Welp, the 2016 season is over. I have finally come to accept that, as hard as it may be. So the first question is: What players are leaving in the off-season? Ruiz for almost certain. Do we know of anybody else whose contract is up, who's been getting sniffs from Europe or South America or where ever? Is Rosales up? What about the guys on loan? Then, who is definitely staying? Where do we need to upgrade? Forward, left wing, and right back are definite needs, but everywhere else on the field I think the status quo is acceptable for MLS standards. I'd like to have a backup for the #10 position. I think Rosales is good enough, but he's not 90 minutes. Also, when is our first preseason and/or CONCACAF Champions' League game? How do we keep dudes fit for those? Coaching? Facilities upgrades? Ongoing Hall of Fame construction? The devastating loss by Giant Meteor 2016? Anything that doesn't need its own thread, let's discuss it here.
With Hernandez returning from loan, FCD has a full 28 man roster. That's not including Mauro Diaz and Fabian Castillo. Lloyd is out of contract. I believe Pescadito is too. We have 3 guys who are loans: Getterson , Lizarazo, and David. Of those 5, I want Lloyd and David back.
I think our back 4 is pretty well set, especially if Loyd comes back strong. Fig-Hedges-Zim-Loyd with Atiba and Aubrey David filling in here and there. The center of midfield is stacked assuming Diaz comes back anything like his old self. Barrios-Tesho-Hohead is not quite a strong enough stable of wingers, we need an addition there. Urruti is a solid addition to any stable of forwards, but we clearly need more goal scorers as well. I have another one to throw out that might be mildly controversial. I think we need an upgrade at keeper. Seitz is a good guy and a competent keeper, but he's not the guy who's going to occasionally stand on his head to keep you in a tough game. He is prone to bad positioning decisions, particularly on crosses. (See Seattle's first goal) He never looks comfortable coming out for crosses, he doesn't "own his box". Jesse Gonazalez is a fine keeper, and young enough to keep improving. But he's so young I'm not really sold on him either. Maybe I'm just arguing for Gonzalez over Seitz, but I wouldn't mind an upgrade here.
I thought Seitz had a great season. Let him lose his spot to Gonzalez before we worry about another keeper. Castillo needs to be replaced. Can Rosales fill in for Diaz for the first half of the season? The big one will be getting a younger version of Carlos Ruiz as a striker (with slightly better morals).
That's hysterical, I'm in almost total agreement with you, but I'm OK with strikers of dubious moral fiber.
Have we heard a prognosis on Loyd's concussion? I still like Barrios as a starter, but he's got to have a counter-punch. Once Castillo left, defenses merely doubled up on Diaz and Barrios and essentially shut down our offense. Hollingshead is my utility man. I want him on my roster because whoever goes down with injury at any point in the season, he can fill in. I mean, I'd trust him as a 75% solution at goalkeeper if it came down to it. My preference at forward would be a garbage-goal type. Blas Perez or Carlos Ruiz, but not quite so old. Urruti, Diaz, and whoever we put on the wings will be fine for getting the ball into the penalty area, but we need somebody who can poke the ball into the back of the net. That guy who always happens to be where the ball bounces awkwardly just in time to clip it with one stud of his cleats for the ricochet off the post and barely over the line. I don't think the traditional target forward would suit the driving style of this team or OP. If that target forward is Cristiano Ronaldo I may reconsider my assessment (I just read an article that says he's "declining" and thus might not win the Ballon d'Or. You really haven't declined very far if you might not win the world MVP trophy.) Depending on when their loans have to be renewed, I'd be willing to see how Getterson and Lizarazo pan out in the off-season. It generally takes a season or so to get used to MLS play.
I believe Rosales can fill in for Mauro Diaz to some extent, but will require help doing so. So I would actually like Clavijo to aquire another veteran, with similar experience and skills to those Rosales possesses. That, or Lizarazo should be given ample opportunity to complement Rosales in that role.
