The Official 2023/2024 Off Season Thread

Yes, that is a good point. I think that he could be more impactful and his impact greater with a true #10. My only concern would be his passing with the #10.

 

The whole team's is. Without the threat coming from an attacking center mid an opponents D and mid can be much more aggressive and not have to worry as much about their shape.

 

I wonder if DeRo's kid is an ACM... Wiki says striker, but that's what DeRo came in as...

 

I don't see Gruezo combining a lot with the a 10. He mostly plays short safe passes deeper in midfield, and the occasional long ball to the wing. But line breaking passes in the middle, no. Yueill, yes, Gruezo, no. He doesn't play those kinds of passes. Now he could play a short safe pass to a #10 deep in midfield and then the 10 takes it the rest of the way, but we could all do that. I think the best we could hope for is that we could a 10 who really changes the game for us and makes our offense better and therefore we can live with a "protects the back line" guy who doesn't contribute much to the attack. But my bigger hope is that we sign a 6 who can compete with him for minutes, even if that turns out to be Yueill playing that role, and Niko or a new signing picks up the 8.

Not really. He's 26th percentile(!) in tackles vs. not just d-mids, but all mids in MLS, and 8th on the Quakes in tackles per 90, below Tommy Thompson and just above Matthew Hoppe. Just not good enough for our $4.6M d-mid. I get it - he doesn't want to take chances, but he should have many opportunities to make a tackle as our $4.6M d-mid, and he should be smart enough to be able to pick his spots.

 

Looks pretty good, but not a fan of Miazga. I think there are more deserving players.

 

No defensive midfielders or fullbacks once again, certainly Cincy's Barreal was deserving... Walker Zimmerman did nothing to deserve it this year (wasn't even the best defender on his own team) and only made it because that makes five in a row for him... makes no sense that Seattle's Yeimar was a finalist for defender of the year but Zimmerman made the best eleven over him. Another defender who should have made it is Robin Jansson from Orlando. Hany Mukhtar basically went from MVP level to not doing anything over the second half of the season... based on that I'd probably go with Carles Gil or Espinoza over him.

@CriisEspinoza7 bobblehead would go hard. Just saying 🤷🏽‍♀️ pic.twitter.com/KGnkFDjHVz

— San Jose Earthquakes (@SJEarthquakes) November 28, 2023

 

Good point on the d-mids. I like Cincinnati's Nwobodo. He's awesome - like 10x better than Gruezo.

 

There are a few good ones but Nwobodo is my current favorite as well.

 

Mrs. bsman always called Curtin "Big Bird"...

 

Seems like we are one of the last teams other than playoff teams to announce our off season roster decisions, is there a date where that has to be announced by?

 

I think the deadline for exercising options (or not) is 12/1, which means we'll hear about our decisions on 12/2 or thereafter. When we finally hear about it, it should spark some conversation. There are a lot of decisions to be made.

 

True post, but: Thank you Captain Obvious!

 

Just making sure you're all paying attention out there!

 

I might not agree with Bürki. StL cheat a lot, which artificially inflates his numbers. I hate StL and refs who fail to calks fouls on them when they commit dozens of blatant fouls every game. Assholes.

Go Quakesfans!!

- Mark

 

Staying in San Jose.

NEWS: Earthquakes Sign @benjoo__ and @paulmariee to New Contracts

— San Jose Earthquakes (@SJEarthquakes) November 29, 2023

Through 2026

 

I think these were already done during the season maybe? That's what I heard about the Benji deal anyway. Not sure how reliable. But it's quite possible that the Quakes marketing team just wanted to have something to announce to keep the embers burning before more announcements upcoming.

 

Yeah thats what I heard too. Quakes are very secretive about everything for some reason.

 

Yes - this season Paul stepped up his game more than any other Quakes player, IMO. I always felt better when he was on the field.

 

Friday is the deadline to announce roster status decisions--options exercised/declined, who's out of contract, etc. (Teams still active don't have to meet the deadline.)

 

I'm betting we release our list at 11:59:59 pm Friday...

 

It could be that they signed him because Greece is still interested. Otherwise he goes on a free. Luchi shows little interest in playing him, so not sure it makes sense otherwise.

 

Sadly deadline to make the decisions, not announce them, which is why every year we wait a couple days after