Contending in 2018

[canchon]

All of that said, a DP #10 in MLS shouldn’t look like Maxi, not for $2million.

Maxi looks like a DP for name your Midwest mls club, not at New York.

His sack shrinks up when he gets close to the goal. Higuain is making flicks, megging tricks, playing g’s in. Maxi is hustling around and completing 85%.

I laughed at that comparison of Higuain to Maxi but it is so true. Look at what Higuain is doing (he caused their first goal by hustling to get a shot off AND their second by clinically organizing the counter to free Artur) side by side with Maxi and it’s laughable, considering they both play the same role.

Maxi has Nagbe-itis. Totally amazing in the middle of the field but screws it up royally close to goal. When Maxi has the ball at the top of the 18 he will either 1) hold it too long or 2) make a bad pass.

 

[Kjbert]

I think I would tend to defend Maxi a little bit more than others, based on at least 3 other factors:
1. How horrible, clogged and out of sync we've looked without him, and how quickly he got the keys to the team, to run the show, so to speak. That speaks to an intangible leadership with his teammates and coach.
2. To say that you could get his production with TAM is true but not typical. VV is the newcomer of the year, fitting into a well-oiled machine as Toronto, with the deepest bench. Literally a perfect complimentary piece in a team with no obvious weaknesses and that was not a work in progress.
3. Maxi is not a flop DP but more a meh DP (like Blanco in Portland, for example) and in that sense we need to overcome the sticker price shock because once you've entered DP territory it doesn't make much of a difference whether you're paying 1.2, 1.5 or 2 million.

We don't have a replacement level #10 for when Maxi isn't on the field.

From an output perspective, Maxi is a replacement level #10 in MLS. And he's one of the more expensive #10s in MLS. There are other DP #10s in MLS that are TAMable as well. Higuain makes 1/2 of Maxi. If their owner gave two shits, he could buy his contract down and go get another DP.

How many owners in MLS would trade their starting #10 for Maxi? 5? 3?

 

[dannd23]

I'm out on Struna.

I'm with ya on that. He looks good going forward but his defensive awareness is terrible. The only reason I give him a pass is I think his raw defensive talent is far superior to that of our current guys

 

[LionNYC]

That also makes Villa very happy. We can't discount that in the slightest. We don't want him getting upset with the talent around him (and no one else scoring any goals) after crashing out of the playoffs two years in a row. (well crashing out last year, and coming close to it this year; we could get a miracle).

Wasn't that Pablo Alvarez's job in 2015?

 

[sbrylski]

Was that something you/anyone suspected at the time or in retrospect. Makes some sense. I remember most everyone was signed pretty late. What I don't remember is any significant rumors about any DP targets earlier.

This was the biggest: http://www.empireofsoccer.com/reports-nycfc-interest-in-khedira-intensifies-57087/

But there were others. Lebogang Phiri was touted as a possible DP too until he went to France. These rumors were all in January. The first we heard of Maxi was February 11. https://www.hudsonriverblue.com/201...ano-moralez-new-york-city-transfer-rumors-mls

 

[LionNYC]

This was the biggest: http://www.empireofsoccer.com/reports-nycfc-interest-in-khedira-intensifies-57087/

But there were others. Lebogang Phiri was touted as a possible DP too until he went to France. These rumors were all in January. The first we heard of Maxi was February 11. https://www.hudsonriverblue.com/201...ano-moralez-new-york-city-transfer-rumors-mls

Yeah, Maxi was a Plan C signing. With 2018 possible being Villa's last year with NYCFC, I'm afraid the front office will do a rush DP signing again to get talent for Villa to win MLS Cup now and actually sign the best DP available or the one that would actually benefit the team the most.

 

[sbrylski]

Yeah, Maxi was a Plan C signing. With 2018 possible being Villa's last year with NYCFC, I'm afraid the front office will do a rush DP signing again to get talent for Villa to win MLS Cup now and actually sign the best DP available or the one that would actually benefit the team the most.

For a win-now signing, we could do A LOT worse than a 33-year-old Fernando Torres.

 

[mgarbowski]

This was the biggest: http://www.empireofsoccer.com/reports-nycfc-interest-in-khedira-intensifies-57087/

But there were others. Lebogang Phiri was touted as a possible DP too until he went to France. These rumors were all in January. The first we heard of Maxi was February 11. https://www.hudsonriverblue.com/201...ano-moralez-new-york-city-transfer-rumors-mls

Doesn't affect your point at all but credit actually goes to D_RoyJenkins one day earlier via his twitter scouring efforts:
http://nycfcforums.com/index.php?threads/2017-roster-discussion.4973/page-118#post-183147

 

[canchon]

Wasn't that Pablo Alvarez's job in 2015?

Nah, Pablo’s job was to take penalties in the Open Cup. Badly.

 

[canchon]

This was the biggest: http://www.empireofsoccer.com/reports-nycfc-interest-in-khedira-intensifies-57087/

But there were others. Lebogang Phiri was touted as a possible DP too until he went to France. These rumors were all in January. The first we heard of Maxi was February 11. https://www.hudsonriverblue.com/201...ano-moralez-new-york-city-transfer-rumors-mls

Read that HRB report on Maxi. A guy there compares him to Giovinco.

 

[LionNYC]

Nah, Pablo’s job was to take penalties in the Open Cup. Badly.

Triggered.

 

[mgarbowski]

This was the biggest: http://www.empireofsoccer.com/reports-nycfc-interest-in-khedira-intensifies-57087/

But there were others. Lebogang Phiri was touted as a possible DP too until he went to France. These rumors were all in January. The first we heard of Maxi was February 11. https://www.hudsonriverblue.com/201...ano-moralez-new-york-city-transfer-rumors-mls

I totally forgot that the Khedira stuff was ever any more than the fevered ravings of the forums. Forgot about Phiri too, but remembered as soon as I saw his photo on the google search. For some reason my memory was we had nothing to chew on DP-wise before Maxi came out of nowhere.

