2026 Roster and Transfer Discussion Thread
- Thread starter LionNYC
- Start date
they must have traded for it within the league. i can't think of any other reason. hah
Some of it is stretched rules, and sketchy favors like De Paul being on loan last season with terms that allowed him to be a TAM player and not a DP
Some of it is players taking a discount to play with Messi
But honestly, most of it is Miami maxing out the use of every premium roster spot they have and not wasting them on, say, non-top 5 MLS CBs or Serbian's rotting away on a bench somewhere in Belgium.
ezbeezy214
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Even with Martinez or a suitable replacement, this is not a team built to win MLS Cup as MLS is currently functioning. As I noted in the Dunivant thread yesterday, NYC has ranked 23, 14 and 16 in goals scored for the last 3 years. On defense NYC ranked 9, 11 and 7 for goals allowed.
First, none of those are particularly good.
Second, every MLS Cup winner from 2021 to 2025 has ranked higher on goals scored than goals allowed, sometimes by a huge amount.
Third, every cup winner in that period ranked no lower than fourth in goals scored (in league, not conference).
2021 NYCFC Goals Rank 4 Allowed Rank 6
2022 LAFC Goals R2 Allowed R3
2023 Crew Goals R1 Allowed R13
2024 Galaxy Goals R3 Allowed R14
2025 Miami Goals R1 Allowed R19
Current NYC is so far from those offensive rankings. Despite winning 3 playoff rounds in 2 years, NYCFC's offensive futility is fully exposed in the playoffs.
In 2024 NYC scored just 3 goals in 4 playoff games. They were shut out 3 times.
In 2025 NYC scored 6 goals in 5 playoff games and was shut out once.
NYCFC 2024 Avg 0.75, Low 0 High 3
NYCFC 2025 Avg 1.20, Low 0 High 3
Here are the same playoff lines for the last 5 Cup winners:
2021 NYCFC Avg 1.75 Low 1 High 2
2022 LAFC Avg 3 Low 3 High 3
2023 Crew Avg 2.5 Low 1 High 4
2024 Galaxy Avg 3.6 Low 1 High 6
2025 Miami Avg 3.33. Low 1 High 5
Not one cup winner in the last 5 years was shut out once in 20 combined playoff games. NYCFC was shut out in 4 of its last 9 playoff games, while scoring more than 1 goal just twice. Winning those 3 playoff rounds in 2 years was part goalkeeping, arguably a fluke, and not sustainable over a full Cup run without adding a lot more offense.
The league keeps changing. From 2015 (NYC's first year) to 2020, the MLS Cup winner ranked higher on defense than offense 4 of 6 years. The Portland and Sounders Cup teams in those years ranked an abysmal 18, 15 and 14 in offense in a smaller league.
But that's not where the league is trending post Covid. Now, offense wins Cups. Defense just needs to be middling. Maybe that changes back again, but at the moment NYCFC has a defense first strategy that has not worked for 5 years.
First, none of those are particularly good.
Second, every MLS Cup winner from 2021 to 2025 has ranked higher on goals scored than goals allowed, sometimes by a huge amount.
Third, every cup winner in that period ranked no lower than fourth in goals scored (in league, not conference).
2021 NYCFC Goals Rank 4 Allowed Rank 6
2022 LAFC Goals R2 Allowed R3
2023 Crew Goals R1 Allowed R13
2024 Galaxy Goals R3 Allowed R14
2025 Miami Goals R1 Allowed R19
Current NYC is so far from those offensive rankings. Despite winning 3 playoff rounds in 2 years, NYCFC's offensive futility is fully exposed in the playoffs.
In 2024 NYC scored just 3 goals in 4 playoff games. They were shut out 3 times.
In 2025 NYC scored 6 goals in 5 playoff games and was shut out once.
NYCFC 2024 Avg 0.75, Low 0 High 3
NYCFC 2025 Avg 1.20, Low 0 High 3
Here are the same playoff lines for the last 5 Cup winners:
2021 NYCFC Avg 1.75 Low 1 High 2
2022 LAFC Avg 3 Low 3 High 3
2023 Crew Avg 2.5 Low 1 High 4
2024 Galaxy Avg 3.6 Low 1 High 6
2025 Miami Avg 3.33. Low 1 High 5
Not one cup winner in the last 5 years was shut out once in 20 combined playoff games. NYCFC was shut out in 4 of its last 9 playoff games, while scoring more than 1 goal just twice. Winning those 3 playoff rounds in 2 years was part goalkeeping, arguably a fluke, and not sustainable over a full Cup run without adding a lot more offense.
The league keeps changing. From 2015 (NYC's first year) to 2020, the MLS Cup winner ranked higher on defense than offense 4 of 6 years. The Portland and Sounders Cup teams in those years ranked an abysmal 18, 15 and 14 in offense in a smaller league.
But that's not where the league is trending post Covid. Now, offense wins Cups. Defense just needs to be middling. Maybe that changes back again, but at the moment NYCFC has a defense first strategy that has not worked for 5 years.
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Something I noticed while compiling the scoring records of Cup winners back to 2015 is that you have to go back to the days of 2-game playoff series to find a Cup winner who scored 0 goals in any of its playoff games. It was quite common then. Cup winners had 0-goal games 5 times in the 4 years I looked at with that format. Only once in 11 years has a Cup winner scored 0 goals in a single elimination playoff game and that was the infamous 2016 Sounders MLS Cup Final win over Toronto where Seattle had 0 shots on goal in 120 minutes.
