I was debating if this needed it’s own thread, but I thought it was important enough to address. On average we have like…… one of remedi or Gregus on the bench. The rest is the likes of skahan, beason, haji, Thompson, Richmond, Marie, bersano, the like. it makes me so freaking mad that we are so cheap when so many squads in MLS ooze quality even on the bench. We are probably the one squad In mls we’re being a second rounder gives you a legitimate shot at making an mls roster. So long as we are who we are……. The super draft will always matter to us. I guess the flip side is that we will always be cultivating “young with upside” so long as the academy keeps pumping out players. I guess this is just who we are and who we always will be. Root for the kids and such. It’s not a bad fate so long as we take it seriously. but one thing is abundantly obvious, we will always be anchored with an owner who absolutely does not care and will never care
The homegrown bench just defeated invincible Seattle (twice in less than a fortnight). Deep bench. I'm gonna say the Quakes’ subs are the league’s best. Prove me wrong.
I see it as a positive. All of those HG / draft picks look pretty good to me! That means we'll be able to plug these guys into the lineups over the next few years for cheap, which should, in theory, even in context of Fish-ball, should allow us to take bigger swings on intls. I've talked about strategy for a long time in terms of how we can best build out our roster, and we've got a chance to bring it to fruition. We need to do better with our veteran acquisitions though than we did this year.
You rang? The Quakes resident cockroach. You could slice and dice the lineups every day and twice on Sunday, play the kids, play the veterans, play the intls, whatever, and somehow there would be Eric Remedi regardless in the middle of it, slowing down his dribble to draw a foul.
Just last season, the New England Revolution set the all time MLS points record.... Their regular starters included: GK: Matt Turner (undrafted out of college) LB: DeJuan Jones (superdraft pick) CB: Henry Kessler (superdraft pick) CB: Andrew Farrell (superdraft pick) RB: Brandon Bye (superdraft pick) DM: Matt Polster (superdraft pick) RW: Tajon Buchanan (superdraft pick) Their third CB was John Bell (superdraft pick) and midfielder Tommy McNamara (superdraft pick) played 32 games (21 starts).
In the game we won 4-3, we started zero homegrown players, and only one, Cowell made an appearance, for 30 minutes. So, our "homegrown bench" had almost zero impact on that game. In the Cup game we started three homegrown players, Cowell, Thompson, and Tsakiris. Seattle started three and subbed in two more. Not sure the games against Seattle proves our homegrowns and subs are the league's best. I will say that I am very bullish on our homegrowns, and optimistic that they make a huge impact on our team. Part of that hopefulness is based on the knowledge that Fisher is likely not going to spend to bring success, so the academy and homegrowns are our best bet.
I think we’re splitting hairs on homegrown/draft picks. Even though guys like JT, Richmond and TT are technically homegrown players, they went to college to play soccer and are more like extra draft picks. The guys that went straight from the academy to first team are Cowell, Tsakiris (41 MLS minutes), Fuentes (8 minutes), Walls (0), Ochoa (0). With Cade’s new contract, he probably doesn’t count as a homegrown anymore (for roster slot purposes). Point I am making is the pure academy to first team players are not impacting the regular first team much at all. College experience players are.
The bench "looks" strong solely due to the fact that the starters are dreadful thus the bar is really low...prove me wrong.
I like this thread. Good topic for debate. 1. I agree that our starting lineup is not impressive. I also don’t think that we’re getting the best out of them that we can. Greguš should take every free kick when he’s on the field, for example. 2. We are clearly trying to build our squad through the academy (even if some of those guys go to college and then come back) and the super draft. I know that a lot of you don’t put much stock in the draft, but I think it’s still an important tool. I also think that it’s going to take another season or three for us to really see the fruits of the academy on the first team. But I’m hopeful. We need for CL to remain GM for a few years to see that project produce more, and because the FishyOne is not prone to pull the trigger, I think that’s a safe bet. Also, on a related topic, CL needs to get better at finding talent both within and without the league. Go Quakesfans!!