2018 Roster Discussion

But... 7 games, 13 shots (4 on target), 0 goals, 2 assists. "Starting" forward averaging less than 2 shots a game?

Sorry, but I had to shit on Khiry. He was up against a team down 2 players and managed to take 2 shots. A "9" striker taking 2 shots? Oy vey.
In fairness, he didn’t need to score when everybody else was already doing it - he could occupy space and be a pest which opened up shooting lanes for others.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Christopher Jee
Mikey and Khiry also made it out of the dog house fairly quickly after that social media issue 2 years ago.

It seems the Allen, White, Mikey and Khiry situations all point towards it being easier to get out PVs dog house when you've committed off-field transgressions rather than something he's unhappy with in your on field play. In Lewis' appearances he has not been positionally disciplined on defense and he hasn't executed the role that every other wing that's consistently gotten time has played on defense and in the press. I understand PV wants to make a point that if you don't execute on both sides of the ball you don't play but the extreme he's willing to go with it is unreasonable. The approach is costing us a talented offensive sub in Lewis that could be used in games when we are chasing a goal and defense isn't really a priority. On the other hand when you have David Villa and every other player on down the line out there pressing and working on defense one would think it's not unreasonable to ask Lewis at 19 year olds and fighting for time to step up and do the same both in practice and during any game time he sees.
 
It seems the Allen, White, Mikey and Khiry situations all point towards it being easier to get out PVs dog house when you've committed off-field transgressions rather than something he's unhappy with in your on field play. In Lewis' appearances he has not been positionally disciplined on defense and he hasn't executed the role that every other wing that's consistently gotten time has played on defense and in the press. I understand PV wants to make a point that if you don't execute on both sides of the ball you don't play but the extreme he's willing to go with it is unreasonable. The approach is costing us a talented offensive sub in Lewis that could be used in games when we are chasing a goal and defense isn't really a priority. On the other hand when you have David Villa and every other player on down the line out there pressing and working on defense one would think it's not unreasonable to ask Lewis at 19 year olds and fighting for time to step up and do the same both in practice and during any game time he sees.
His best game was when we were playing a man down, in extreme heat vs Chicago, and not only was he excellent in attack but he also busted his ass on defense. I don’t think we would have won that game without his hustle - he ran himself into the ground.
 
Not sure if this is doable but someone mentioned this to me as a hypothetical if this is Villas last year.

Villa comes off the books at the end of the year. During the summer (or when hes below the 1.5 million DP threshold) you buy down the remaining balance of Maxis salary making him non longer a DP. Then you pick up another DP to close out the year. So you essentially have 4 DPs but are only counting 3 of them. Then for 2019 Maxi becomes a DP again, as he is now owed 2 million, and is over the threshold. It would look as follows:

DPs for Remainder of 2018:

Medina
Villa
3rd DP

DPs for 2019:

Medina
Maxi
3rd DP
There's still an outside chance that Medina isn't a DP next year.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Kjbert and Ulrich
Who is Lewis replacing? Villa, Wallace, Tajouri, Berget or Medina?
 
Who is Lewis replacing? Villa, Wallace, Tajouri, Berget or Medina?

Only on these boards do we go for three straight pages of heated debate on when our sixth best winger should get a runout.

Coming up next: Mark Booth - does he deserve more minutes in goal, or is Vieira being unfair by not including him in the 18?
 
Only on these boards do we go for three straight pages of heated debate on when our sixth best winger should get a runout.

Coming up next: Mark Booth - does he deserve more minutes in goal, or is Vieira being unfair by not including him in the 18?

6th is your opinion. Without a larger sample it is impossible to know if he is 6th or 4th. Obviously PV rates him 6th or 99th, who knows? But with Tajouri injured, and how good JLew has been offensively in the very few minutes he's gotten in the last 2 years, it is perfectly logical to wonder if he shouldn't get more of a chance ahead of Berget and Wallace.
 
I've read this idea before but can't find anything in the regulations that imply that this is possible.

