2019 Roster Discussion

What Position Should NYCFC Target For Its Splash Signing?

  • Striker

    Votes: 52 89.7%
  • Midfielder

    Votes: 3 5.2%
  • Defender

    Votes: 3 5.2%

  • Total voters
    58
This is the most measured, weighing-both-sides post I've ever seen from Midas. I'm frightened and confused.

Agree with everything except for 2)—Medina's best stretch by far came in July, which qualifies as "later" considering he was injured and recovering for most of the rest. But the follow up about Keaton is right and complicates the question of where Medina's going to play this year.
I like Medina as a player, and I think he's got some really great tools. I don't like him in the place he occupies on our roster, and I don't like forcing minutes to him when he's getting ragdolled. It didn't seem like anyone had summarized the situation, while everyone more or less felt the same.

I thought Medina looked best early in the season. Everything he contributed g/a-wise later, like everyone else, looked really scruffy.

I am perfectly capable of having a medium-take on someone when they deserve it, eg, Tinny.
 
IDK about all this Medina analysis. Everyone got worse as the season went on last year. Ring, Tinnerholm, ITS... Are those red flags too? And the other line of thought here is that his goals came at less meaningful times, or because of some external factor? Plenty of players on our team *didn't* score when the opposing defense was focusing on Villa.
Different circumstances. Red flags in that the staff overplayed some some guys or put them in positions with unfamiliar tactics which limited their effectiveness. Ring had a sports hernia. Tinny played non-stop, looked burned out, and his position was asked to do completely different things the last part of the season.
Statistically speaking, ITS couldn’t keep up his hit rate/shots without being an absolute outlier, and his late deployment on the wing was not playing to his preferred way to set up his shots.

That’s different than Medina, who as a DP is supposed to be a player that can carry the team and not fade out for long stretches during matches. And considering how Taty was maligned for his embellishment, nobody wants to remember Medina’s infantile play, where he dove twice, during the match he got injured.
 
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1) the obvious opportunity cost argument

If the roster had been better and they could afford to buy a Medina as an investment, it would have made more sense (or if MLS adopts my idea of 3 DPs+a YDP. Medina as one of 3 DPs was not a luxury this team could afford as the opportunity cost seemed (and seems) too high for me.
 
If the roster had been better and they could afford to buy a Medina as an investment, it would have made more sense (or if MLS adopts my idea of 3 DPs+a YDP. Medina as one of 3 DPs was not a luxury this team could afford as the opportunity cost seemed (and seems) too high for me.
Aye, Captain, this is the "obvious" argument. ;)
 
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What really bugs me is Medina is just barely above the TAM threshold, now that the rules have been changed. The max amount of Transfer fee + salary this season is $1.53mm. Medina has a $4mm transfer fee and a $771k salary. That’s $1.71mm on a 4 year deal. There has to be a way to extend him to spread out the transfer fee, so it falls below $1.53mm. Im fine with him as a TAM player. And it would free up a DP slot for the summer.
 
What really bugs me is Medina is just barely above the TAM threshold, now that the rules have been changed. The max amount of Transfer fee + salary this season is $1.53mm. Medina has a $4mm transfer fee and a $771k salary. That’s $1.71mm on a 4 year deal. There has to be a way to extend him to spread out the transfer fee, so it falls below $1.53mm. Im fine with him as a TAM player. And it would free up a DP slot for the summer.
Have him sign a one year extension to amortize the transfer over an additional year. Not that I want him that extra year, sell him before, but if it gets him below and frees up a DP slot, then it’s smart cap management.
 
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Have him sign a one year extension to amortize the transfer over an additional year. Not that I want him that extra year, sell him before, but if it gets him below and frees up a DP slot, then it’s smart cap management.

Pretty much. Might take 2 years and upping his salary to $860k. But that gets it done. Then DP in the summer.
 