 

[LionNYC]

I totally forgot that the Khedira stuff was ever any more than the fevered ravings of the forums. Forgot about Phiri too, but remembered as soon as I saw his photo on the google search. For some reason my memory was we had nothing to chew on DP-wise before Maxi came out of nowhere.

If you envision something hard enough, it will come to fruition.

S A M I K H E D I R A

OR

F E R N A N D O T O R R E S

 

[Kjbert]

When the Maxi news first broke, it was as a TAM player on loan. Don't forget that. We digested that information well. Then we collectively freaked out when it became known he was here on a 3 year, $2 Million contract. Some of us continued to freak out while others adapted.

And here we are again.

 

[The Toe]

Just be thankful he isn't counting against the cap. What would you rather have done, not grab a DP right before training camp and gone in with DV and Pirlo, or not have Maxi at all? I think we knew we needed to get a DP asap and in the middle of most seasons, it was hard to persuade a player to leave in the middle of it.

Looking back, you get the feeling that they money was a convincing factor in getting a DP-level guy at that point in the offseason. Odds are the FO might not have wanted to give him a DP contract, but it was either go into the season with a 1.5-DP team (in terms of playing time) or commit to a guy who won't hurt you too badly for a few seasons and fill a role, knowing you can cut him if they need to. Maybe NYC isn't quite the spot we think it is in convincing players to come... yet. I think it's going to take more contracts like Villa's to feel like we've gotten our money's worth. And even if you're overpaying a few million dollars, it's better than not filling out your spots.

 

[mgarbowski]

Just be thankful he isn't counting against the cap.

I thought you were talking about Jack. Eventually realized you meant Maxi. Maxi coounts $450k+ against the cap plus a DP slot.

Odds are the FO might not have wanted to give him a DP contract, but it was either go into the season with a 1.5-DP team (in terms of playing time) or commit to a guy who won't hurt you too badly for a few seasons and fill a role, knowing you can cut him if they need to.

That’s a shit sandwich you’re selling. You’ve just restated the Midas Mulligan theory that this was a CYA move with a positive spin.
CFG and Man City and fuckhead Ferran stole Frank from us, and deferred hiring DP3, and season 1 was dead halfway through as we played with just 1 DP.
To make up for that, they foist a DP3 who doesn’t fit the team or even the league, and give in to his demand for a third year, because he’s famous and had a world class career that had no chance of ever translating here, because the star-blind will forgive all his faults and bad fit here.
Season 2 features damaged goods CookieBurger playing half a season and getting booed when he finally shows up, while we cripple our midfield by having to use a player to cover what DP3 can’t do, so 2 field players do the work of 1.
Frank leaves after Season 2 and the FO is afraid of not hiring a DP in the winter window even though options are few because they know the third season of DP3 is an oncoming disaster and hire someone just because he’s available and pretty good and keeps them from facing another season of complaints about having 1.5 DPs.

 

[Midas Mulligan]

I thought you were talking about Jack. Eventually realized you meant Maxi. Maxi coounts $450k+ against the cap plus a DP slot.

That’s a shit sandwich you’re selling. You’ve just restated the Midas Mulligan theory that this was a CYA move with a positive spin.
CFG and Man City and fuckhead Ferran stole Frank from us, and deferred hiring DP3, and season 1 was dead halfway through as we played with just 1 DP.
To make up for that, they foist a DP3 who doesn’t fit the team or even the league, and give in to his demand for a third year, because he’s famous and had a world class career that had no chance of ever translating here, because the star-blind will forgive all his faults and bad fit here.
Season 2 features damaged goods CookieBurger playing half a season and getting booed when he finally shows up, while we cripple our midfield by having to use a player to cover what DP3 can’t do, so 2 field players do the work of 1.
Frank leaves after Season 2 and the FO is afraid of not hiring a DP in the winter window even though options are few because they know the third season of DP3 is an oncoming disaster and hire someone just because he’s available and pretty good and keeps them from facing another season of complaints about having 1.5 DPs.

Pretty much.

 

[canchon]

Ok, folks. Let’s assume you have 1 DP spot available and $800k of TAM for next year (there was rumblings that TAM will go way up).

How do you spend it position-wise?

 

[Marito]

Ok, folks. Let’s assume you have 1 DP spot available and $800k of TAM for next year (there was rumblings that TAM will go way up).

How do you spend it position-wise?

Depends if Herrera is staying. Or if Sands is truly ready as a 6 with Ring at 8, in case Herrera is leaving.

For me DP Striker with Villa as false 9, and very good TAM left midfielder (or Mata steady in left midfield and TAM for fullbacks)

or

Amazing DP left winger who can score, keep Villa as ST, and TAM for fullback(s), and trade Mata.

 

[Ulrich]

Depends if Herrera is staying. Or if Sands is truly ready as a 6 with Ring at 8, in case Herrera is leaving.

For me DP Striker with Villa as false 9, and very good TAM left midfielder (or Mata steady in left midfield and TAM for fullbacks)

or

Amazing DP left winger who can score, keep Villa as ST, and TAM for fullback(s), and trade Mata.

Mata showed the other night why he’s not playing at LB. failed to recover on the 4v2 and did the best back kick ole as Afful danced past him. He’s a guy that will play defense but prefers to go forward every chance possible.

Transfer him out and get whatever we can - probably will have to wait until after the WC unless a great offer comes this offseason from a team wanting to beat his post-WC inflation (not that he will def play for CRC, but he’ll get a CRC bounce).