let Williams go (free up a big chunk of salary) -Let Vasquez and Sasha go (or stay and coach) -Provide real opportunity and minutes to Dunbar, Neal, Aguirre, Saldena, Perez, Judd and anyone else coming through. Cheap young minutes will help us overall. -Look for upgrades at GK and defense. Fowards: Chich, Dejan, Judd Wingers: New old DP, New young DP, Grandsir, Dunbar Midfield: Puig, Brugman, Delgado, Aquirre, Saldena, Perez Defense: Edwards, Sega, Caceras, New RB, Neal, New backup RB, CB, Jose V, Goalie : ok as is but definitely not great. Just spit balling here.
Well, for spit ballin that is pretty good. You certainly checked many of my boxes. I fear Vanney will fight you on Cabral. He pushed him in off the deep end again last night and at the presser he said he wanted that wonderful "speed" that Kevin brings to try and get behind defenders and stretch of the defense that way. Vanney will not let go of Cabral happily. It will take the FO to come on in and put their foot down based on the kid's weak contribution numbers and force the issue. On the D I would keep Caceres of course and then I dont care. Williams can go. Coulibaly can go. Leerdam is invisible so let him go and lastly the nephew. That dude doesn't even dress for games anymore. Just a paycheck for the Vanney family. 90% of his career has been at the side of his uncle Greg. Nice gig if you can get it. I have mixed feelings about Edwards and Araujo but if they have to go so be it. I can go on and on but you pretty much covered it. Thing of it is, it's starting to look like a complete overhaul. Chances are only a handful (or less) changes will be made to be honest knowing the coach and this FO. This leaves the Galaxy with many an iffy player going forward into what should be a very different and much stronger run at the cup. Or at least, that's what everybody hopes. I really don't see how Vanney is gonna do it.
As I do every year, here is my recap of who to keep/who needs to be gone. Last year I said we had a bunch of decent players with obvious qualities, but not a lot of great players : Grandsir, Williams, Bond, Raveloson... All are decent to good, but not amazing. We can add guys like Edwards or Coulibaly to this list. The three summer signings completely changed and lifted the team to a good playoff run where we were on par with the Shield winner. These are steps in the right direction. 1) Bond : same statement as last year : he's good, amazing reflexes, best GK we've had since Penedo, but is he among the very best GKs in MLS ? No. He spills the ball maybe too much, like on the final goal yesterday. That may be harsh on him, but it's the little details that separate a good team (us) with a MLS Cup winner caliber team like LAFC. Has an option for next year, I'd keep him but we must be aware of his limitations. 2) Araujo : I don't buy the "Julian had a good season", I think it's his worse since his rookie year. He costed way too many goals. I bet he's gone and he completely earned it. Congratulations young man. 3) Williams : has switched between the good and the bad this season. I like him (but I might be in the minority here), he would be fine depth, but has a huge salary and his contract ends this year (with an option), so it could be an interesting case. 4) Coulibaly : probably the most improved player since last year, solid season but you have to be excellent for 90 minutes to win the big thing, and he didn't yesterday. Has an option for next year, keep him. 5) Brugman : a beast. 6) Riqui Puig : a big beast, and a bargain. I think 2023 will be his last season with the Galaxy. 7) Vazquez : should have retired a year ago, he brings something to the table but overall I think he hurts us more than he is useful. Thank you for your service, I hope you stay at the club to maybe create a Barca - LA pipeline. 8) Delgado : a very good season, obvious keeper. 9) Cabral : I'm tired. The main problem is probably his mental, and I see the end of his Galaxy career as a way to change the scenario of a career that could be really disastrous. I hope we can loan him somewhere. 10) Douglas Costa : obviously not good enough as a DP, and as TAM too despite a couple of decent showings at the end of the season. Buy him out but I don't feel that confident the club will do it. 11) Grandsir : he benefits from being decisive in the playoffs and against LAFC, but one very good performance then five disappointing ones seems to be the trend of his Galaxy career, and it's not enough for a player sitting on a million Dollar contract. Has a contract for next year so keep him as depth, but we could do better here. 14) Chicharito : will be here next year and has earned it TBH, but I'm not sure I would have kept him if I had the choice, because Joveljic could probably start. 