TFC 2021-2022 player/coach/GM off-season roster discussion

[jloome]

Much as I generally agree with jloome, I mostly agree with portu on this. I just predict I am going to be less vexed about a poor start than he will.

I don’t think there is any way to accelerate a strategic overhaul like this.

One possible way we could all be wrong: we may have been a lot better than our record last year, and getting rid of unhappy people is always good for any locker room.

Assuming we bring in Jiiminez, I'll bet you a beer we're in a better spot come June than we were last season.

Our biggest problem last year wasn't our offence, meagre as it was. It was that we started every game by giving up a stupid goal in the first 20.

Salcedo and Mavinga in the middle, O'Neill (a regular start for Seattle) as an option? We're instantly better with that.

Soteldo had six assists from open play (four were "secondary" assists). His four goals and six assists weren't a whole lot better than Jacob Shaffelburg's three and three.

Jozy had four goals all season.

Lawrence hasn't actually gone anywhere yet, we're all speculating that based on one rumour a week ago.

Auro hasn't either, but even if he does, I suspect we won't get much worse from O'Neill and the kids on that side.

In the middle, Priso is back, and I rate him at least as useful as a DM as Delgado was as a number eight, given how his quality slid over the last two seasons.

Pozuelo is back and fit, after an offseason with a team-supplied personal trainer.

The only massive loss so far is Richie.

And to top all that off, we have an actual fucking coach, not Chris Armas.

If we started this year with...

------------------Westberg------------------
O'Neil----Salcedo--------Mavinga----Lawrence
------------------Priso/Bradley------------------------
------------Osorio------Pozuelo/Bradley-------------

--Jiminez/Achara--------------------Shaffelburg
------------Jiminez/Peruzza/Akinola (They're saying April but maybe earlier)

....that's not a whole lot less strong than last year. O'Neil is preferred centally but can do the job wide and is an excellent defender.

Outside of Soteldo, that's not far off what we had last year at this time, except we didn't have Poz back, we weren't getting Ayo back in two months and Richie added some speed wide.

But on paper, that's a stronger defensive unit by a FRIGGIN MILE. I think everyone's forgetting what a total bomscare the pairing of Gonzalez/Zavaleta was.

Add in an actual coach who can teach them to play cohesively and... yeah, I think people are badly overreacting on how much we've got to work with.

I think we might actually be better off.