The two-game series not only allows but incentivizes teams not to score in certain situations. Win the first game 3-0 then park the bus for 90' in Game 2. It's just another reason why I hate that format.
The two-game series not only allows but incentivizes teams not to score in certain situations. Win the first game 3-0 then park the bus for 90' in Game 2. It's just another reason why I hate that format.
If this is a sale, it's great to get the roster spot back, but given that Transfermarkt lists the highest valued player on eintracht-braunschweig's roster at $1.5M. The sale price is going to be low; CFG took half the Taty money and basically lit it on fire by using our roster and transfer profits to gamble on a teenager with less than 30 professional appearances.
Eintracht Braunschweig - Club profile
All information about E. Braunschweig (2. Bundesliga) ➤ current squad with market values ➤ transfers ➤ rumours ➤ player stats ➤ fixtures ➤ news
Roster rules site says a loan outside of MLS opens up the roster spot as well. So they couldve signed another u22 and just never registered Jovan for MLS.If this is a sale, it's great to get the roster spot back, but given that Transfermarkt lists the highest valued player on eintracht-braunschweig's roster at $1.5M. The sale price is going to be low; CFG took half the Taty money and basically lit it on fire by using our roster and transfer profits to gamble on a teenager with less than 30 professional appearances.
Eintracht Braunschweig - Club profile
All information about E. Braunschweig (2. Bundesliga) ➤ current squad with market values ➤ transfers ➤ rumours ➤ player stats ➤ fixtures ➤ newswww.transfermarkt.us
Maybe it changed but it used to to be that only worked if the team was paying the players full salary. Given Jovan's deal paid him $650K per season and bench players in Belgium typically make around $100K, I doubt his salary was fully covered the past two seasons.
EBS are a really low-tier 2nd bundesliga team that spent a few years languishing in 3rd division and are now yo-yo-ing between 3 and 2, just barely staying up last season. (they used to be better but undid themselves) So this being a destination for Jovan also doesn't speak too highly of what CFG think his quality actually is. Yikes.If this is a sale, it's great to get the roster spot back, but given that Transfermarkt lists the highest valued player on eintracht-braunschweig's roster at $1.5M. The sale price is going to be low; CFG took half the Taty money and basically lit it on fire by using our roster and transfer profits to gamble on a teenager with less than 30 professional appearances.
Eintracht Braunschweig - Club profile
All information about E. Braunschweig (2. Bundesliga) ➤ current squad with market values ➤ transfers ➤ rumours ➤ player stats ➤ fixtures ➤ news
If what Todd says is true that CFG just greenlights and doesn't tell us who to sign, then that would mean assuming that was in place during Lee era, that's a Lee move.
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He said CFG "signs-off", we don't know what criteria they place on their approvals. They very well could have said to Lee, here is the list of players we will sign off on, or we are only signing off on players that meet this criteria.
Exactly. Here are the parameters consistent with our blueprint for a signing a player, here are all of the boxes a signing must check, here is a list of players our network has scouted for you to choose from, and here is the number to call for our approval before you consummate any signing.
A few more thoughts on my post about Cup winners being better on offense than defense.
First, it might seem odd that it matters. Why can't you win MLS Cup ranked say 4th on defense but 5th on offense? That should work, no?
It maybe could, in a less cap restrained league. But in MLS you have to prioritize, and lately the teams that win cups excel on offense, not defense. That's where the arms race is. It's also where more money is likely to correlate to more effectiveness. The Transfermarkt list of the most valuable players by market value is overrun at the top with forwards and attacking mids. Money buys goals which buys wins.
Second, why did it flip around 2020-2021? My semi-informed guess is more money in the league. The U22 initiative began in 2021. I think discretionary TAM was first allowed in 2018.
More money including More self-funded discretionary money ---> the best teams spending that extra cash on offense more than defense and getting results with it.
Meanwhile, we still have a DP center back as far as I know. To be fair, the club also spent a fair bit on transfers for offense. They just did it poorly.
Spend money on offense and spend it well.
First, it might seem odd that it matters. Why can't you win MLS Cup ranked say 4th on defense but 5th on offense? That should work, no?
It maybe could, in a less cap restrained league. But in MLS you have to prioritize, and lately the teams that win cups excel on offense, not defense. That's where the arms race is. It's also where more money is likely to correlate to more effectiveness. The Transfermarkt list of the most valuable players by market value is overrun at the top with forwards and attacking mids. Money buys goals which buys wins.
Second, why did it flip around 2020-2021? My semi-informed guess is more money in the league. The U22 initiative began in 2021. I think discretionary TAM was first allowed in 2018.
More money including More self-funded discretionary money ---> the best teams spending that extra cash on offense more than defense and getting results with it.
Meanwhile, we still have a DP center back as far as I know. To be fair, the club also spent a fair bit on transfers for offense. They just did it poorly.
Spend money on offense and spend it well.
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It would also be fun to watch the team score. As currently constructed we are entering year 4 of watching an offense that struggles to even create chances much less score more than one goal per game. It's getting old at this point.
Subsequent report from same source says it's a "long term loan" for Jovan with option to buy:
What does "no loan fee" mean, he's so bad they had to just give him to them for free to try to get him a place to play?
I think this is a big point. Scoring = excitement = more fans = more revenue = more discretion to spend = ...
Virtuous cycle.