Diaz replacement left midfielder/winger #9 right fullback (natural position) I can argue for any of these in any order, but a lot of that depends on Mauro. Personally, you have to work under the assumption Diaz is done. Sorry, it's sad and harsh, but sports medical history tells us Achilles injuries historically don't find Diaz-types return to former form. If you want an unfair comparison, think Ferreira who had a terrible ankle injury and was never the same. Some would tell you Diaz's injury is worse from a physical standpoint and the equal from a mental standpoint. The biggest complication is his injury means he is almost certainly out till July at the earliest and considering how long it takes Mauro to heal and find form - August. Working from there Dallas simply has to go out and find a new #10 - every team in the playoff, maybe minus CO, has a deadly #10 and is the most critical piece to any MLS puzzle. Considering CCL starts early, they need to go out and do that now. not tomorrow, not Jan, not next July. TODAY. Castillo's replacement is important because his loss ultimately ended up proving to be damaging in two spots: the loss the Fab's speed but how much it impacted Barrios' game (aka: a lot) and if FCD can't find someone else for opponents to spend the attention to, the "World's Best U13" will again become an afterthought. #9 - go back and read anything everyone has written for the last two years. fullback: Atiba Harris is a nice fellow, totally mediocre soccer player at this level. Hollingshead appears to want to play at left back, therefore helping with the disappointment that was Maynor, but he's still learning the position so it would be fantastic if FCD could location a single, quality natural right fullback... someone who's actually played the position as their primary function. that would be a novel idea. re: Zach - the general vibe is he is done.
Who are we going to lose? Isn't there an expansion draft for which we'll need to put a protected list together? Agree on need for a creator to replace Diaz, another scoring threat to replace Fab and other striker options. Less concerned about the defense and would prioritize as such. Poor Atiba - dude's been on two of the most successful FCD teams in recent years and still takes crap; both times we lost were due to flukey CB errors (John and Zimmerman). Well, those errors plus a mistake in tactics during the first leg of playoffs this year
Oh no. All three SEA goals in Leg1 started with a totally overwhelmed Harris. Caught too far up on #1 and #3, and was caught not knowing who to cover on #2. Now, to be fair to him he'd been asked to do something a bit foreign that night and I blame that more on Papi, but there can be no question Atiba is this team's weakest link - and probably leads the league in passes that simply go out of play with out pressure.
Definitely a rough night for Atiba in Seattle, as well as the entire defense (and Seitz) who looked uncomfortable with what they are being asked to do. I'm all about evaluating each position for potential upgrade. My preference is to focus on attack first, but certainly should be opportunistic all over the pitch. Also would be nice to see what we can do about the total ass-beatings this team took during road games this season all too frequently.
All injuries are not career ending. That said, I can at least agree that Diaz will not be the same player next season, when he eventually returns. In all likelihood, Diaz won't regain his magic, for at least a full season after his return. So I don't agree with needing a replacement for Diaz, at least not a permanent one. We need someone who can run the show for at least a full season, and can help mentor Paxton, who is the likely successor to Diaz. Attiba will remain the starter until someone beats him out, same goes for Figueroa. That's the way things should be.
Hey, we're dissecting a roster that just posted the very first back-to-back 60 points seasons (a metric I think is the truest greatest achievement of this team). So it's like pointing out a mole on a super model. I'm being picky here. that said, there is probably more work to be done than many want to admit, and much of it surrounds Diaz. If anyone's interested, Andy & I posted a special edition of the show (since we're off this week due to SMU) and it's almost an hour's worth of FCD talk. http://www.ivegotthenews.net/podcast/fc-dallas-season-recap-special-november-11-2016/
This league continues to make steady steps forward in terms of relevance, quality, and fans. I think the "build your own player" approach that FCD have taken with its academy is the reason why we own two of the big 3 titles in MLS. And, at no point would I advocate for switching from what works. That being said, we need to complement what we have with 2 serious upgrades. (Or one extremely versatile player that can fulfill both of these roles.) This is a league on the ascent, and staying put means falling behind. As much as a I love Rosales and Ruiz, we need to immediately find a high quality physical striker and a creative @SS kicking #10 who is durable enough to take a licking and keep on ticking. Both of these type of signing(s), (or signing), are going to cost money. Maybe we would have to trade a popular player or two to accomplish this objective. The highest objective is to find a striker ASAP. Can you imagine our season if Urruti were to go down? Or what if he simply gave us what he had given Portland? Not to pour lime juice in the wound, but two such examples of players I would like to see are guys in the mold of Nicholas Lodiero and Jordan Morris. Interesting to me that one is a home grown, and the other is a DP. I am not advocating for any particular nationality or method of acquisition. I simply think that these two are our most critical and immediate needs. (....and to a lesser degreee, maybe an upgrade at a natural outsideback who can defend and attack with pace?)
I too agree with needing upgrades at several positions. Here's the catch: A team full of youth, is bound to have some of the youthful players take a step or 2 up, in their level of play. This season, Zimmerman emerged as a force, and did so by beating out Lloyd. So which player will emerge from within the team? My money is on Coy Craft. Craft has improved each season. I expect Craft to become a solid contributer next season, and if he can claim one of the the wing positions as his own, the team will be free to focus on other areas of improvement. In fact, if Craft and Pitter can both elevate their games enough to contribute on the wings, it would free up both Rosales and Tesho to focus on other positions.