15) Zavaleta : average, was brought in because he can play in a three-man defense, but we didn't use it... I'd rather give his minutes to Neal. 16) Kljestan : that's the first season I thought the game has passed him. Same as Vazquez : please retire, but you can stay at the club. 18) Leerdam : not convicing, has a contract for next year and should not see the field very often. No choice here but not a big deal, he's probably gone after 2023. 19) Villafana : gone, too bad about the injuries. 20) DePuy : another interesting situation, DePuy is now low in the depth chart and is clearly expendable. Same situation as Steres last year : a low tier MLS team could be interested in trading for him. 21) Sanchez : Eric Lopez from G2 is better than him and should replace him as third GK in the depth chart. 22) Caceres : great since his signing, probably our best player of the playoffs campaign. I don't know if he can keep playing at this level and if his salary will be as low next year, but it's an obvious "keep" at the moment. 24) Neal : it's disappointing he hasn't seen the field with the first team, but to be honest he has not looked great for G2. Still a very good talent, I don't mind replacing Zavaleta and/or DePuy by him. 25) Dunbar : good season for G2, I'm not sure he can do a lot better but he deserves to stay in the roster. 26) Alvarez : I don't hate him and I feel he was a little bit underused (compared to Cabral) after the summer, but if a good offer comes, it's an obvious "sell". I see the talent, not much the upside. 27) Harvey : he's stagnant at best, goodbye. 28) Ferkranus : has never looked as good as Neal, I don't feel the club is high on him. Should play in MLS Next Pro next year. 31) Judd : definitely keep and should play first team minutes. 33) Klinsmann : probably not a great backup. He's OK, he can stay. 37) Aguirre : another underused player, I don't know why he wasn't on the bench in place of Kljestan for the last games of the year. Very talented young man, I'd give him the backup role to Delgado and Puig. 43) Saldana : good season for G2, long-term project, MLS Next Pro next year. 44) Edwards : a revelation, but a strange player who can be a liability. Deserves to start next year but he'll probably be one of the weakest spot in the starting lineup. 56) Pérez : great young kid, needs more minutes. 77) Gasper : very diappointing season but I wonder if there is a mental issue with Chase. You don't go from a reliable MLS starter to a disaster waiting to happen so quickly. If you can trade him, why not ? But I don't feel there will be a lot of offers so give him another chance ? 99) Joveljic : deserves to start and Vanney should absolutely try to play him alongside Chicharito. Anyway, I think he's gone after 2023.
Honestly our biggest issue is a lot of our okay players are on too high of a salary. I don't think this team needs a whole lot to be a cup challenger. We struggled defensively this year, but just get Puig suddenly gave us a shot at the cup. I think getting a CB, some CM depth, and a DP winger will have us challenging for first or second next season. I hihgly doubt we are getting rid of Cabral and Costa. I am not sure how MLS loan rules work in terms of salary, but loaning Cabral back to france also would likely not work. Cabral's salary is way too high for 90% of ligue 1, and he is a ligue 2 player at best. We'd have to eat basically all of his salary here, which I assume would still count for our salary cap? If not, then screw it, loan him back to france. I don't see us buying out Costa considering he only has 1 year left. Costa also can be used as a sub or occasional starter and be alright. Not ideal for a DP, but it can be worse. At this point, I am just pretending Puig is the DP, and Costa is a pricey TAM player.
We gotta find a way to move and then replace Costa and Cabral. And then we gotta find outside backs who can defend well. And then we gotta hope Coulibaly doesn't have his once per game brain farts... And then see how Neal/Aguirre/Saldana/Perez/Judd work as our new bench to replace the departing older fellas. Is that too much to ask for?
