Looking Ahead - Winter Window

[sbrylski]

Your Pirlo point raises an interesting question - did Pirlo have a positive Return on Investment?

As of this time last year, his jersey was the #1 seller: https://www.mlssoccer.com/post/2016/07/15/these-are-top-selling-mls-jerseys-mlsstore-com-so-far-year

Just a single data point in a complicated analysis, but signs point to him as being one of the most marketable signings in the league.

 

[dannd23]

Your Pirlo point raises an interesting question - did Pirlo have a positive Return on Investment?

Jersey sales I am sure were awesome, but what is not measured is if a more effective player was signed, and NYC had an extra home playoff game bc they advanced. Now, that is a massive IF that they would have advanced with a more effective player, but do we know how much revenue they would generate from an Eastern Conference Final? I would suspect they'd sell over 30K tickets for that.

 

[mgarbowski]

Jersey sales I am sure were awesome, but what is not measured is if a more effective player was signed, and NYC had an extra home playoff game bc they advanced. Now, that is a massive IF that they would have advanced with a more effective player, but do we know how much revenue they would generate from an Eastern Conference Final? I would suspect they'd sell over 30K tickets for that.

Eastern Conf final? Pirlo could be why we don't host MLS Cup this year.

 

[Ulrich]

Eastern Conf final? Pirlo could be why we don't host MLS Cup this year.

Pirlo taking up a DP spot could be the single reason we don't win the Supporters Shield and possibly the MLS Cup. Having one other elite player on the field at the same time as our others could have easily led to multiple extra points we dropped by turning a few draws to wins and a few losses to draws.

 

[adam]

Eastern Conf final? Pirlo could be why we don't host MLS Cup this year.

MLS Cup is not a "home game". Therefore, I'm assuming revenue goes to MLS as a whole, the same way MLS is in charge of ticket allocation for that match. But there is a monetary prize for advancing to the MLS finals and winning it (as well as qualifying for CCL), so that's something we'd theoretically miss out on by having Pirlo waste a DP spot.

 

[Futbolkicks]

As of this time last year, his jersey was the #1 seller: https://www.mlssoccer.com/post/2016/07/15/these-are-top-selling-mls-jerseys-mlsstore-com-so-far-year

Just a single data point in a complicated analysis, but signs point to him as being one of the most marketable signings in the league.

Pirlo was an awful signing , he was a great player in Italy but was horrible at NYC. It is the biggest waste of money , 6 million and a DP spot. I hope NYC has learned a hard lesson don't sign old and slow players because of name recognition.

 

[dannd23]

MLS Cup is not a "home game". Therefore, I'm assuming revenue goes to MLS as a whole, the same way MLS is in charge of ticket allocation for that match. But there is a monetary prize for advancing to the MLS finals and winning it (as well as qualifying for CCL), so that's something we'd theoretically miss out on by having Pirlo waste a DP spot.

Yeah all the extra home games with CCL, even with I am sure attendances being less than regular season attendances, would surely make up for lost revenue in Pirlo jersey sales/ exposure. In addition to that, I am pretty sure the CCL prize money is now over $1.2 million for semifinalists.

Point is, MLS is at the point we need to stop worrying about signing the big name, and getting the best available player to help the team win.

 

[Ulrich]

Ring clone you say?

If the new clone-player can win possession as easily as Ring does, I'm fine with them kicking field goals when shooting. All they have to do is keep the other team from getting a good shot off

 

[adam]

Yeah all the extra home games with CCL, even with I am sure attendances being less than regular season attendances, would surely make up for lost revenue in Pirlo jersey sales/ exposure. In addition to that, I am pretty sure the CCL prize money is now over $1.2 million for semifinalists.

Point is, MLS is at the point we need to stop worrying about signing the big name, and getting the best available player to help the team win.

I guess that really depends on what Hartford would charge us to host a CCL match and how many people we could bus out there for $10 a pop.

 

[Seven]

Pirlo was an awful signing , he was a great player in Italy but was horrible at NYC. It is the biggest waste of money , 6 million and a DP spot. I hope NYC has learned a hard lesson don't sign old and slow players because of name recognition.

Would argue that the awful part of it was signing him for the 3rd year. Pirlo was good last year. He has never been Villa-level, but he played a big part of the success last year

 

[dannd23]

I guess that really depends on what Hartford would charge us to host a CCL match and how many people we could bus out there for $10 a pop.

This made me way sadder than it should have.

 

[SoupInNYC]

Toronto has the best DP assortment in MLS history, plus they have the best TAM player in MLS at the moment in Vasquez. It's no wonder they are running away with the Supporters Shield.

Their 3 DPs are better than our 2nd and 3rd DPs at the moment. Their TAM player is better than our 2nd and 3rd DPs right now too.

If we were SKC or Orlando or San Jose, you live with DPs that are borderline. We should expect more. That's all.

