TFC 2014-15 Off-Season player moves/speculation/rumours/etc. thread

[Pookie]

oddsmakers have it a push between tfc, dc united and new england for two of these three teams to take the top two spots in the east for 2015 season
so according to the oddsmakers this should be a very good season for tfc

Talking about this today with friends. They were saying that TFC should "make the playoffs."

I realized that I actually don't care about the playoffs but would absolutely love it if they won the Shield. 12 of 20 teams make it? C'mon. That should be the assumption in any season. Winning a shortened little tournament being greater than a season long accomplishment? I don't know. I'm not buying the playoffs… maybe because we haven't been in it… but I think this is an issue that MLS has to address soon as I don't think I'm alone in this.

[DeRo Fan #1]

Engel released from camp as per TFC twitter

This mean he's not signing right?


Any news on DeRo lately?
I really hope someone signs him.

[OgtheDim]

As I said last season - I just want to sit there at a home game and know we have a better then average opportunity to win, to have a clean sheet and to be competitive.


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We are not a shield class team.

I think we are a playoff quality team, on paper. But, we looked like a playoff team last season until about the beginning of June and then got found out. We'll see if Vanney can adjust, cause if we come out with any coherent plan that works, other teams will adjust to us as well.

I think we can be a shield contender in 2016. But, that's a LONG way away.

[MightyDM]

As I said last season - I just want to sit there at a home game and know we have a better then average opportunity to win, to have a clean sheet and to be competitive.


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We are not a shield class team.

I think we are a playoff quality team, on paper. But, we looked like a playoff team last season until about the beginning of June and then got found out.

I don't see the same narrative about last year, and I think it matters for this year. Last year, our decline in form came about when Defoe was hurt, and post World Cup, because of Bradley's play. I thought that the problem with Bradley was that he tried to do too much, and they couldn't find someone to cover for him. But now they are saying he was hurt the whole time. I think that makes the narrative "we were a playoff team with a healthy Bradley and Defoe, without them we weren't." This year, we may have a little more skill and a little more depth, particularly at the back, so perhaps injuries to Altidore/ Giovinco or Bradley/ Altidore won't affect the results as much, but I still think it's most likely that the playoffs depend on these guys staying injury free. And that's the real lesson from last year.

[Canary10]

I suspect he was asking for too much money; maybe the same with Nana. It's expensive as shit to live in NY, even in the burbs. If you're not either already well-off or a kid starting out, why stay?

Chicago traded him after his rookie of the year season. So there must have been something they saw in him that they didn't like.

[GuelphStorm2007]

I don't see the same narrative about last year, and I think it matters for this year. Last year, our decline in form came about when Defoe was hurt, and post World Cup, because of Bradley's play. I thought that the problem with Bradley was that he tried to do too much, and they couldn't find someone to cover for him. But now they are saying he was hurt the whole time. I think that makes the narrative "we were a playoff team with a healthy Bradley and Defoe, without them we weren't." This year, we may have a little more skill and a little more depth, particularly at the back, so perhaps injuries to Altidore/ Giovinco or Bradley/ Altidore won't affect the results as much, but I still think it's most likely that the playoffs depend on these guys staying injury free. And that's the real lesson from last year.

I think Fatigue was the main reason for Bradleys decline late in the season he played a lot of footy and he covered a good chunk of the Americas. Plus I think the whole Defoe affair kind of screwed them up also....

[sashavukelich]

I think Fatigue was the main reason for Bradleys decline late in the season he played a lot of footy and he covered a good chunk of the Americas. Plus I think the whole Defoe affair kind of screwed them up also....

that and the Bone-spur that he needed to surgery for this off-season. Guy was playing w/ Pain injections

[Red I]

Chicago traded him after his rookie of the year season. So there must have been something they saw in him that they didn't like.

There seems to be attitude or work-ethic issues with Berry - I don't know if that's the case, but seems to be the narrative with him on comments in forums and the like

[Jpexxx]

Marcel De Jong on trail with Kansas.