A player's Salary Budget Charge, and therefore Designated Player status, is determined by averaging all amounts payable over the guaranteed contract term excluding option years.

Also interesting that the max salary eligible to be bought down with TAM is just over 1.5M but even though the DP budget charge is halved at the summer transfer window, I'm not sure that the max salary eligible is halved (i.e. the loophole is open).
Finally had some time to look into this and now I'm not certain where I got this from. A couple of interesting things:
  • You note above the piece about averaging all amounts payable over the guaranteed contract term, and this is true; BUT
  • The MLS Rules also state "In general, the total amount of the acquisition cost of a player is charged against the Salary Budget in the year in which it is paid."
My interpretation of the above is that the transfer fee hits the salary budget that first year, unless it is high enough, when combined with the actual salary, to go over the threshold (lets assume GAM and TAM aren't used to buy down for this purpose). If that's the case, then the player is recognized as a DP.

Now, there is the choice of the Special Discovery Player, and the choice to amortize the transfer fee over the life of the contract (for non-DPs), but the limit on the transfer fee is $500k.

So, per the above, I believe if teams were to sign players for large transfer fees to have them count as a DP, then after that first year, give them a new contract, that should "reset" their contract to be without a transfer fee, and if their salary is low enough, could no longer be counted as a DP (or could be bought down).
 
Also, in digging into the above, I found this in regards to Paul Arriola's transfer to DCU that I didn't know before and was very interesting.

http://www.topdrawersoccer.com/the9...-a-major-precent-with-paul-arriolas-transfer/

Basically, Paul Arriola was in LAG's academy and played for their U-18s. Arriola only played 11 games under LAG's academy and was never signed to a MLS contract, before being picked up by Tijuana.

However, while DCU paid a $3m transfer fee to Tijuana for Arriola, they also had to pay LAG $500k in GAM/TAM to secure his rights.

This will be something to consider as players have been spending time in MLS academies but then going overseas before signing contracts. There will eventually be the possibility that these guys return to MLS at some point.
 
Also, in digging into the above, I found this in regards to Paul Arriola's transfer to DCU that I didn't know before and was very interesting.

http://www.topdrawersoccer.com/the9...-a-major-precent-with-paul-arriolas-transfer/

Basically, Paul Arriola was in LAG's academy and played for their U-18s. Arriola only played 11 games under LAG's academy and was never signed to a MLS contract, before being picked up by Tijuana.

However, while DCU paid a $3m transfer fee to Tijuana for Arriola, they also had to pay LAG $500k in GAM/TAM to secure his rights.

This will be something to consider as players have been spending time in MLS academies but then going overseas before signing contracts. There will eventually be the possibility that these guys return to MLS at some point.
There was a lot of controversy over that payment to LA - nobody in the media could figure out how it was justified since he didn't technically fulfill the minimum amount of time in the academy. It was a pure allocation of funds to LA by the league since Arriola completely spurned LA and it's difficult for LA to even claim they developed him.
 
The argument about Lewis not playing is legitimate. But he has to replace someone. We're not going to play 4 wingers - even though I believe Medina should play centrally behind the Striker like De Bruyne does.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Christopher Jee

https://bars.tl/xxBzQEI8qM

Silly video of JSB at the training ground from Barstool. Video is kinda lame and has short awkward interviews with Johnson, Villa and Viera, but holy shit at 3:45 they start talking about Lewis and I’m not sure if it’s the way the video was edited, but Viera looked very uneasy and didn’t have great things to say about Lewis except he’s a good locker room guy. Super uncomfortable, IMO.
 
Last edited:
https://bars.tl/xxBzQEI8qM

Silly video of JSB at the training ground from Barstool. Video is kinda lame and has short awkward interviews with Johnson, Villa and Viera, but holy shit at 3:45 they start talking about Lewis and I’m not sure if it’s the way the video was edited, but Viera didn’t have great things to say about Lewis except he’s a good locker room guy. Super uncomfortable, IMO.

Turns out all we have to do to get substantive answers out of Vieira is disguise the question as a joke.