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Pretty much. Might take 2 years and upping his salary to $860k. But that gets it done. Then DP in the summer.
And transfer him out the end of the year if he doesn’t show improvement. That’d be a ton of TAM expended on him if he can’t break in to the first eleven.
 
And transfer him out the end of the year if he doesn’t show improvement. That’d be a ton of TAM expended on him if he can’t break in to the first eleven.

Yup and raising his salary probabably hurts his transfer value. Though a longer contract could help.... Also, don’t forget his 20% sell on fee. Need to get at least $5mm on him just to break even.
 
I found this quote rather informative in going towards explaining why Lewis struggled to gain favor. Largely confirms what many of us thought was holding him back.

"I think Lewis has gone from someone who perhaps didn't take responsibility in terms of why he didn't play to holding himself accountable now and demanding more from himself, not only in games but in training day in and day out," Reyna said. "It's part of being a young player and growing up, and you could see that growth. I'm excited. I think he's come in after the Costa Rica game and the January camp looking really sharp."
http://www.espn.com/soccer/major-le...nd-like-david-villa-nycfc-is-looking-to-youth
 
I found this quote rather informative in going towards explaining why Lewis struggled to gain favor. Largely confirms what many of us thought was holding him back.

"I think Lewis has gone from someone who perhaps didn't take responsibility in terms of why he didn't play to holding himself accountable now and demanding more from himself, not only in games but in training day in and day out," Reyna said. "It's part of being a young player and growing up, and you could see that growth. I'm excited. I think he's come in after the Costa Rica game and the January camp looking really sharp."
http://www.espn.com/soccer/major-le...nd-like-david-villa-nycfc-is-looking-to-youth
It's extremely cryptic and doesn't really confirm anything other than a reference to responsibility and demanding more from himself - that could be any number of things from being late to team functions/practices, to not pushing 100% in practice, to what the forums thought of not tracking on defense.

Seriously, after the national media backlash lauding Lewis' play during the MNT camp, Reyna had to say something like this which paints the picture that Lewis is being given a clean slate with the club. Because if we really want to parse it, he starts the comment off with using "perhaps" which is hedging his reasoning as opposed to being difinitive.
 
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It's extremely cryptic and doesn't really confirm anything other than a reference to responsibility and demanding more from himself - that could be any number of things from being late to team functions/practices, to not pushing 100% in practice, to what the forums thought of not tracking on defense.

Seriously, after the national media backlash lauding Lewis' play during the MNT camp, Reyna had to say something like this which paints the picture that Lewis is being given a clean slate with the club. Because if we really want to parse it, he starts the comment off with using "perhaps" which is hedging his reasoning as opposed to being difinitive.
I see your point, but has Claudio ever said anything like this, even as vague as it was? Even the Mix debacle was all quiet, but this was sort of an indirect acknowledgement that it was off the field/youngster issues keeping him off the field, not two blind coaches.
 
I see your point, but has Claudio ever said anything like this, even as vague as it was? Even the Mix debacle was all quiet, but this was sort of an indirect acknowledgement that it was off the field/youngster issues keeping him off the field, not two blind coaches.
I stand by my point the club was backed in to a corner and had to make a positive statement. They couldn’t make a statement until after he had been with the team for a little bit of training, but this is all because of the media backlash supporting Lewis’ play.
 
I stand by my point the club was backed in to a corner and had to make a positive statement. They couldn’t make a statement until after he had been with the team for a little bit of training, but this is all because of the media backlash supporting Lewis’ play.
Occam's razor would suggest that we favor the simpler explanation here, which is that Reyna is just saying (in a near-unprecedented level of clarity and candor that the base has been calling and clamoring for) that which he truly believes.
 
Occam's razor would suggest that we favor the simpler explanation here, which is that Reyna is just saying (in a near-unprecedented level of clarity and candor that the base has been calling and clamoring for) that which he truly believes.
Except he said “perhaps”

And Reyna never speaks, about anything, so Occams razor with regard to him is that the team was backed in to a corner.
 
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