Even if by some miracle we make the playoffs, there will be some considerable player movements in the off-season. Easpecially if the new Chivas causes an expansion draft. Here's my list of those who I think we should drop/trade, and who we should consider bringing in. Out: Andrulis, Clark, McCarty, Chacon, West, Cunningham. In: Gaven, Ziadie, Convey, Noonan.
You are crazy if you think Metros are giving up Gaven, or the Revs Noonan. I have no problem with who you want to get rid of though.
i would keep him too. i would add mais to the "get rid of list" the guy was once very good but not anymore, we can find a better central d-mid who will actually be healthy for more than a 1/3'rd of the games every single year.
I'd like to see us keep McCarty too, I think he respects the shirt more than 90% of the team. But if we can get someone slighly more talented I am not opposed to tradding him. He isn't at the top of my list though like Williams, Cunny, Mais, and Clark.
KK made some good comments in the Williams thread in this regard. Chacon is a given - absolutely gone. I'd keep McCarty, because he's adequate and cheap. Cunningham is gone anyway - he just doesn't want to play second fiddle to BMB anymore. We may keep West for the same reason we've BEEN keeping West: you can't replace somebody with nobody. HOWEVER: all that aside (and while Clark might be around another year, assuming he'll take less money and a reserve role, Mais has simply lost it. I have always loved the guy but his physical condition has made it impossible to continue. Even he must see that) I cannot believe there's much future here for Garcia. As desperate as this team is for somebody, ANYBODY who can play on the left, the guy has been benched, and when he does get in he's contributing nothing. Not much point in paying him, or usuing an SI slot, on a seldom-used nonentity. Ditto, frankly, Oughton. Keeping him over Bonseu was always a mistake: if he can get a green card, fine. He can come off the bench. If not, dump his ass too. Williams better prove he's got a sore foot or something; otherwise, we just can't use him. This is not the old-slow crips league. If it was, we'd keep Mais. Watching this guy get beat play after play by forwards who aren't all that fast (like DC's -those guys are GLACIAL) is painful. By my count, this opens up three SI spots. If we can't come up with at least a couple guys who can play, we ought to quit. To me, the hard part is coming up with eleven guys right now: Hejduk, Paule, McBride, Buddle and Busch make five. Akwari is worth keeping around. Martino has to get another shot, but he's been pretty underwhelming lately, for whatever reason. That's seven. Add McCarty for eight. I really can't say I'd cry big tears to see everybody else leave. Drastic change is painful, but it's time we faced the facts: these guys just can't play.
Just to touch a little bit on what Bill has said, I want to take the cases of Denton and West, both have been wildly underwhelming at times, no doubt, but by the same token, both have shown at times, great showcases of individual skill. I almost wonder if they had a proper coach we couldn't get more out of them. West has had his development completely scuttled by Fitz and Andrulis, as he is a capped player, Denton on the other hand, while more a finished product, is left footed (may be his saving grace), has obviously not been helped under the less than expert tutilidge of Andrulis and Warzycha. On another note, it's time to drop Warzycha, for all the hullaballo about him being a freekick specialist, I've not seen a single improvement in our set pieces, at all. If I'm drafting next season, this is what I do, take a keeper late in the draft, Busch, while physically not the best player, his positioning is superb, and he's not been at fault for many of the goals scored against him. Presthus has played his last MLS game, he gets the sack. I pencil Akwari in at the central defender position, sink or swim, we can always bring Clark in off the bench, or McCarty in off the bench as well. We're totally fuct by not having Dunseth back there as I believe a Dunseth/Akwari pairing would've worked well. Hejduk is a lock on the right, unless he moves on to greener pastures. At left back, who knows what we're going to do, I believe Denton could be a servicable option at Left mid. Buddle and Mcbride are a lock at the forward position. I keep West out on the right, and pray for the form we've seen in the last month. I think put Oughton, Walsh, and Martino in the center of the park, hopefully the pairing of Walsh and Martion with Oughton behind them to tackle will work well. SO in closing, this is what I do: Busch X-Man Akwari Hejduk Oughton Denton Walsh Martino West Buddle Mcbride Oughton would have to track back, whenever the inevitible happened and Hejduk got forward. F come to think of it why don't we play this on Friday? We just have to find a defender to put in the left back position.
I know this has been discussed a ton already but just reading that I wonder if any team has got as little from their 3 SI's as we have this season. I mean I even saw Pareja score a goal for Dallas this weekend so I think they got more. Looking at every other team in the league you have a guy like Nelsen in DC, Cancela in NE, Guevara in NY, Williams has had flashes in Chicago. I mean we know that Smith is teh GM. But we also know that he wasn't really a soccer guy when he took the position. I would venture personel decisions have been mainly Greg's through his tenure and that is what we have for our SI's. It's pathetic. He's failed on so many levels.
Just a point of clarification: Our 3 SI's are Chacon, Oughton, and Williams. Garcia is on a green card. Walsh is a TI but will be an SI next year. Other note: Zak, why do you ignore Paule in your line-up?
Zak - this lineup would win the East easily. You are a genius. Wonder how long until the rest of the league starts using a 4-5-2 formation though?
and he is sure as hell not worth an SI spot next year...so he should be gone as well... no doubt, he has been one of the brighter spots this year. with martino in a big dull-drum, i would like to see greg put paule in the middle of the field the last few games...what can it hurt?
Re: Re: Rebuilding you took the words right out of my mouth. you can add Convey to that list as well. what is he smoking over there thinking that the Metros are gonna give up Gaven?? LOL please tell me becauase i need some of that.
i've said it before, i think we should be playing a 3-5-2 right now. basically, we don't have 4 qualified backs. on top of that, martino plays much better with someone close by. that x-man could be chad marshall from stanford or oughton with gibbs at d-mid after we use the u suck allocation.