I'd like to see more of Craft. The one time I've seen him play (CCL) for more than a few garbage time minutes, he looked good - quick, good decisions, decent shot, willing to take on defenders. I'd like to see Tesho only used up top. IMO the times he impresses are when he's forward. The times he looks lost and worthless are when he's behind the forwards, especially out wide. We can't wait until August for Mauro to return. We need somebody who can play his role. Rosales isn't the answer. He can't go 90 minutes and I don't think he can start every game. Either we get somebody or figure out how to spread out what he does among other midfielders. I prefer the first option. GK, dmids, defenders - I'm OK with sticking with what we have, but it would be nice if we could get our outside backs to cross the ball decently. Ban Atiba Harris from shooting with his feet (he heads the ball pretty well) from more than 10 yds from goal. Ban Fig from shooting outside the box. Referring back to the original post and his statement that this is a catch-all thread, can we get some on-field halftime entertainment? I'm sure we could get small-sided kids games to not run on the Advocare logo. Maybe they stopped the games when they found out we were betting on them? I've seen other MLS teams have them this season. Can they stop referring to the t-shirt shoot / toss as "your favorite part of the game"? Though this maybe true for some (judging by the shrieking I hear when the t-shirt guns appear), this just sounds stupid.
I too would like to see more of Coy Craft. But, on a extremely youth-friendly coached team he only earned a total of 17 minutes and entered a total of 2 MLS games. I would be a little reluctant to reserve the #10 jersey for him just yet. ( This is not meant to be a criticism of him. He may very well end up being a major impact player for us in the next couple of years.) My initial point was that this team needs an out of the box ready to go durable kick@ss CM to help us with the Rosales absence. And, if this type of player can also play as a striker upon Rosales' return, all the better. I do not want to ditch our core "develop the youth" priority. However, injuries and age are leaving us dangerously bare if we want to maintain our winning ways. Some of the younger guys have been given good opportunities, but have not seized them. There is nothing wrong with an upgrade or two. We are going to have CCCL for the start and end of the year. Do you want to bank on playing Urruti 180 minutes a week on a regular basis? Do you want to stake the chance to have a .500+ season on a team without Rosales? What was our record without Rosales on the field? What do you think our record would be like if we were missing both Urruti and Rosales for an extended period of time? I don't want to go there. I want a durable kick@ss attacker who can double as a creative midfielder and striker ready to go for the 2nd leg of the CCCL.
The reality is that FCD will not likely make a splash signing. Now, should FCD make a big signing, it is likely to be at a position we wouldn't even begin to expect. It's more likely that FCD will use the mechanisms afforded them by MLS, to improve all around. I expect FCD to add a player to compete with or complement Rosales, through MLS-Free-agency, or through a trade.
I'm with Hitman on this one. Diaz, with the rest of the team as it is currently constituted, was just the Supporter's Shield winner. So the lack of a #9, replacement for Castillo, natural fullbakcs, etc. are important......................but we were just a damn good team with those warts existing. Without Diaz, its a different team altogether. So what's vital is that we sign "Diaz-like" player for the start of the 2017 season. Hopefully Diaz does come back better than ever. When he does, we'll figure out playing time. Actually, we'll need this "Diaz-like" starter, and then a backup for that player. That guy won't be Rosales next year. When we have that player in the stable, I think the left wing position will work itself out. We haven't had a natural right back in years with JeVaughn Watson, Atiba Harris, and others holding it down. I'd love for us to sign a natural right back, and also perhaps sign homegrown Reggie Cannon to begin his grooming process in that position.
Another interesting decision for me is whether to protect/keep Chris Seitz. Jesse is ready to start, and Herman is presumably a capable backup (He was a first round pick after all. If he's not, then that was a completely wasted pick.) As much as it pains me to say it I think we should sign Jesse to a long term deal to be the #1, and deal Seitz (or let him be taken away in the expansion draft). In a salary capped league I'm not sure having two starters is a prudent use our of our resources. Alternatively, sign Seitz to a long-term deal and sell Jesse to Mexico. He can follow in the footsteps of much-heralded Richard Sanchez (who last I saw was a backup for Tampico in the Ascenso.)
FCD has a guaranteed 7 extra games next season, not including playoffs. That total can rise to as many as 14 extra games, not including playoffs. By comparison, FCD had a total of 11 extra games this season, including playoffs. Throw in the fact that Jesse will likely receive MYNT call ups, and the potential for missed games due to injury/fatigue. In conclusion, the backup GK will get a significant amount of starts. Thus protecting Seitz is a no brainer.