Absolutely he has played in the midfield before. Bradley also mentioned this in a press conference recently.Originally Posted by jloome
Absolutely he has played in the midfield before. Bradley also mentioned this in a press conference recently.
LEWIS O’BRIEN is waiting to speak to one of THREE MLS clubs in America.
New York City, Columbus Crew and Atlanta United all want the Nottingham Forest outcast.
well that was to good to be true.but its ok we will add depth in the next 3 seasons
I do not mind some out-of-the-box thinking-tinkering. If warranted... in a midfield pinch situation... then my suggestion would be Siggi as the CDM with MacNaughton in his stead as RCB.
According to transfermarkt he's played as a striker, a winger and an attacking midfielder -- a number 10.
He's never played as a number eight, two-way midfielder, which is what we play.
Maybe BB is resigned to using a number 10ish player this year? Would make sense with VV as the fourth option and because Oso playing a bit higher is very dangerous as a trailer.
Must be cap issues, as I know for certain O'Brien's people contacted TFC and TFC were looking into it. Or O'Brien was more attracted to other options.
Could still be an option. Not sure where Reggie got the source, but Manning didn't shoot down the player as an option in his little presser the other day.
it was the US SUN ...and i got that from total tfc on twitter.which is a real good site for tfc news
Yeah, the guy who runs that account is really good.
It's quite possible it's all four.
It depends how the question was asked. I believe O'Brien's people contacted every team.
I’m sorry, I know I’m nitpicking, but Kosi playing RB was consistently one of the worst performers on the team last year, he looked absolutely clueless. Maybe he can prove himself if he is shifted back to midfield.
jiminez not coming on today, does anyone know if he's injured?
if not, be shocked if he wasnt being moved on to make cap space for another CM+ fullback.
probs jus injured.he had a promo thing with our beautiful new kit today
yes, but that promo was done a while back.
let's see, that's 2 games in a row he's not started, his budget charge is like a mill. if he's not starting he's gonna be shipped out
yes i know...but it was his twitter page showing the new kit.but i agree he has to move we need help in the mid
yep.
giving the manning comments about things having to happen before anyone comes in, could easily see JJ moving out so help supplement the mid and fullback positions.
especially as ayo looked better than he has in about 18 months tonight.
I'm just not sure who would take JJ at his current cap hit, moving him on won't be easy
Is anyone else alarmed by how terrible our midfield looked last night? We got completely outplayed by LA in the middle of the park. MAK couldn't keep the ball or complete a forward pass.
My optimism from yesterday is gone.
Without another starting midfielder, we are toast.
Mak needs to be better on the ball, looked sloppy last night. I'm hoping was done preseason sharpness issues as he's only played 150 mins since November
Galaxy do have the best midfield in the league though, puig brugman Delgado is a very good 3.
I agree we absolutely need another starting level CM though, maybe 2 (with one who can slot in at fullback too).
Defensively we looked miles better than last season. I think they got in behind us about once all game (the goal) and was largely a communication issue which should be resolved w more time together.
All in all, still work to be done, squad wise, but lots of positive signs
Last edited by leedsandTFC; 02-19-2023 at 10:24 AM.
We did look better defensively, no question there. Ayo and Dio also looked pretty good going forward.
But the midfield, yuck. MAK needs to be better or we need to add another CM.
On a positive note - Insigne and Berna had some good chances. On another night, we win or tie that game. Dio's goal was taken away, richie was robbed by VAR, and Insigne wasn't sharp enough despite some good chances. Over the course of a season, our Italians will score some of those chances, right? RIGHT?
A lot of those things (sharpness in front of goal, familiarity) will only improve.
And yeah we should have had 1 if not 2 pens and a very marginal offside.
And away at galaxy is one of the tougher games in the league and we had comfortably the best of it.
But yes, takeaway is another midfielder who can play 20 games+ per year needed
I don't think he'll be moved. His cap his is too high for a nine-goal player, and his flexibility in playing all three front positions makes him valuable depth for us. We're going to lose players up front. He can play all three positions at a reasonably high level. And he's technically superior to most of our squad, so he's not going to fuck up when he comes in.
I'll bet he starts 20 games this year.