I agree with Bill. I would make a list of the people that I'd keep and start from there. BMB, Buddle, Busch, KMart, Hey-dude, Paule, Akwari and McCarty. Then I would make a list of the ones that definitely need to go. Andrulis, Chacon (SI), Williams (SI), Maze, Presthus, and the trainers. The others (Group 3) stay unless you get more through the draft or allocations to replace them. West, Denton, Clark, Garcia, Jeff, Walsh (SI next year), Oughton (SI), Matteo, and the DP's. I'd go back to the 3-5-2 with: Busch Hejduk - Akwari - (Group 3 player) (G3 player) - McCarty - Paule - KMart - (G3 player) BMB - Buddle McCarty at d-mid with Kmart and Paule sharing a-mid responsibilities. But that's just me...
Two months ago I would have said get rid of West, hell two months ago I did say that, but now I think he's done enough to at least be a servicable player off the bench. Denton, left footed or not, should be gone. As Bill said, Cunningham is probably going to Europe. I hope so anyway, so I won't have to read stupid comments about his skill or work rate anymore. Maybe those people will go pick on a less talented player for no good reason next time. Although it would be nice to see Cunningham used by a manager that knows how to use a skilled player like Cunningham instead of trying to use him as a target forward. When the new manager comes in the core of the team should be, IMO: Buddle, McBride, Paule, Hejduk, Martino, Akwari, Busch. A good coach should be able to fashion a pretty good team around those players. Players who are worth keeping around for another look and/or reserve roles: McCarty, Oughton, Walsh, West, Garcia, Ritch, Ueltschey(good till 26). I've said all year long that I think Walsh will pan out and I still feel that way. I would really like to see Walsh and Martino in the center mid together. I think they could really work off each other. I want to see Garcia when he's not worried about his family back in Guatemala. If paperwork goes through to get them in, keep him and see, if not drop him. I'd keep Ueltschey and keep him as the backup. Having a DP back-up keeper frees up a roster space for another position player like a forth forward. Players that should be dropped or retire: Denton, Williams, Clark, Mais, Chacon, Presthus, Matteo(turns 24), Treager(turns 24), Murriagui. "We Suck" allocation/Discovery/Draft/Trade: The league told us we had to have an allocation to get Cory Gibbs, we now have an allocation. A Gibbs/Akwari center defense with McCarty backing them up should be a winner. MLS should give us an allocation if Cunningham leaves considering they were going to give one to DC for Convey when he's only scored like 5 or 6 goals in his career and Cunningham has scored over fifty. However, the league has never done us any favors and I don't expect it to start now. Through discovery/draft/trade the Crew need to pick up a good LB,(If anyone mentions Regis is free, remember the operable phrase is "a good LB"), a solid D-mid, a LWM, a CB, a new forward. This is how I would accomplish this. Use allocation on Cory Gibbs. Then I'd "discover" David Testo from Richmond. He went A-League because he wanted to play and was never drafted by a MLS team because of that. It just so happens that we have a need for a LB/LM to play a lot of minutes. I'd draft either Chad Marshell or Ryan Cochrane at the #2 spot, whichever comes out. If they don't, Chris Wingert from St Johns U. looks good too. We have two second round picks with ours and the one we got from the Metros with Akwari last year. I don't think Aldolfo Gregorio will go in the first round. If he slips to us in the second round that would be a good pick up as he can play on the left or right. As for D-mid Kevin Hudson from SMU and Dennis King from UIC would be good choices. Forward, how about giving John Barry-Nusum a call. he could be a really good forward in this league.
did we ever find out what we gave up to take APC? Its a bit of a stretch, but not out of the question with our management, the we sent our 1st round pick (2nd overall, Chad Marshall). I would break something big if we found out that's what happened.
I agree with both points- Gibbs is a good prospect and Testo was the class of this years Kickers. What happened to the last Richmond Kicker to be called up full time to MLS? DeRosario just had a hat trick a few weeks ago.
Usually "draft pick to be determined later" means something like a 4th or 5th round pick, unless that player comes in and lights it up. Chacon can hardly get off the bench, I suspect a 5th round pick. But hey the Crew will get that back with the "DPTBDL" they got from Dallas for Dunseth. I've been rethinking what should happen with the Crew's #2 draft pick. If the Crew pick up Cory Gibbs, there is no need to get Chad Marshell or Ryan Cochrane if they come out. I think McCarty is at least a capable backup and the draft potentially has some really good, but not as heralded CBs, that would fall to the 2nd round such as Nick Gannon (SLU) and Leonord Griffen (UCLA). Instead Chris Wingert is looking very attractive because he's a staple on the U-23 team even though he's still in college and a LB to boot. A good lineup for next year would be: ---------Busch-------- Hejduk-Akwari-Gibbs-Wingert ---------Walsh-------- Paule----Martino-----Testo -----Buddle--McBride--- With Bob Lilley pulling the strings.
gibbs would give us the opportunity to play either a 442 or 352, possibly changing it up and playing to our strengths/opponents weaknesses. i'd guess if we still have greg, we'll play 4 in the back something like hejduk-akwari-gibbs(or williams)-????. but could could do 3 in the back maybe akwari-williams-?????. with hejduk up to wing mid and gibbs up to dmid. i've only seen the guy play once, i think the us/wales friendly at spartan, and i think he played center back there, but moved forward very effectively. i think he could be a heckuva d-mid.