2023 Roster and Transfer Discussion Thread

[ZYanksRule]

I think this is nice and all. but i'd prefer not to have a situation where neither keeper gets the true #1 spot. Competition is good. But stability in the keeper role is important.

Nick Cushing on an #NYCFC presser right now.

Regarding the competition between keepers Luis Barraza & Matt Freese:

"The opportunity to be the No. 1 is open to both of them."

And no matter who starts the #NashvilleSC match, "it will continue to be an ongoing process."#MLS

— Glenn Crooks (@GlennCrooks) February 16, 2023

Just because it's a competition now doesn't mean it will be a competition in October. Odds are at some point this season someone jumps in front and grabs the position.

Early in the season there's going to be a ton of experimentation.

 

[JayH]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1626358207445667841

 

[mgarbowski]

Just because it's a competition now doesn't mean it will be a competition in October. Odds are at some point this season someone jumps in front and grabs the position.

Early in the season there's going to be a ton of experimentation.

I predict we have a clear starter by game 10, and probably even Game 6.
My guess is Freese is secretly chosen but needs work on his footwork. Rather than summarily depose Barraza midseason when he’s ready call it a competition. But whatever the reality, I don’t see it dragging on.

 

[Kjbert]

Real bang up job by David Lee

 

[gbservis]

Real bang up job by David Lee

It's frustrating that we went from championship to a complete rebuild in 2 seasons, it really seems like there could have been much better planning so it was a smoother transition. I do understand that all teams rebuild at some point though so I can accept it, what I think is completely unacceptable however is that the roster is just riddled with holes and has no depth whatsoever. You want to rebuild fine but at least get a mostly full team in place to start the season. There is no reason we should be entering camp and the season with massive holes, other teams in the MLS have full rosters entering the year why is NYCFC so slow with their business?

 

[SoupInNYC]

It's frustrating that we went from championship to a complete rebuild in 2 seasons, it really seems like there could have been much better planning so it was a smoother transition. I do understand that all teams rebuild at some point though so I can accept it, what I think is completely unacceptable however is that the roster is just riddled with holes and has no depth whatsoever. You want to rebuild fine but at least get a mostly full team in place to start the season. There is no reason we should be entering camp and the season with massive holes, other teams in the MLS have full rosters entering the year why is NYCFC so slow with their business?

This doesn't seem to be anything unique to NYCFC.

Let's take a quick look at previous MLS Cup teams going back to 2018:

• 2020 Columbus Crew - missed 2021 and 2022 playoffs
• 2020 Seattle Sounders - missed 2022 playoffs
• 2019 Toronto - missed 2021 and 2022 playoffs
• 2018 Atlanta - missed 2020 (the East had 10 teams in playoffs that year) and 2022 playoffs

As the current roster sits, this team is probably a 4-5 seed in the East. If Santi does come back as it seems like it, that ticks up. If the team brings back Sands in the summer and adds a quality 9, this is a Cup contending squad.

 

[JayH]

It's frustrating that we went from championship to a complete rebuild in 2 seasons, it really seems like there could have been much better planning so it was a smoother transition. I do understand that all teams rebuild at some point though so I can accept it, what I think is completely unacceptable however is that the roster is just riddled with holes and has no depth whatsoever. You want to rebuild fine but at least get a mostly full team in place to start the season. There is no reason we should be entering camp and the season with massive holes, other teams in the MLS have full rosters entering the year why is NYCFC so slow with their business?

I generally try to keep some perspective on roster building given the great product and success we consistently have on the field. But at the same time, what always frustrates me about our roster building is we know we have the means, the flexibility and the network to maximize our roster, and we never seem to go all in. There is no reason for us start the season with a B+ roster, but here we are.

 

[Marito]

This doesn't seem to be anything unique to NYCFC.