I totally get that, and agree with your point. I'm just saying expecting 3 Lodeiros or Piattis is a bit much. We cannot have borderline DPs, and we most definitely cannot have DPs that dont even get off the bench. But I don't think we should expect us to have 3 DPs that are all within the top 10 in the league.

And I definitely do agree with you that we should expect more than teams like SKC, Orlando, or San Jose.

 

[Kjbert]

Unless you replaced Pirlo with Messi, we weren't going to be better than Toronto this year. When we play them, they have 4 of the 5 best players on the field. Our DPs, collectively, don't match their DP/TAM combination

 

[Marito]

I wonder how many jersey sales are attributable to casual fans, and what is truly a casual fan (vs an engaged fan and vs a borderline insane fan like us). What I'm getting at is this: we can assume 95% of Toronto's fans didn't know who Giovinco was when he landed. But you only needed to watch him for half a season to want to own his jersey, if you're a Toronto fan. And I mean watch him on TV, and not necessarily at BMO field. Hell, I'm not a Toronto fan and I would like to have his jersey.

So you could very well argue that lots of casual fans ended up buying his jersey because of his mind-bogglingly good performance on the pitch. So a bad signing soccer-wise (such as Pirlo) cannot really be that much better for CFG just on jersey sales. Yes, there's a lot of initial sales because of the awe factor, the big star name recognition, but then the curve goes steeply down as people realize it was a crappy idea. Meanwhile, the unknown-for-casual-fans guy who ends being a huge star follows an inverse pattern, and I'm guessing ends up surpassing the results, not just soccer wise but in terms of jersey sales, etc.

 

[canchon]

Unless you replaced Pirlo with Messi, we weren't going to be better than Toronto this year. When we play them, they have 4 of the 5 best players on the field. Our DPs, collectively, don't match their DP/TAM combination

I agree Toronto is playing out of their mind right now, compounded by the 3-5-2 formation that for some reason no team has found how to counter. I still would like to see a NYCFC's first choice XI take them on (who knows if that will ever happen, probably not).

 

[Kjbert]

I agree Toronto is playing out of their mind right now, compounded by the 3-5-2 formation that for some reason no team has found how to counter. I still would like to see a NYCFC's first choice XI take them on (who knows if that will ever happen, probably not).

They have great personnel for a 3-5-2. Target Striker in Jozy with an underneath player in Gio. Bradley to sit in the hole. Two box to box mids with the ability to aid in the attack. Their wide players have been very good, especially when you consider that Justin Morrow got called into USMNT camp out of the blue.

We don't match up well. The way they play, once Jozy holds play up, the ball goes wide, our defense spreads out and it opens up space for guys like Gio and Vazquez to operate in the middle of the pitch.

I would imagine the formation would be a Flat 4-4-2 with a target man, but that then eliminates our possession brand of soccer.

 

[Futbolkicks]

Would argue that the awful part of it was signing him for the 3rd year. Pirlo was good last year. He has never been Villa-level, but he played a big part of the success last year

Sorry to disagree Pirlo was not good last year , they had no choice but to play him last year , this year they have many options so he does not play. Like I said I hope NYC stays away from old players.

 

[Kjbert]

Iraola was the key last year. Not Pirlo.

 

[The Toe]

The issue with Pirlo is his lack of versatility, too. We can only really use him one way, where having a $6mil LW can probably slide underneath the striker and play wingback, etc. I really just hope we get someone in here who will be with the team in January and February to learn the system and bond with the team so we can hit the ground running.

 

[Kjbert]

A guy on Twitter posted a list of the guys available on a free after this season in Europe. Some interesting names (even a couple that have been thrown around here before). Going to just list the names. There are certain guys who I think would be terrific, but I doubt they would come here at this point in their career. There are other guys who would probably love to come here, but I hope we don't go after them. Would be interesting to see if any of them could be had in the winter window:

NO WAY IN HELL:
Alexis Sanchez
Mesut Ozil
Isco
Ander Herrera
Leon Goretzka
Emre Can
Ross Barkley

POSSIBLE:
Juan Mata
Fernandinho
Jack Wilshere
Marcos Llorente
Yohan Cabaye
Joao Moutinho
Kwadwo Asamoah
Hatem Ben Arfa
Arjen Robben
Zlatan
Andres Iniesta
Santi Cazorla

Certain guys would be great fits. Understanding what the club is looking to do, the only names I think that would be doable sense right now would Cabaye, Moutinho, Ben Arfa and Asamoah. I was never a big fan of Wilshere, but that would be interesting. I don't know what to think about Ross Barkley but it would never happen. In a dream world? Juan Mata is probably the guy on this list that would be perfect. It would be a post World Cup 2018 signing and he would be 30 years old. Herrera fancies himself a future Spain Captain otherwise that would be another guy that would make sense but I don't think that's happening.