2020 Roster Discussion

Lack of ambition, as far as I can tell
Common sense Chris: lack of ambition, waiting until this league is big enough or we have a juicy TV deal to justify more investment.

Daydreaming Chris: we're keeping the spot warm for David Silva.
 
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I hate to sound mean-spirited but all they need to do is swap out Medina for an effective DP MF and everything pretty much falls into place. I just don't get why they haven't done this. Seems the obvious critical path.
False hopes that each next coach up will have the magic formula to unlock some value for either use or sale. False AF that is.
 
Mitrita scored 12 goals last year. He is 6th all time at the Club. He will most likely finish the year 2nd or 3rd all time. Just remember that when you complain about our second DP.

Or more ammo to complain how we never could find a goal scoring DP outside of Villa in our entire team history. And the team is still not trying when 12 goals in a season is considered one of the team's best ever and they are just fine leaving Medina in DP3 spot. (FYI I think Mitri will have a better season this year; 15-20 goals and will be a good use of DP spot, but still...)
 
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Or more ammo to complain how we never could find a goal scoring DP outside of Villa in our entire team history. And the team is still not trying when 12 goals in a season is considered one of the team's best ever and they are just fine leaving Medina in DP3 spot. (FYI I think Mitri will have a better season this year; 15-20 goals and will be a good use of DP spot, but still...)
The people that say that aren't looking at the bigger picture of other players also scoring 10+, to a point we never had before. Sure we don't have a golden boot race scorer, but spreading it around is good especially for injuries
 
Mitrita scored 12 goals last year. He is 6th all time at the Club. He will most likely finish the year 2nd or 3rd all time. Just remember that when you complain about our second DP.
I think Mitrita greatly improved throughout the season. One thing I would like to see him do is not disappear from stretches of games, it happens too often.
 
Or more ammo to complain how we never could find a goal scoring DP outside of Villa in our entire team history. And the team is still not trying when 12 goals in a season is considered one of the team's best ever and they are just fine leaving Medina in DP3 spot. (FYI I think Mitri will have a better season this year; 15-20 goals and will be a good use of DP spot, but still...)
I won't complain as much about a lack of a goal-scoring DP when we had one of the best goal scorers in the league last year as a non-DP.
 
I don't think that you need/expect three DPs to equal or exceed expectations in order to succeed. 2 out of 3 ain't bad. However, given how close we are to greatness and the financial means to spend, it sure would be nice to take advantage of an opportunity to seal the deal. Given where we are and what we want to achieve, using a DP for a dead spot like Medina rather than flexing our muscles is quite a missed opportunity.
 
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  1. I think our roster depth matches just about any team in the league. It's so easy to pick the weaknesses in our backups because we know the team. I think people underestimate the extent to which other teams have similar or worse issues. Past the starting 11, every team in MLS has holes, and many have holes in the top 11, even with the pieces they added this year.
  2. I think people underestimate how bringing back our Best 13 players limited the chance to add new pieces when they watch other teams add pieces.
  3. I completely support retaining our Best 13, with the possible exception of Matarrita.
  4. I generally think people underestimate how hard it is to build and improve depth in MLS. You can only drop one guaranteed player per offseason and teams rarely use it. The expectation that NYCFC will do it every season (and it does come up every single winter) is unrealistic.
  5. That said, of course the biggest chance to improve NYCFC right now is by dropping Medina and replacing him. This would be a year to use it
  6. Beyond that, the options to improve depth are almost non-existent. You are not allowed to spend willy-nilly. People here are absurdly obsessed with that report that our salary is mid-table. But your opportunities to spend more of your own cash (as of 2019) are limited to 3 DPs and $2.8 million in Discretionary TAM. We already have 3 DPs. They could be better, I suppose, or more expensive, but at most this year we could replace Medina as just acknowledged.
  7. I think we spent Discretionary TAM in 2019. I don't know and can't prove it. But: total NYCFC salary in 2019 was $10.415 million. The standard budget was $4.24 million. Of the $6.175M difference, DPs only account for $2.17M, leaving $4.004M. Did we have more than $4 million in regular GAM and TAM to spend in 2019? We don't know, but my best guess is no. The basic allotment was $200k GAM and $1.8M TAM and I don't think we had $2M GAM/TAM obtained by trades or selling. I won't argue this as we lack enough info to make it worthwhile, but that's my guess. If I'm right, NYCFC has limited ability to improve the club by spending more of its own money outside of dropping Medina. I don't think we spent all of the $2.8M DT.
  8. Assuming I'm wrong and we didn't use Discretionary TAM in 2019, and assuming we're still allowed in 2020, it can only get so many players. Also, after using TAM to acquire players you have to figure out a way to pay for them in later years. It's very complicated and designed to create limited outlet for extra spending that doesn't upset the conflicting goal of parity.
We simply can't just spend our way to a roster that has class depth at every spot. Nobody can in MLS. I think we have prioritized depth and find the argument that we lack it compared to other teams befuddling. The lack of any decent option behind Maxi disturbs me greatly, and I would love to have another central striker. I can also easily entertain arguments that other teams have a better best 11, and even more so a better best 7. But I do believe we have at least close to the best top 13-15 in the league, and maybe the best 18. I don't think it's possible to have the best 18 (or close to the best) and the best 7 at the same time.

ETA: With all that, it might be that with the new CBA the team has some more MLS-bucks to splash around, as well as some DT or regular GAM/TAM. But I think there still will be holes with suspect backups.
 
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I won't complain as much about a lack of a goal-scoring DP when we had one of the best goal scorers in the league last year as a non-DP.
Can we continue to complain about Maxi taking PKs? If he made them, he’d have been a monster DP from a stats perspective - more than he already was - but god he had a lot of missed opportunities......
 
Can we continue to complain about Maxi taking PKs? If he made them, he’d have been a monster DP from a stats perspective - more than he already was - but god he had a lot of missed opportunities......

I'm truly curious if Ronny selects someone or let's the players decide. I would much prefer Heber take them. In any case, whoever they pick can take them but as soon as they miss 2 ( cause one miss doesn't mean you suck) they get replaced.
 
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Or more ammo to complain how we never could find a goal scoring DP outside of Villa in our entire team history. And the team is still not trying when 12 goals in a season is considered one of the team's best ever and they are just fine leaving Medina in DP3 spot. (FYI I think Mitri will have a better season this year; 15-20 goals and will be a good use of DP spot, but still...)

But that’s not on Mitrita. He’s not the GM
 
If you want to compare our depth to other teams, these articles have a handy position-by-position depth chart for every team in the each conference. The East was updated today and the West yesterday. Of course I expect few people have enough knowledge to rate the quality of most backups on most teams, but if you can, have at it:


 
Social media chatter about Chanot going to Cincinnati. Anyone have info on this?

edit: as I suspected this is nothing and appears quashed below
 
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Social media chatter about Chanot going to Cincinnati. Anyone have info on this?

If you're going to post this, at least back it up with attaching some of the "social media chatter" via screenshot or linking to the tweet, post, etc.

You're on warning. - LionMOD

(I hope this is not true. I love Chanot. - LionNYC)