Quick start to this one.
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He's ready. Sign him up.
Babouli probably replaces Moore on the roster
It's important that we find a transfer for Moore now that Babouli is really establishing himself. Need to clear that roster spot. Endoh could get a contract also, though I see him spending time with TFC II as well.
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A lot depends on Simonin's situation. I mean, even if he's back relatively early in the season, he still has to get up to game speed, at which point, he's still, at best, fourth on the depth chart.
I think he has great potential, and if we can get rid of Moore somehow before the roster has to be finalized, great. But if not, it makes more sense to me to drop a defender down, as we know have six CBs on the senior team.
I would caution on suggesting anybody is establishing himself or going down based on preseason games not streamed.
We're going to run into problems at the back again this season if we drop Simonin to TFC II. History has taught us that 5 CBs isn't enough. I'd also rate him as our fourth, possibly third CB when fit. If he's going to be out long term, then we get the roster spot back anyways. If not, then for the love of sport, send down someone who isn't going to actually be needed like Hamilton.
And yet it took seven different CBs, plus Morrow playing at CB to get through last season. We shouldn't really need more than 4 cbs, but we will. We always do. CB is also probably the one position where you don't want to have to deputize players from other positions. With midfield and attack, you can change around your formation to suit the players you have available, but you pretty much always need two CBs.
Even Kantari was injured at times: http://www.torontosun.com/2015/09/06...tfc-in-seattle
I feel like we're suffering from recency bias here. Yes, we "used" seven CBs last year but that number is slightly misleading since Kantari was brought in to replace Caldwell, Simonin only played like once when we had a perfect storm of injuries (Caldwell/Perquis/Zavaleta all out the same week) and Williams wasn't entirely brought in to cover for injuries, he was brought in because our defence was ungodly crap - Hagglund was available but played less than 10 minutes after he came back from his appendix surgery.
I'm not trying to diminish the importance of CBs or having depth in that position, I'm just saying it seems unlikely that we're going to have 3 players out injured at the same time again or have to deal with mid season retirements and whatnot. Just look at the year previous, we got by ok with Caldwell, Henry, Hagglund and Agbossoumonde(I think?). The year before that we also had some crazy things happen like the O'Dea mid season transfer and Califf mid season retirement but I still don't think we used more than 5 different CBs total? Obviously without roster restrictions I'd like to have 5+ CBs but with the roster as it is, I think asking for MORE than 5 is overkill.
I could be wrong but I can't remember any MLS team carrying 5 or more CBs on their senior roster at the beginning of last season. I thought most carried 4 and usually one or two guys loaned to USL like we did?
Okay, so you drop Simonin to the USL for the whole season. Keeping in mind that we don't have cap space to replace him with anyone not on league minimum, who do you bring in in his place that will have more of an impact this season?
Right now we're talking one of these players going to TFC II: Hamilton, Babouli, Endoh, or Simonin. If you send down Simonin, the fourth CB is going to be Zavaleta, and you'll have seven attackers competing for two spots. Or, you can send down Hamilton for the season, have Simonin available when he's fit, and have Babouli and Endoh as the young backups up front.
The way I see it, Simonin is the 4th CB in the depth chart as it is, and so we're already starting one CB down. With Perquis as a starter, it's a matter of time before our CB situation is Moor - Williams and Zavaleta and Hagglund on the bench. I'd be a lot more comfortable with Simonin back in there.
Oh, I hear you. I just think 4 is asking for trouble.
By "carry 5" I mean have 5 CD's available. Most teams carry 5 that are usable in league games and use all 5 throughout the season.
Personally, I think we have 1 too many defenders and I would not be surprised if Hagglund was dealt.
Preseason but nice to see Seba do that stop and score. That was Lovitz down the left BTW.
Last edited by OgtheDim; 02-06-2016 at 11:33 PM.
And how exactly would that solve the problem of being one injury away from only having Zavaleta on the bench? My whole point is that we need Simonin on THIS team. I'd rather send him on a temp loan to TFC II than to another MLS team if we need to get him minutes. But we're talking about roster spots, so temp loans to the USL are irrelevant to the discussion since they don't free up roster space
Wrap up from the day with some quotes on Babouli and Endoh. Liking the sound of this:
Giovinco is picking up where he left off in 2015, scoring four goals in three preseason games. But it was the play of two youngsters that became the biggest story to emerge from the past 10 days.
Babouli and 2016 first round pick Tsubasa Endoh were standouts in Southern California, so much so that it’s possible both are on the first team roster when the Reds travel to Red Bull Arena for the season opener on March 6th.
“They definitely have a shot,” said head coach Greg Vanney following the match. “They’re two guys who have taken on the responsibilities we’ve given them for their positions. They’ve done so professionally in a way where they don’t look shy against the opponent regardless if it was the three teams we played before or today against the Galaxy.”
Veteran defender Drew Moor echoed his head coach’s sentiments.
“Endoh and Mo have been fantastic so far this preseason and really all the young guys,” said Moor.
“You can just tell they want to learn and they’re hungry to be involved. To be able to play with and learn from some of the players we have, to be in hotels with them and to be in meals with them. Some of these guys are ready to start games with the first team. Whether they do or not is not up to them, it’s up to the coaches, but it’s always good to have a deep squad. You saw today there’s plenty of guys on this team that can start when March 6th rolls around.”