TFC 2022 player in-season roster discussion

[jabbronies]

I disagree. I don't think the kids will learn much more than bad habits and broken confidence in the middle of a tire fire. Some of them aren't even playing in their best position. And they just keep playing them game after game even if they screw up. Makes more sense to mix in about two young guys at a time. And give them some time on the bench if they screw up and then try them again. Don't nail them to the bench forever because of a couple mistakes like in the past: give them opportunity to learn and improve, but also some consequences if they screw up.

And why the hell can't they motivate someone like Akinola to sprint and press if he comes on late and should have more gas in the tank than everyone else? Is the fitness team still THAT bad, or is it a motivation problem? He seemed much more motivated in the past (before his injury). I don't actually want to focus on Ayo too much: we've seen it from other young players that come on and look like they think it's more important to look cool and calm rather than work their asses off and prove themselves. It drives me nuts when vets seem to be working harder than the kids. (Thinking also of guys like Criscito and Bernie, playing for the first time on crappy turf in a hot sticky stadium, late at night due to time change and after a long flight, but just giving it all -- to the point where you worry they're going to injure themselves. Also Oso often trying harder than some young guys.) BTW this issue with the kids goes back before BB's time.
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There's no tire fire here. I don't get this idea that the current situation is a disaster. The tire fire was last year. We cleared all that shit out and we are literally building from the ground up...well maybe from the top down, but we also did that the first time around with MB Jozy and Gio. People are still crying about Auro - meanwhile he was one of the fuckers pouring gas on the fire last year. We cleared it all out and whatever was left is what we moved forward with - if it doesn't work, they'll be gone too (see Priso + many others to follow) and they will be replaced too. Mavinga, Bono, some of these kids - all gonna be gone because they don't have that attitude or fight you speak of above.

As for these kids - they are not good enough. They don't have the skill or IQ and it's clear as day when you watch them play - it's not the difficult things they are fucking up - it's the basics. At 19, 20 years old, the basics shouldn't be the thing you are fucking up. it's the more complicated things that you need to work on - that's not happening with these kids.

Take last night for example - by the 20th minute all of the vets on the right hand side of the pitch gave up on Kosi. Aside from some basic recycling of the ball, they all tuned him out. and he stopped receiving the ball or been involved in any build up play. He can't do anything other than cycling the ball around.

On the other end of the pitch, Nelsen had a bit more to do as his IQ is a tad stronger than Kosi's - but he was a dead end as well. These kids put themselves into stupid situations. They play as if they are in FIFA holding on to the ball for too long, making odd ball runs that don't make sense - these are basic things. Football isn't a complicated sport. They are over complicating it because they don't have the IQ to process it any other way. They get lost in their own heads.

I mentioned Petrasso being the only one progressing from this group and the response was he was pedestrian at best (or something along those lines) Ya - he was, that's what he should be at this level. He's progressed a lot since the start of the season and has continued to do as. He's not great, but that'll take a couple years to perfect. But you can see there is more trust from the vets in him than the in others.The others are below pedestrian. They are still struggling with being basic.

I'm concerned that BB may be too thick-headed in certain situations -- but I'm willing to wait and see how things work out for a longer time. Especially if and when more players come in to fill gaps. Also waiting to see if they find a graceful way for MB to find a reduced role, or if there's more thick-headedness shown there in the future.
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I've heard this before and I'm more in the mind frame of why alter your system if you know in 3 months time you'll be getting the pieces in that you need to deploy your system properly. Insigne and Berna don't slot in the way they did Saturday by us altering our vision in order to earn a few extra points here and there.

But I'm absolutely certain that TFC's scouting sucks. We've had some decent finds recently: Jiminez, O'Neill, MacNaughton and a few others that can play a decent role on an MLS team. But I still think it's completely nuts that Manning boasted about scrolling through Transfermarkt looking for out-of-contract Italians. Of course lots of top teams use Transfermarkt, but is it the team president doing that, especially at the initial phase of searching for prospects? Ogthedim can tell us more about organizational theory, but it seems completely bananas. A team president doing that is either not doing a very good job as a president, or as a scout, or both. Unless the president happens to have a very strong background in international scouting and kind of does that as a hobby -- but that's not the case for Manning.

There are people you can hire for a few $100k, that aren't under the salary cap, that don't need to search through Transfermarkt for out-of-contract players in the big leagues -- because they already know those players by heart. And that also know the players that will be out of contract in 6 or 12 months, that can be had for minimal to no transfer fees, because both the player and team are ready to move forward to clear space for the next player -- and because the player wants more playing time, change of scenery, etc.

TFC seems to do very lousy job of finding value, instead throw money at things, and trust so much in certain agents. Sure I'm happy and surprised that Insigne is here. Maybe he's always a good deal and very marketable. But overall they could find better value and performance for the current budget. And yes we do end up paying for it somehow, e.g. by running out of cap space. But even if they're DPs not under the cap, we pay for it in ticket & concession prices; in telecom & content prices and lousy services; in returns on our pension plans or stocks & mutual funds (since Rogers and Bell are some of the biggest holdings in many of those).

Honestly and I say this in the nicest way - When it comes to DPs - Fuck value. Get the best players you can afford. MLSE can fucking afford it. Hats off to Manning for scanning the transfer market, finding the best players he could and then going after them. The guy had a vision and went after it. He didn't wait around for Bob or whomever to settle and then begin their search. He didn't waste any time and just did it because he knew it fit in with the vision he had for the club. So what, he did a bit of grease work. it got done - with no transfer fee. and here we are - with people (not pointing directly at you Auzzy) but many others bitching about us landing two solid elite players. Either because they are..Italian or they were found on the transfermarkt website or because of some agent shenanigans - who gives a fuck - we got them.

If you want value you do that with TAM and lower. They did that with Jesus and McNotty. They'll do even more value finds in this off season scouring MLS and other lower markets.