I wrote earlier in the season we needed the whole back line replaced and that is still the case minus Caseres. 1. MLS website had Bond listed as weak shot stopper for us and he does spill too many balls, along with poor distribution and no command of the box. 2. Edwards has been a liability on defense all season as was the case last night. We need an LB that can defend. Edwards is great going forward but he cannot be a starting LB. 3. Coulibaly improved in the last couple of games but that is not saying much. He always making bonehead plays and his giveaway corner is the reason we lost the match. He goes to ground too easy when defending, and I last track of the amount of minutes the trainers were called upon to tend to him, as he was always flailing down on the pitch for any type of contact. He is a poor overall defender. We have the core midfield minus the wingers. We have Dejan on top and whoever is signed next year as well. We just need to overhaul the defense to get us to the top.
As far as the discussion on loans here goes, I believe if we sent someone out on a season long loan, we would recoup the roster spot and whatever portion of the salary the receiving team pays, but NOT the DP spot. MLS did this to prevent teams from stockpiling DP contracts. Someone who knows better can correct me if I am wrong. The only way to be rid of Cabral or Costa next year and recoup a DP spot is to buy one of them out during the off season. And MLS rules mandate we can only buy out 1. If we buy out Costa it’s a straight roster and DP spot we get back. Buying out Cabral is more complicated because his “young DP” tag is also tied to two U-22 initiative spots. Our 3 are currently occupied by Alvarez. Araujo and Jovelic. To be honest though I’m done with Araujo. I’d unload him first chance I got. I’m a little more torn on Alvarez but wouldnt cry if we sold him either. There might be a market for him. I’d be surprised if Araujo’s poor play this year didn’t seriously damage his market value.
Re Williams - I think many are overreacting to two or three unfortunate errors. In the majority of games over the last two seasons he’s been our best defender and it hasn’t been close. All of last season and first half of this season he did his job while also cleaning up the errors of his teammates. I can’t count how often he made goalline clearances of balls, balls like the one that wasn’t cleared last night and did us in. He is physical, good in the air and a fierce competitor. His dozens of game-saving plays per season more than make up for his two or three gaffes. Plus no cb goes through the season unscathed by error. I like keeping all three of Caceres, Sega and Wiliams. In fact as most of you know, I think playing all three together would give us one of the very best defenses in MLS. And help our offense by freeing up our wing backs. Williams is expensive but he’s worth it.
I pretty much agree with the assessments made by everyone so far. I know I've posted this before and I apologize to those here that are tired of hearing about it from me, but I'll use a little help from FlapJack. From the LAFC thread : I have been begging for this team to have someone in the Fanendo Adi mold, a tall bruiser of a center-forward that is particularly adept not only at holdup play, but will win the aerial battle on goal kicks, finish crosses from our speedy wingers and make us more of a threat on set pieces. FC Dallas had someone like that in Ricardo Pepi. Do we have someone like that in Preston Judd?
Yep, I can buy out one contract and sign one new player on a free transfer in the off-season and make us a title contender and huge profit-generator instantly. ------Dejan----Chich----Ronaldo Edwards-------Puig-----------Araujo -----------------Brugman --Williams---Coulibaly---Caceres ------------------Bond
Could we swap the status of Cabral and Dejan so that Dejan is the "young DP" and Cabral's signing is tied to Dejan rather than the other way around? I still don't know how the financial nuances of MLS roster building work and it's wishful thinking, but it would be great if we could swap the status of Dejan and Cabral. Then we could do the following during the January transfer window: loan Cabral to a Ligue 2 club. He's still ours, but maybe they can fix him. sell Araujo and help him go to a European club like he wants. sell Alvarez and help him go to a Liga MX club like he wants. These moves (if we could do them) will free up two spots for U-22 signings and maybe help Cabral regain his form.
Dejan isn't a classic hold up player but he is decent in the air, is relatively strong and tall at 5'11". Why don't we have him in the center fighting aerial battles for us, rather than the diminutive 5'9" Chich? Let's let Dejan knock balls down for the in-rushing Javier Hernandez Bacazar for a change.
Watch out for Aaron Long. Currently a free agent, he's from California. If we can replace Williams with him, let's go.
Why? Our cb’s are a strength of this team. Our needs are goal creating wingers and outside backs. Then depth at central mid (replacing Victor and Sacha).
I don't know how the team moves both Cabral and Costa - but if they can, and then sign decent DP wingers and one really lock-down defensive fullback, I feel like we have a team than can contend for championships.
