You're doing a good job dude.
Disagree about Giovinco, though; he played wide and central at Parma and was effective in both. Like Oso, as an inverted wing forward. Really, I think he can burn from all over the pitch in MLS; it depends who's in the middle to clean up anything he doesn't pot.
If he's getting double-teamed centrally and muscled away from the play, they can always push him wide and put Hamilton in the middle.
Giovinco is a 2nd striker, not as effective as the point man. He needs to be able to run at defenders and he gets space from his striker partner creating space for him to drop back a little to receive the ball.
As point man, he gets tied up and don't have the room to maneuver around.
“Years have gone by and I’ve finally learned to accept myself for who I am: a beggar for good football.
I go about the world, hand outstretched, and in the stadiums I plead: ‘A pretty move, for the love of God.’
And when good football happens, I give thanks for the miracle and I don’t give a damn which team or country performs it.”
-Eduardo Galeano
Warner to Dynamo for a 2nd
Collen Warner Traded to Houston for a draft pick
Hmmm...depth at CM now bringing Chapman and Manella into the picture.
Makes sense. In a 4-3-3 we have an extra starting caliber midfielder on the bench (odd man out of Bradley, Johnson, Cheyrou and Osorio), Delgado is more suited to it because of how much ground he can cover, and then there's Chapman and Mannella who's close to taking the next step.
Warner is a good bench player and should be able to help Houston. Trading Issey for him is one of TFC's better moves.
We also got a bit of bite in the midfield with Johnson. I like Warner. A starter in much of the league. Just not with this midfield.
Can someone explain to me how we have cut the three top substitutes on our team in return for NOTHING?? We are so thin after our starting lineup it is embarrassing. This has nothing to do with our salary cap as it looks like we have shed over $500,000 in comparison to last year despite being given $875,000 in allocation along with a 5% cap raise. Did we give everyone except the DP's a 50% raise from last year??
I can't see us making the playoffs this year let alone winning MLS Cup, this is just absurd we have 13 MLS caliber players left on the roster by my count
Well unless anyone picks up Moore or Gomez off waivers, we didn't clear their cap hit. Although, there are expectations Gomez will clear waivers and be picked up. So Warner is the first official cap dump to get us roster compliant. It also affords us the opportunity to sign Babouli which I rather have than Gomez. As mentioned above, our midfield depth is extensive so losing Warner isn't a big deal. There are also reports of an "international" signing so we'll see what that brings.
Forwards: Giovinco Altidore
Mids: Bradley, Osorio, Cheyrou, Osorio, Delgado
Defenders: Morrow, Moor, Perquis, Beitashour, Morgan
Keepers: Irwin
Anyone else stepping on the field is not of enough quality to start on an MLS team. I don't know what happened to being 2 deep in every position on the field
Fair point and it could bite us in the ass. On the other hand, guys getting some first team minutes after doing a stint at TFC II is important too. It may be early for this, but long term I hope we can see our academy and development teams providing more of the talent we need, and relying less on the draft and trades.
Do you think that just maybe Vanney believes the younger players are MLS ready? I'm sure a lot of coaches are looking at FC Dallas and Vancouver and how young the teams are (and good). There seems to be a youth movement among the league - the new players coming up through the Academies are all starting to come out better than a lot of the veteran journeymen already. I'm seeing a lot more of these players being picked up by NASL clubs. A rising tide lifts all boats.
Not really, Herc was here for 7 months, 5 of the 7 months he was with the team. He's been with the team during the most important time of the club, and also for all of the 2016 pre-season. Other players have cited him for his presences and what he brings into the locker room.
Sure, maybe his injury record or contract structure is the reason why this might be the right move, but he was rarely injured during his time with Toronto nor should this be done 4 days prior to the season opener. It might seem like my disappointment on this move is because I don't believe Mo's ready, but don't get me wrong. I think Mo should get a shot this year, but I don't think Herc is the guy to cut, this is a huge gamble.
Our midfield depth is good. Our defensive depth, well, you can argue about the quality, but the depth is there. If we lose a midfielder or a defender, we're not scrambling.
Offensive depth is worth a bit of concern though. You'd think we're looking a bringing in another proven player. Who knows, maybe Endoh and Babouli get minutes and we find we really have something in them. Or maybe they're just ok. It's going to take a few games to get an idea of exactly what we're working with up top. But if I'm Bez I'm definitely looking at adding another player up top, and it sounds like he is already.
On another note - Simonin healing.
Check out this tweet at https://twitter.com/CJSimonin/status/705138713844535298
As to our forward depth, I see Osorio and Endoh and Baboulli getting big minutes - hopefully they do good. But, this isn't like last season where we rolled the dice on the defence hoping to get a full season out of Caldwell and for Hagglund to keep going. We went into last season with 2 CD's and a bunch of new kids and a sophomore.
I hope you are right, but I can't see many of them filling in to the quality we want / expect. Hopefully Chapman can step up and Delgado can continue to improve. Endoh has to be an absolute gem for us to improve offensively
I am not sold on Hamilton / Babouli but will bite my tongue as a huge Canada fan
Wow, are our young academy graduates actually going to get to play this year? That's refreshing.
i look at the Whitecaps academy, and their young first team players and I'm extremely envious.
give the kids a chance.
Maybe Williams.
It doesn't matter though because we can't evaluate the quality of new talent unless we're qualified to. Are Endoh or Babouli starter quality? The both looked decent in preseason. Is Babouli better than an aging Gomez? Has Mannella progressed enough to make Warner redundant? It's nuanced unless you've played 150 MLS odd games and contributed.
Last edited by PopePouri; 03-02-2016 at 05:00 PM.
I don't get how we haven't shifted a centreback, Zavaleta makes over 100k the difference in salary between Warner and him is like 35-45k and we can afford to let a young centreback go we have lots of them, what we don't have lots of is veteran MLS midfielders
My assumption is that these CB's don't have any trade value. We picked Williams up on waivers, Zavaleta as through trade but I'm not sure who would want him to be honest. And Hagglund hasn't proven to be a solid cb at all yet. Warner has experience, and has value, hence he was moved.