Let's take a quick look at previous MLS Cup teams going back to 2018:

• 2020 Columbus Crew - missed 2021 and 2022 playoffs
• 2020 Seattle Sounders - missed 2022 playoffs
• 2019 Toronto - missed 2021 and 2022 playoffs
• 2018 Atlanta - missed 2020 (the East had 10 teams in playoffs that year) and 2022 playoffs

As the current roster sits, this team is probably a 4-5 seed in the East. If Santi does come back as it seems like it, that ticks up. If the team brings back Sands in the summer and adds a quality 9, this is a Cup contending squad.

Also, it is a factor of the kind of blank slate that the playoffs create that having a strong and deep team at the start of the season is far less important than having one by the summer. If MLS were like other leagues that have pro/rel and crown the team that has amassed the most point through the regular season, then yes, we would be in dire straits. But we can totally tread water for 5 months, get great reinforcements in July, squeak into the playoffs and win it all. Maybe that's what is wrong with MLS. But it is doable.

 

[Davo15]

Also, it is a factor of the kind of blank slate that the playoffs create that having a strong and deep team at the start of the season is far less important than having one by the summer. If MLS were like other leagues that have pro/rel and crown the team that has amassed the most point through the regular season, then yes, we would be in dire straits. But we can totally tread water for 5 months, get great reinforcements in July, squeak into the playoffs and win it all. Maybe that's what is wrong with MLS. But it is doable.

I get what your saying but what's my motivation then to pay for apple tv or really watch or follow the early regular season then?

 

[erosenbaum97]

I get what your saying but what's my motivation then to pay for apple tv or really watch or follow the early regular season then?

Cuz some of us just like watching the team play soccer lol

 

[SoupInNYC]

I get what your saying but what's my motivation then to pay for apple tv or really watch or follow the early regular season then?

The same motivation for watching the NFL, MLB, NBA, NHL, and College Basketball regular seasons

 

[mgarbowski]

Edited to account for Vukovich, Zelalem, whom I forgot, and dropping Gloster today.

The roster is not nearly as thin as people think.[Though a bit thinner than I realized when I first wrote the post].

Nine players from 2021 chose to leave. Acevedo, Callens, Castellanos, Ibeagha, Johnson, Moralez, Sands, Thorarinsson, and Tinnerholm. We chose not to retain another 7. Gloster, Heber, Medina, Rocha, Shradi, Vukovich, and Zelalem. So 16.

The club added Alfaro, Cufre, Freese, Ilenič, Ledezma, Martins, O'Toole, Pellegrini, Pereira, and Rodriguez. Plus I think it's fair to say that Haak went from barely there to a meaningful roster member in the last 2 years.
That's 11.

If you think I made a mistake, please give specifics, but I think we're only down 5 roster spots, and 1of those is probably being held in case Sands returns so 4 really. If Ledezma and Rodriguez both fall through, there's at worst 6 spots to fill, and the current window is open until late April. Plus there are an addition 15-16 players in camp looking to get picked up.

What I'm saying is it's time to stop criticizing Lee for moving slowly and time to start criticizing him because you don't like the players he acquired.

 

[Davo15]

The same motivation for watching the NFL, MLB, NBA, NHL, and College Basketball regular seasons

The NFL regular season is the only one out of those that I do pay attention to because the limited number of games and once a week schedule does make it feel like every game does matter. NBA, NHL , and MLB I'm excited for about the first week then I just follow scores on my phone and box scores and it's wake me up for the play offs. But specifically I'm referring here to the concept of not having the roster built in time for the start of the season. In other sports teams do make major trades mid season but they rarely go into the season with a roster as much a work in progress as this.

 

[Kjbert]

This doesn't seem to be anything unique to NYCFC.

Let's take a quick look at previous MLS Cup teams going back to 2018:

• 2020 Columbus Crew - missed 2021 and 2022 playoffs
• 2020 Seattle Sounders - missed 2022 playoffs
• 2019 Toronto - missed 2021 and 2022 playoffs
• 2018 Atlanta - missed 2020 (the East had 10 teams in playoffs that year) and 2022 playoffs

As the current roster sits, this team is probably a 4-5 seed in the East. If Santi does come back as it seems like it, that ticks up. If the team brings back Sands in the summer and adds a quality 9, this is a Cup contending squad.