Too bad, always been a big fan of his. At least he's not at Montreal...

http://www.sportingkc.com/news/2015/...ond-cup-roster

[ronzilla]

I don't see the same narrative about last year, and I think it matters for this year. Last year, our decline in form came about when Defoe was hurt, and post World Cup, because of Bradley's play. I thought that the problem with Bradley was that he tried to do too much, and they couldn't find someone to cover for him. But now they are saying he was hurt the whole time. I think that makes the narrative "we were a playoff team with a healthy Bradley and Defoe, without them we weren't." This year, we may have a little more skill and a little more depth, particularly at the back, so perhaps injuries to Altidore/ Giovinco or Bradley/ Altidore won't affect the results as much, but I still think it's most likely that the playoffs depend on these guys staying injury free. And that's the real lesson from last year.

Losing two of the three (Gio, Altidore, and Bradley) to injuries would be disastrous. Vanney needs to make sure that he doesn't burn these players out and if the reds are leading by 2-3 goals, there's no need to have all these 3 key players on the field, late in the game and risk injury.

Depending on the game, Vanney needs to make sure players are well rested by occasionally subbing them off.

[brad]

Losing two of the three (Gio, Altidore, and Bradley) to injuries would be disastrous. Vanney needs to make sure that he doesn't burn these players out and if the reds are leading by 2-3 goals, there's no need to have all these 3 key players on the field, late in the game and risk injury.

Depending on the game, Vanney needs to make sure players are well rested by occasionally subbing them off.

If this is true, we are still in the same predicament as previous years. An average to bad team being carried by one or more quality players. A good team will get results without the DP's, the DP's will make them better. LA 2 or 3 years ago were a perfect example. They lost all 3 DP's for a period of time and were still able to get results without them.

That said, obviously your DP's can/should take you up in quality a few notches or they aren't worth the money. I wouldn't expect the same points total over the same set of games with or without the DP's (if so - the DP's would not be performing). But we should be capable of picking up a good number of points without them, and certainly not being in a disastrous state without them.

If we are that dependent on the 3, we will be in trouble when we lose Bradley and Altdiore for the better part of July for the Gold Cup.

[ManUtd4ever]

Very few, if any teams in the league can withstand long term injuries to their top 2-3 players. Such a scenario would certainly not be unique to TFC.

That being said, I think we would still be able to field a decent starting lineup even without our DPs thanks to the depth on the current roster.

[OgtheDim]

Losing two of the three (Gio, Altidore, and Bradley) to injuries would be disastrous. Vanney needs to make sure that he doesn't burn these players out and if the reds are leading by 2-3 goals, there's no need to have all these 3 key players on the field, late in the game and risk injury.

Depending on the game, Vanney needs to make sure players are well rested by occasionally subbing them off.

They are actually logging every minute of exercise and downtime all players do, noting anything related to past injuries as well. Its why Altidore sat on the side one day last week but participated later.

[Canary10]

They are actually logging every minute of exercise and downtime all players do, noting anything related to past injuries as well. Its why Altidore sat on the side one day last week but participated later.

I would hope so. Anyone can do that these days. That's a bare minimum a professional sports team should be doing.

[OgtheDim]

I would hope so. Anyone can do that these days. That's a bare minimum a professional sports team should be doing.

Its something Nelsen didn't believe in.

*******

Add, chiming in on my twitter feed at that moment

Devin Pleuler ‏@devinpleuler 2m2 minutes ago I’ve joined @torontofc as their Manager of Analytics. I’m deeply appreciative of the opportunities granted to me by both @OptaPro and @MLS.

[Canary10]

Its something Nelsen didn't believe in.

Is that true or just one of those rumours repeated as truth? I find it hard to believe none of the trainers they have on staff wouldn't be doing basic tracking even if Nelsen didn't look closely at it.

[Initial B]

Is that true or just one of those rumours repeated as truth? I find it hard to believe none of the trainers they have on staff wouldn't be doing basic tracking even if Nelsen didn't look closely at it.

Wasn't the trainer fired along with the majority of the coaching staff? That should say it all.

[Canary10]

Wasn't the trainer fired along with the majority of the coaching staff? That should say it all.

Doesn't say anything about whether athletes were being tracked for basic stuff.

I've heard Nelsen isn't a fan a moneyball style soccer metrics and Banney is. But that's not at all the same thing.

