2019 Roster Discussion

[Ulrich]

And building on the previous point, our second most successful big signing is Maxi, who is routinely held up as an example of why we should maybe show patience with any other given signing who doesn't do well at the start, or even the entire first year.

Unless of course that second year bump is the outlier and the third year trends back to normal.

Maxi’s first year was comparable to his average season totals for all his previous clubs. His second was a stark jump up from those totals. Maxi right now, with 26 games left is closer to his first year stats than his second. That can quickly change, with regard to projecting totals, if he actually scores a goal and doesn’t use zero as his first quarter baseline.

To further the outlier point, Medina had an outlier of stats the first half of last year and then spiraled down the second half - call it a tale of two seasons. 2019 has been an even worse continuation of 2018-pt2. This year appears that he’s trended back to “normal” which is not affecting scoring in any measurable way.

 

[BxLio91]

Depending on the money, Fuchs can't be worse than Sweatinho. And he seems more durable than Mata so it could be a good signing.

 

[Gotham Gator]

What's the forum's opinion on Fuchs these days? While I'd take him in Sweat's role as a backup LWB/LCB, that's not worth very much in a vacuum. That said, Callens is likely to go missing for a few weeks in June and Sweat appears to be the only other player that Dome comfortable with at LCB. Fuchs could slot right in. A 2-year deal on salary wouldn't be bad, but not sure he's even TAM anymore.

Depending on the money, Fuchs can't be worse than Sweatinho. And he seems more durable than Mata so it could be a good signing.

This is a good question, particularly when you consider who else may be missing for the summer national team tournaments. That includes Mata, whose absence would mean Sweat may not be available to play at CB. We may also be about to lose Sands for a while to the U-20 World Cup (at least if Tab has a brain in his head). We will know about that next week.

 

[The Toe]

Fuchs is such a better passer than any of our current outer backs. I think that's one of those areas where we really need to improve, much the same with Heber and his runs opening up space in that which he's just vacated, etc. We don't have any problems getting wide and giving our overlapping guys space, but we really are missing any decent distribution from those areas.

 

[Kjbert]

Has Fuchs been playing this season? Like at all?

We need a LB so bad.

 

[LionNYC]

Has Fuchs been playing this season? Like at all?

We need a LB so bad.

I was saying to myself so many times during today's match vs. Orlando that we need a LB. Can't believe Reyna & Co. passed up on getting one midseason last year, we needed it. We got Amagat. The Club sometimes, most of the times, nope.

 

[Kjbert]

I was saying to myself so many times during today's match vs. Orlando that we need a LB. Can't believe Reyna & Co. passed up on getting one midseason last year, we needed it. We got Amagat. The Club sometimes, most of the times, nope.

I think that was as much a narrow minded Veiera thing as anything else, but the buck stops with Claudio.

 

[Ulrich]

I think that was as much a narrow minded Veiera thing as anything else, but the buck stops with Claudio.

Sweat was fine as a LB in a back-4 on minimum wages, because he over-performed his pay grade and wasn’t a key component of the offense with 6 guys in front of him. But he doesn’t cut it with the new pay bump, and as a LWB with only five guys in front while being expected to be a key component of the offense/wing play.

It’s on Claudio for not bringing in a LB/LWB that is better than the broken-glass Mata/Sweat combo. And it’s on Dome for using a formation that asks the player to do more than he’s capable of doing. Why put a guy in a position where his skill set isn’t there?

And to further that discussion on Reyna/Dome, why are we using a formation/tactics that needs 3CB’s/2FWD’s when we have only 4 CB’s on the team while about a dozen wingers/forwards? Our roster absolutely does not facilitate this formation over the course of a full season as we have too few CB’s that will lead to player exhaustion during fixture congestion, and we’re not making full use of our attacking options as a finite number of wingers can be on the pitch if we hold our shape. It’s really a poorly developed/use of the roster.

 

[Kjbert]

Sands and Sweat are CBs.

Blame them for only having one LB on the roster.

 

[Ulrich]

Sands and Sweat are CBs.

Blame them for only having one LB on the roster.

An argument can be made that Mata isn’t a LB, at most he’s a Left Wingback, but he plays more like a guy wanting to play offense than lock down the opposing wing.

 

[Christopher Jee]

An argument can be made that Mata isn’t a LB, at most he’s a Left Wingback, but he plays more like a guy wanting to play offense than lock down the opposing wing.

I think they're both adequate. In either a LB or LWB system. Sweat looked really bad today in the first half because he had no passing options. Maxi was starting too wide and then coming inside just when Sweat needed a wide left or left channel option. In the second half we would play inside first and ditch it out wide to Sweat in a lot of space. He had a terrible day for crosses but he has been known to deliver well from those areas.

 

[JayH]

Sweat’s chest redirection pass to the Orlando player sending him on the counter was something. He really was a play killer today.

 

[JayH]

Nev “Catfish” Schulman was Pitchside today. Maybe we can pad our attendance statistics with supporters’ fake girlfriends.

 

[413Blue]

Nev “Catfish” Schulman was Pitchside today. Maybe we can pad our attendance statistics with supporters’ fake girlfriends.

When is the LionNYC episode airing?

 

[mgarbowski]

Nev “Catfish” Schulman was Pitchside today. Maybe we can pad our attendance statistics with supporters’ fake girlfriends.

I understand the club has a very successful marketing campaign targeted to Canadian females.

 

[Christopher Jee]

I think they're both adequate. In either a LB or LWB system. Sweat looked really bad today in the first half because he had no passing options. Maxi was starting too wide and then coming inside just when Sweat needed a wide left or left channel option. In the second half we would play inside first and ditch it out wide to Sweat in a lot of space. He had a terrible day for crosses but he has been known to deliver well from those areas.

And then I rewatched the game, looked at stats and contradicted myself:

https://twitter.com/x/status/1123221021249757185

 

[The Toe]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1124055684973199361

 

[Kjbert]

Is Gio playing a little CF?

 

[Gotham Gator]

Here's an American midfielder scoring overseas in Champions League action. If Keaton Parks can't get off the bench for us, maybe this guy can?

https://twitter.com/x/status/1125736075585032192

 

[adam]

Here's an American midfielder scoring overseas in Champions League action. If Keaton Parks can't get off the bench for us, maybe this guy can?

https://twitter.com/x/status/1125736075585032192

Mix would have been just fine here this day in age. with the new roster rules and TAM allocation. He was really a victim of stubborn PV/cap tragedy due to antiquated roster budget allocation.

I personally don’t think I would have argued to dump him so quickly if we had several players on the roster earning more than him and his salary didn’t prevent us from fielding a team of minimum salary players. It would have more been an argument of why isn’t PV playing him, similar to our Jlew debates.