We were a 3 seed last year, lost our GK, our RB, our best CB, our best #10 and our starting CF. Mike of those positions have been upgraded.

 

[moogoo]

We were a 3 seed last year, lost our GK, our RB, our best CB, our best #10 and our starting CF. Mike of those positions have been upgraded.

538 still has us as a #3 seed going into the season

 

[SoupInNYC]

We were a 3 seed last year, lost our GK, our RB, our best CB, our best #10 and our starting CF. Mike of those positions have been upgraded.

Yes, that is true.

 

[CCMore]

The roster is not nearly as thin as people think.

Nine players from 2021 chose to leave. Acevedo, Callens, Castellanos, Ibeagha, Johnson, Moralez, Sands, Thorarinsson, and Tinnerholm. We chose not to retain another 4. Heber, Medina, Rocha, Shradi . So 13.

The club added Alfaro, Cufre, Freese, Ilenič, Ledezma, Martins, O'Toole, Pellegrini, Pereira, and Rodriguez. Plus I think it's fair to say that Haak went from barely there to a meaningful roster member in the last 2 years.
That's 11.

If you think I made a mistake, please give specifics, but I think we're only down 2 roster spots, and one of those is probably being held in case Sands returns. If Ledezma and Rodriguez both fall through, there's just 3 spots to fill, and the current window is open until late April.

What I'm saying is it's time to stop criticizing Lee for moving slowly and time to start criticizing him because you don't like the players he acquired.

Taking this analysis into consideration, what are your thoughts on roster slots 12-24? There have been a lot of complaints about how weak the team is if a first-teamer is injured.

 

[sbrylski]

The roster is not nearly as thin as people think.

Nine players from 2021 chose to leave. Acevedo, Callens, Castellanos, Ibeagha, Johnson, Moralez, Sands, Thorarinsson, and Tinnerholm. We chose not to retain another 4. Heber, Medina, Rocha, Shradi . So 13.

The club added Alfaro, Cufre, Freese, Ilenič, Ledezma, Martins, O'Toole, Pellegrini, Pereira, and Rodriguez. Plus I think it's fair to say that Haak went from barely there to a meaningful roster member in the last 2 years.
That's 11.

If you think I made a mistake, please give specifics, but I think we're only down 2 roster spots, and one of those is probably being held in case Sands returns. If Ledezma and Rodriguez both fall through, there's just 3 spots to fill, and the current window is open until late April.

What I'm saying is it's time to stop criticizing Lee for moving slowly and time to start criticizing him because you don't like the players he acquired.

I agree, I actually think Lee was proactive to have replacements ready on the current roster, which isn't that bad.

Magno was brought in to be the replacement for Castellanos. Martins was brought in as a replacement for Callens. Santi was always talked about as the replacement for Maxi, they just hoped to not have to make him a DP right away and we almost lost him. Through this lens, our FO has actually been proactive enough to survive a half season after an exodus of top talent and let us recover over two windows rather than making compromises to do so in just one.

I agree we need another player at pretty much every level, but our current roster can carry us for a few month and give a chance to players previously buried on the depth chart to make their case.

My sole concern right now is keeper. If this roster doesn't "hang in there" until the summer, it is likely because of bad defense and goaltending. We have goal scorers and we have midfielders, but the defense overall is a giant unknown.

 

[moogoo]

so uh... mistake? or leak?

 

[413Blue]

Just because we didn't bring in replacements for certain players during this off-season, doesn't mean we didn't bring in replacement players. While not everything has gone according to plans, we already have most of our replacements on the roster already. The big x factor for this season is Andrade, can he impress this season, but I think he was brought in for this season, as was Magno. We also need Santi back, but overall I think we are actually missing the strategy here and focusing solely on what happened from November to now, instead of the rebuild that is actually 2 years in progress.

Edit: I sat on my post for a while chasing my kids around. sbrylski beat me to the punch