The only way we trade him is if we're getting a central midfielder who's starting quality and probably a winger as well. Can't see anyone giving that up for a single player if he's not a guaranteed starter.
Plenty of teams end up with TAM (or even DP) players working off the bench, for the same reason: the squad improves slightly but they have a fairly hefty contract.
To me, the interesting take right now is how BB handles the midfield if MAK doesn't show marked improvement. If he continues to look sub-standard, is he stubborn about it, or do we get someone in?
Last edited by jloome; 02-19-2023 at 11:43 AM.
The priority to address seems to be in the midfield. However, an emerging immediate concern, problem adjacent, may be MAK over 'the other guy'; given the practical club politics involved.
Roster’s been constructed so poorly. Like so poorly. The cap space issue is why I criticize some of the moves like MAK where you give up a shit ton of GAM, a strong asset and take on a big contract, even though the player is decent.
Listened to the audio of the match (not at all proper radio just a feed of the TV audio) so couldn’t tell much… but if Kaye doesn’t come around we’ll probably be in real trouble. That Beezer Manning interview was a bit disturbing when he spoke about “blooding” the kids last season and how depth wasn’t a top priority. I think that’s okay if you have an academy that has been producing really useful talent but if not (as in our case) you’re rolling the dice.
I found the Vanney interview in the audio before the match kind of refreshing. He said straight out that they “need 3 or 4 players”. I guess our cap is close to maxed out… I wonder if we’re using the million in GAM from the Nelson sale to pay for players already signed?
I also wonder why they aren't using all the mechanisms. We have 2 U22 spots that only count as I believer $200,000 each against the cap. How can we not find room for a third DP and 2 U22 spots?
I am worried.
Part of management’s answer to your question of why not use the U 22 and DP now is that there is a need to see what exactly is needed. And to do this the group needs to play together. A reasonable and no doubt prudent answer given all the turnover.
At the same time I wonder if we had a GM whose primary job was to find and sign players if that might be more active than a coach/sporting director who will have his hands full once the season begins. Same thought as last season, actually.
I have asked for any community clarification on this matter before... Perhaps the TFC cap is still being haunted/affected by the Altidore 'buy-out' this season.
I wouldn’t be surprised if it was still haunted by multiple players who left last year.
I’ve liked the players they’ve signed more or less, but the outlay on acquisitions and way they’ve let go of assets is going to skewer this club. I feel like I’m pre-2014 again (obviously much better team), the roster is entirely handicapped by its own construction. We might be sitting here until next year or the year after until these cap issues get sorted.
Bill Manning is out here throwing commercial numbers as if this club hasn’t been shit for two years reads to me as “don’t fire me I make money”.
I too suspect there must still be quite a few other financial red-ink ghosts roaming their ledger. Understand your outlay point; fair and likely. Some of that was probably management inertia with unnecessary retention and salary creep from 2017. I truly hope you are wrong and this gets self-resolved by TFC by the end of this season at most; otherwise I pray for some happenstance revisions of and relief by MLS rules and regulations. Manning is most definitely really addressing that sentiment exactly. Nay pleaing, in corporate doublespeak, from any and every podium opportunity and to only one audience... the MLSE Board.
Last edited by Mr. Inbetween; 02-20-2023 at 11:46 AM.
This is kind of where I'm at. It's been such a mixed bag. On paper, bar a few issues (mid field which we won't get into to not kick off WWIII, we lack a proven striker option, and depth) the starting XI is pretty decent (With arguably the two best players in the league on it, good enough to carry a hell of alot of weakness) and we go into summer with an open DP slot. I can see this team contending if we're able to make some good signings in the summer AND if the roster gambles and injuries bounce in our favour.
However, once salaries etc are out, I have a similar fear. We've bloated the roster with some high cap hit gambles and made some pretty poor trades in what we've had to give up. If they work out, we may be able to get by. But if they don't pay off (And there's alot of unknowns), we won't be able to ship them, and that will cripple us going forward.
So basically we may be making a huge, all in gamble on this group of players to all work out and have no recovery options or exit strategy if it backfires. We've staked out future in order to get one shot at the present, and what we've landed with is not exactly a guaranteed elite squad
We'll know much more when the true state of our cap is revealed and when we see how this group of players work out but I do worry we've thought too short term and even that short term is pretty questionable
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