MLS makes it hard to get a good handle on this, but here is the list of Galaxy players who have expiring contracts OR have a club option. - Chicharito is coming back. But option hasn't been officially announced. - Lots of blank spaces that we don't know about.#LAGalaxy pic.twitter.com/98USZcxF7t— Corner Of The Galaxy (@GalaxyPodcast) October 24, 2022 Link there to what we know so far about contract statuses. Interesting on that list is the players who only have club options to extend, which means if there aren't performance clauses (like Chich) then the club has the option to keep them or release them -- some interesting names in that list (like Williams and Bond, especially.)
Ok here are my thoughts on what we should do this offseason, Or what I would do if I ran the Galaxy as Coach and GM. First let's look at the roster contracts,... The Roster Situation These players contracts are done effective 12-31-22,... Saladana DePuy Klinsmann Sasha Kljestan Villafana These players contract are done on 12-31-22 but have options we can sign,... Sega Williams Caceres Zavaleta Victor Vazquez (I think we might have cashed in his option already in Jan) Aguirre Bond(I think we can reup him for 2023) I am okay with picking up the options for all of the above save 2 guys (Sasha and Victor) . I would also be willing to resign Klinsmann, Depuy and Saldana to a 1 year deal as well for depth purposes as each has shown that they are solid in that department. Sasha and Victor sadly need to be put out to pasture. And I don't want to keep Villafana unless he is truly 100% healed. I say only offer him a 1 year contract if we can get him for less than the last one and only after he shows me tons of tape and workouts that show he is indeed healed. Make sure you can resign Bond. ------------ These players got no first team minutes but do have options,... Preston Judd(Forward) Richard Sanchez(Goalkeeper) These players got no first team minutes and contract status is unknown,... Dunbar(Forward/Right Midfielder) Perez(Left Midfielder) Harvey(Defensive Midfielder) Jalen Neal(Centerback) I don't want people on the roster that don't have a real chance at making the first team. If they can be upgraded do it. ------------ The following are the players who are contracted for a year or more,... Chicharito Riqui Puig Delgado Brugman DeJan Leerdam Araujo Gasper Edwards Efrain Alvarez Cabral Costa The Starting Lineup Situation Now let's look at our last starting lineup,... ---Grandsir----Chicharito-----Costa -------------Puig-----------Delgado --------------------Brugman Edwards------------------------------Araujo -------------Sega--------Caceres ---------------------Bond Of that squad, I would like to see upgrades in the 2 winger positions, the leftback and the left centerback spot as well. That would mean the following players will be removed as starters if we can find better options,... (Costa, Grandsir, Edwards and Sega) Due to his DP tag, Costa is the only option for potential complete removal from the team if his spot can indeed be upgraded. ---Primary Upgrade----Chicharito-----Primary Upgrade --------------------Puig------------------Delgado ------------------------------Brugman Sub Upgrade-----------------------------------Sub Upgrade -----------Luxury Upgrade--------Caceres -----------------------------------Bond The DP Situation 2 of our DP's are not quite up to snuff. 1 is a complete fail (Cabral) and the other overrated (Costa). We need to loan out Cabral ASAP. His contract is good until 2026. He is 100% not ready for primetime. As for Costa we can either keep him for the final year, or just pay out the remainder of his contract for the 2023 season and send him on his way. I say we only send him packing with a buyout if we for sure know that we can sign a Luis Suarez or Cristiano Ronaldo to replace him. In either case freeing up at least the Cabral DP tag will help the roster bigtime. If the league does everyone a solid and create the 4th DP tag then we can loan out Cabral, keep Costa and sign 2 new DP's that could act as starters. This is of course only if a loan frees up the DP tag off of Cabral. So Greg, Chris and everyone else need to start making phone calls right now to see if it is seriously possible to make such signings a reality. In close I want the to see the following,... 1. Call Suarez and Ronaldo's agents & start serious talks. If both are seriously willing to sign pending available DP tags, buy out Costa and Cabral's contracts and give those DP tags to real DP's!!! 2. If #1 fails though, then loan out Cabral even if the loan means we can't get back his DP tag. 3. Let Sasha, Victor and potentially Villafana walk. 4. Execute the 1 year option on all that have them that played first team minutes. 5. Offer Saldana, DePuy and Klinsmann 1 year extensions as depth. 5. Look to sign 4 upgrades at both Winger spots, the Leftback and at least one of the Centerback positions. 6. Make dang sure Bond is resigned. 7. If a 4th DP tag becomes available give it Riqui and make him the new young DP. 8. Either resign the 6 depth players that got zero 1st team minutes or upgrade their spots. Addendum: 9. Make that 5 upgrades. Look for an upgrade at Right Back Sub for Araujo. We do not need a full overhaul to continue into 2023 with the form that we took on after Puig signed. That's ridiculous if you ask me. We basically just need 5 major upgrades signings with the 2 Winger spots being without question the most important to fulfill. If this can't be done during the January Window somebody for sure needs to be fired.