[jloome]

There seems to be attitude or work-ethic issues with Berry - I don't know if that's the case, but seems to be the narrative with him on comments in forums and the like

This is MLS. He probably just asked for more money.

[jloome]

Is that true or just one of those rumours repeated as truth? I find it hard to believe none of the trainers they have on staff wouldn't be doing basic tracking even if Nelsen didn't look closely at it.

They hired a guy for him from California to work on the psychology of improvement and Nelsen refused to even acknowledge the dude on any professional basis; had him on staff for half the season without using him. And my source on that is pretty damn good.

[jloome]

I would hope so. Anyone can do that these days. That's a bare minimum a professional sports team should be doing.

Opta tracks games. But the equipment they use is permanently installed at each client stadium, so technically it can gather data all the time. This is probably the guy going over both OPTA and training data. Makes sense to me; raw data's not always the easiest thing to interpret.

[Canary10]

They hired a guy for him from California to work on the psychology of improvement and Nelsen refused to even acknowledge the dude on any professional basis; had him on staff for half the season without using him. And my source on that is pretty damn good.

To me that's different. Even a personal trainer at a Goodlife can do some basic tracking of key athletic metrics - heart rate during workouts, resting heart rate, blood lactate, sleep patterns - stuff like that. I'd be very surprised if Nelsen had no trainers using that. The psychology stuff is a bit different. Some people highly believe in it, some think it's BS. I know some Olympic level athletes who don't use any of it.

[OgtheDim]

The amount of overtraining would indicate otherwise. And all indications are TFC are doing far more then monitoring during work outs and sleep patterns. Was anybody wearing the monitoring bras last season, for example?

[Canary10]

The amount of overtraining would indicate otherwise.

That's possible, yeah. But tracking people doesn't necessarily stop injuries. Overuse injuries maybe, but not catastrophic ones. This could be a whole other thread, lol.

[jloome]

The amount of overtraining would indicate otherwise.

This has been a problem since season one; in fact, at one point we brought in one of the "top" fitness experts in the premiership, and he proceeded to so overtrain them that we had more injuries that season than any other. At the end of the year, he fucked off to a job at NIKE. But as Jason Kreis recently noted, fitness training is very different when you're dealing with the start-stop and fatigue of constant long-distance travel. Rather than take that into account, he had our guys doing two-a-days, then doing windsprints up the stadium stairs.

[Red I]

This is MLS. He probably just asked for more money.

Lol true

[Kaz]

I have to wonder if that is because "top" deserves to be in brackets or if when you bring in guys from the "upper flights" they feel it is all about fitness and so they try to earn their keep by working them to injury.

I really hope we finally get to the point that we have enough fitness, not too much and not not enough.

And hiring someone from the Premier League seems silly very few of those sides have to deal with the issue MLS teams do. TFC this year is going to travel no less than 16,500km between March 7th and May 10th assuming they never come home in that period. What Premier League team has to do that?

[brad]

Opta tracks games. But the equipment they use is permanently installed at each client stadium, so technically it can gather data all the time. This is probably the guy going over both OPTA and training data. Makes sense to me; raw data's not always the easiest thing to interpret.

We use Prozone as well. Not sure if that is used for training or not.

[Mark TFC]

Oduro scores for the Limp Act in their friendly against Cruz Azul LOL!

[brad]

This has been a problem since season one; in fact, at one point we brought in one of the "top" fitness experts in the premiership, and he proceeded to so overtrain them that we had more injuries that season than any other. At the end of the year, he fucked off to a job at NIKE. But as Jason Kreis recently noted, fitness training is very different when you're dealing with the start-stop and fatigue of constant long-distance travel. Rather than take that into account, he had our guys doing two-a-days, then doing windsprints up the stadium stairs.

Nelson had them doing 2 a days, or Winsper?

I always thought that part of the injury troubles were also down to a poorly balanced squad where we rely too heavily on a select few players, and we don't rest or rotate them when they need it. Combine that with a trigger happy ownership that sets a tone of looking towards immediate results at all costs, even if that means playing a key player that really needs a rest or rushing a player back from injury. Pure speculation on my part, but something I have wondered about over the years.