The blame game:
I know there has been plenty of debate about how much blame should go towards Cushing considering the roster difficulties, with some placing those roster difficulties squarely upon David Lee.
Allow me to speculate, perhaps wrongly, that at least some of our roster difficulties should be attributed to Cushing. We lost quite a bit during the off-season, and barely got a couple key players back. We also struggled to bring in replacements. I suspect some players didn't want to play for Cushing again, while we had trouble recruiting new players at least partly because of Cushing's lack of draw.
Am I completely wrong on these suspicions? Maybe, but probably not.
Either way, this season has only diminished Cushing's already limited appeal to potential prospects, and current players facing contract extensions are more likely to look elsewhere.
We have a pretty solid roster, missing just a few pieces, a few pieces that David Lee will not be able to sign to play for Nick Cushing. With Nick Cushing, 2024 is guaranteed to be another disappointment.
We need a coach that attracts players. Whether it be an experienced coach with a resume of high level success (Dome or Ronny) or a legendary player early in their managing career (Vieira or a better version of Kreis) to put it all together.
Keep Lee. Drop Cushing.
I don't disagree with your Cushing points but I think Lee has been equally bad. The list of failed moves by Lee is starting to add up and even a bunch of little mistakes in a capped league like MLS will drop a team down the table.
1. Using a DP spot on a CB is a total waste. Martins is a fine defender but how much would a hypothetical Chanot/Risa backline change our results? It's a horrible use of a key roster spot.
2. At the end of last season most people felt we needed upgrades at LB and RB. Lee went out and spent decent money on both spots and both signings lost their starting jobs to the same homegrown guys we ended last season with at LB and RB.
3. Lee clearly didn't anticipate and plan for all the departures this past offseason. Getting a pulse of a player's desire the stay or go and then building contingency plans around those possibilities is Lee's job and not something he should be given a pass on.
4. Lee did nothing in the first transfer window to address our wildly apparent hole at ST and then when the second window opened he took nearly the entire window to bring guys on board while other teams around the league had their signings ready to go day 1. Our big signing in Ferendez came so late and is so young he's still being eased into the lineup.
5. Santi was not enough of a difference-maker this season to warrant a DP spot. Now that one of the 3 DP spots is a "young DP" which will always come with a higher degree of variability due to age there is even more pressure to use the other 2 DP spots on true difference-makers. Santi is a very good player but he was not elevating the team the way DPs on successful teams do.
6. This is probably just the frustration of the latest results talking but is this roster any good or do we all, myself included, just keep saying the team is good and we are set up well for next year because these are our guys? Perea was so far down the Philadelphia depth chart that they loaned him to an intraconference rival and for his time with us he looked like one of our best players. Compare our lineup and bench to the championship game and every position is either equal in quality or worse:
2021 Championship game/2023 DC Game
GK - Johnson/Freese (slightly worse)
LB - Gray/Gray (equal)
CB - Chanot/Martins (equal but Martins in a DP)
CB - Callens/Risa (TBD Risa looks solid but it's hard to imagine him being as good as Callens)
RB - Thor/O'Toole (equal)
CM - Sands/Sands (equal)
CM - Moreles/Perea (equal, 2021 Morales was much better than the 2023 version)
CAM - Maxi/Santi (worse)
LW - Santi/Mango (worse)
RW - Medina/Jasson (worse)
ST - Taty/Bakrar (worse)
'21 Bench - Magno, Heber, ITS, Thiago, Acevedo, Amundsen, Rocha, Barraza, Zelalem
'23 Bench - Fernandez, Martinez, Parks, Haak, Cufre, Pellegrini, Ledezma, Barraza
The offensive difference on the benches alone is absurd. Comparing to the championship roster is a high bar and some regression is natural but you expect at least a couple of positions to get upgraded if Lee is doing his job well.