The backline as always needs improvements. Both Coulibaly and Williams can't stay. Both have had suspect runs during the season. We need that guy in CB that strengthens the D. Caceres is staying so we need to make a decision on Sega and Derrick. Maybe they both go. Both were improvements over what we had before but moving forwards where we want to be, which is MLS CUP CONTENDERS, this D will not do. This includes Bond by the way, at least for me. Someone wise beyond his years was telling me to look around at the keepers in the teams left as of now. They all have excellent keepers. Does Bond fit in with them? No, he doesn't. Galaxy is improving and while I thank him for what he has done, we need to improve where we can and his contract is up. On the sides in back I have no idea what they'll do about Edwards but we need either to make him a strong super-sub or move him up to mid and get maybe another Uruguayan in there like Polenta. Araujo everybody says is gone so lets see if that happens there and we get to shore up that side also. This 2022 D was better than version 2021 but in 2023 we need better. It is still our weakest link. That and of our wingers but I don't want to keep harping on that.
No my dude,...No. You keep Williams and Sega. You find a CenterBack upgrade if available and then make him your new starter next to Caceres. Doing this will render those 2 your new super subs off the bench and that would be awesome because neither of those dudes are garbage players. It's only at that point do you allow a Center Back to walk off of the roster. DePuy, Zaveleta and Neal become the 3 on the chopping block with Neal lowest on the totem pole due to having played no first team minutes. That being said if you kept Neal and sent Zavaleta packing by not picking up his option I wouldn't shed any tears. I would feel bad for DePuy however because he has proven to be solid; and like Dave Romney, he would easily be a starter on another team. As for Keeper you absolutely do not let Jonathan Bond leave this roster without making him an offer to stay first. Good keepers do not grow on trees and this team hasn't had a For Real good one in years until this dude showed up. As for Edwards he was always only supposed to be a super sub for Villafana whose injuries forced him into being our first choice Left Back. If you can upgrade that spot and convert Edwards back into a Super Sub you would have done a major good thing for the team's defense. Araujo is under contract and unless someone comes a calling he isn't going anywhere. That being said we can find better than Leerdam as first choice sub. I didn't mention this in my earlier long winded post but this is also a must so I will add this addendum to that post. This next transfer window we need to look for an upgrade at Right Back substitute. One good enough to potentially challenge Araujo for his starting spot in the same way we did when we brought in Edwards last year at Left Back. Leerdam then becomes your 3rd string Right Back which is about where he and Chase Gasper on the other side of the pitch belong. So that's 3 upgrades in the back if possible with the 2 fullback substitute spots being the biggest need for improvement.
Look peeps I am really tired of the miserable "playing by the numbers" MLS rules bullisht! It's obvious the Galaxy has problems getting good defenders (a problem of money not for lacking) so let's put the crap aside, EAG, Klein, Vanney and you irritating season pass reps now too! Get us Ronaldo and Suarez! Forget chicha, costa and cabral. No defense in MLS would or could contain that artillery not even the those black and gold goat crap FC. I don't care about the rest of the roster obvious with the signings other than puig no one up there does either. So make it happen satisfy our hunger for glory and trophies you owe every single supporter that has put up with this underwhelming embarrassment for 6 years.