Two home grown CBs? That's goodi hope Robinson isn't like ethan white. As in athletic but terrible football IQ and technical skills
He's 22... He's made some poor decisions, but at that age, I don't see that = terrible football IQ. IQ implies a learning capacity problem. Not sure I can come to that conclusion from seats as cheap as mine. I think we've seen some improvement in his game, and that's enough to give me reason to believe that he might make it in this league. I like him as 2nd string right now - getting some starts. Having someone like Boswell to observe and be mentored by can't hurt. Jalen's short for a centerback, but if he can play outside and is better defensively than Kemp, he's depth we will probably use at some point this season.
Just slot EJ in for DeRo. I'm no accountant, but it seems like that should work fine. In terms of the Salary Cap that works anyway. In terms of actual cash... I hope we're not paying EJ over $600k. I'd prefer $375k with a few hundred thousand of incentives for each year.
EJ the big dog, but United added money elsewhere, too. Arnaud approx. 200k, Boswell 225k, Espindola ?(I'll guess 200k), Franklin 225k, Attakora 60k. That's 710k, without Espindola. They dropped Pajoy 200k, Thorrington 150k, Ruiz 75k, Riley 140k, Iapachino 110k, Woolard 100k, Saragosa 110k, Nyassi 90k. That's about 950k. So DeRo/EJ is a wash. 2013 Cuts (950k) - Re-Entry guys (710k) = 240k, roughly Espindola's money. They still have to sign the draft pick, and would still have 3 or 4 open spots. They may want to keep some space open for the summer, also. Basically, that 300k from Jakovic not only could be put to good use, it may be necessary.
More on this salary cap thing. I forgot Brandon McDonald. That's 270k on the high end coming off the books, also. So with Jakovic and McDonald, there's 570k to pay Doyle (another acquisition with an unknown salary, probably less than 100k), sign the draft pick(s), fill out the roster and go get another DP if they want (winter or summer). Other possible expenses are a returning Nat and locking up Hamid on a multi-year extension, he's due for a big raise (90k presently). He signed his latest contract in March 2011, meaning he's played 3 seasons on that contract. I don't know the length of that deal, but 3 years sounds about right, four would be unusual.
Couldn't the draft pick be a GA player and then wouldn't count against the cap? I'm not sure Jakovic leaving was the only way to help pay EJ's salary. Clearly there are much better ways to use almost 300k in MLS though than to pay that money to Jakovic. Back to the Salary cap though, don't we presumably have some allocation money (unless we shipped it all to Seattle) that could lower the cap hit of any player (or players). I'm not sure we're as up against it as it might seem, and its all fuzzy math of course. I've heard rumors that perhaps the league stepped in and gave Seattle a little more allocation $ so we didn't have to spend as much because they really wanted EJ to stay in MLS. No idea if that's true... just remember reading the rumor somewhere. What ever happened to the allocation money we got from the Najar transfer? I seem to remember that transfer fee $ has a shelf life of sorts in terms of MLS rules. Can anyone confirm that?
Yes, the GA is an option. I don't know if there is one that would be a good pick at number 1. Certainly not Tshuma, imo, he didn't do anything in College Cup. Small sample size, skills could translate to MLS better than others, etc, but a number one pick on him would be a huge disappointment. I don't know enough about college players to say whether there is a GA to pick number that wouldn't be a huge stretch. Allocation is definitely something. What, I don't know, and it's such a guessing game I'm not even going to attempt to factor that in. Bottom line for me is they don't sell Jakovic for low six figures unless they needed to, or have something planned for that money. I'm speculating and trying to read what's happening, and generally when I do that I'm dead wrong, so there you go.
When you think about it the combination of the Jakovic and the allocation $ from his transfer could be transformed into 2 starters in this league if you have the right guys pegged. Another thing we're not taking into account is maybe Dejan's personal wishes. For all we know he could of gone to Kasper after the season and asked for an exit from the club. His play in the 2nd half of the season maybe was an indication that this was in the works long before.
I'll go back to the 4-5-1 ... safe money is that we'll continue down that road considering Olsen has used it almost exclusively in the last 18 months ... --------------------------------------HAMID --------------------------------------Willis FRANKLIN----------BOSWELL-----------WHITE---------------KORB -Robinson----------------Attakora------------Shanosky-------------Kemp ------------------------KITCHEN-----------ARNAUD -------------------------Jeffrey---------------Neal ---DE LEON-----------------------SILVA---------------------PONTIUS ----Martin-------------------------Espindola----------------------Porter -------------------------------------JOHNSON ---------------------------------------Doyle depth : Dykstra, Seaton, Townsend, Still 3 roster spots to be filled ... Looking at this you have to expect a fullback, a center back and a winger possibly pushing Shanosky, Martin and either Kemp or Robinson onto the depth list and potentially down to Richmond. My opinion? We'll definitely look better at right back. The center midfield looks way more settled. I know I've criticized the EJ move but really he's a major upgrade over Pajoy. If I have any concerns it's a variety of pieces on that backline. And with such a big revamping I'm just generally concerned with team chemistry, tactics and unity.
Funny thing about that starting lineup is that it's 11 Americans ... Has that ever even happened in DC history? Even MLS history I'm sure it's almost unheard of.
White and Korb are just not good enough. United now has to sign a decent CB and a left back. United is very weak with White/Shanosky Korb/Kemp and Porter. These are all below average MLS players and that gap is increasing as the league improves......
I have nothing to base this on, but since DC is #1 on the allocation list, I wonder if we could convince Edu to come back to MLS. We could start him as a CB. A CB tandem between he and Boswell would be pretty solid. We still need a starting quality LB and attacking midfielder. Anyone think Columbus would trade the #1 draft pick for Higuain?
And if you look at the depth players, only Porter is "foreign" as I believe Neal and Espindola are permanent residents.
Well, if Robinson lines up as a CB, we'd have 3 Homegrown CBs -- but, you're forgiven for forgetting about Shanosky.
Robinson is on the small side for an MLS CB: 5-9, 145. Not that it can't be done, but I expect we'll see him on the right.
Not bad, not bad at all. I did not expect our 2013 team to suck the way it did, I was wrong. This seems better, so I will downsize it. Hence, this could be a mid-table team, fighting for the 5th spot in the playoffs...
Without Jakovic that back line is not much better than last year and it certainly isn't good enough for a playoff team. DC still needs another starting CB, LB and AM. Also, a DP level either AM or FW would move the team to a play off contender.
Yea, you can count me among those who simply will never believe that White is currently better than Jakovic.
I know those are the numbers on Wake's site, but they've gotta be old...US Soccer had him at 5'10" when he with the u18s. Usually, he's discussed as being 6'0" I don't know where that figure comes from, or if it's any more accurate than the 5'9" you cite. In any case, I think it's usually been suggested that he's a fullback in MLS.
True, but this year everybody look worse than they actually were. I hope the next will be the opposite. It is possible because overall the team looks better. I agree there are room for achievable improvements.
I don't think we're signing Espindola for him to sit on the bench. I would guess that Espindola > Silva. After his hot start Silva really tailed off. Rumors of the 3-5-2 make sense given how midfielder heavy we are.