Alleged TFC target Ronald Pierre-Gabriel has signed with Dinamo Zagreb.
Alleged TFC target Ronald Pierre-Gabriel has signed with Dinamo Zagreb.
Yet to be determined. I wouldn’t hang my hat on anything Hernandez has done yet. Although it’s more of a grade of incomplete rather than one of failureOriginally Posted by bought with blo
I agree.
To be fair that sentence was
I'd change "is trying" to "tries" and leave it at that. Hernandez might be trying to get something Herdman can work with - not enough data to say for sure but so far nothing has indicated a "why the heck THAT guy?!?" thing going on.We also have the fact that a good GM is trying to structure a team for his coach.
yep, good points.
trading blessing and using $$ to bring in a top MLS CB is badly needed if we're going to play 3 CBs.
i believe the most burning needs we still have are CB (ideally 2), a starting 9 and another wingback.
Last edited by leedsandTFC; 02-07-2024 at 06:04 PM.
Awesome.
We can't go into the season with these CBs from what I saw last yr.
I would accept some kind of a trade within the league anything but this current setup.
While I still believe in Mabika, going into the season with him, O'Neill and Rosted/Petretta as your starting CBs in a back three and Franklin/JMR as your wingbacks definitely screams that we are conceding 3+ goals a game.
Yeh we need more speed & nuance and leadership back there
&
I still think if the balance in front of him is created right, and that's a large if....having a midfield destroyer will make a big difference to our goals against - like from 3 to 2.
Left-field? Was rumoured to Türkiye after TFC quieted.
yeah we need 2 more starting CBs if we're gonna be playing back 3.
laryea would be useful too if we could get him, could fill in on both sides as a fullback and has performed very well in herdman's system
I’m under the impression that like the last match of the season, Petretta will be used as a left of three CB unless JMR and Spicer between them can’t handle LWB. And Stephanovic sounds like he may be given a shot. RWB is only Franklin esp if Blessing is gone… unless I’m missing someone.
Sort of in our profile window. A striker we were looking at last year who had 15 goals in Ligue 2 also went to Eastern Europe, Hungary if I recall correctly.
We really should have been more active in second- and third-tier European nations years go, but we still don't even have adequate scouting, as far as I can tell, let along a proper network. I'm sure people in the system would disagree, but I'd ask them to provide a list of players we've signed since MLSE took these "scouts" on, as they've all been here at least three years now.
Maybe they've changed overseas faces in the offseason. But my impression is TFC has "Take a look" guys in other countries; they're not proper scouts. That's being done from here, via databases and statistical analysis.
They probably hope the local guys can given them personality details to make sure the player isn't a dick; but we don't have the greatest track record in that area, either.
I'll be surprised if Kobe Franklin is our wingback.
Herdman uses them as primarily wingers; their defensive duties tend to be dropping on the weak side to pickup the CB's space when the CBs slide over to cover the high wing.
So he wants speed and good delivery from there, midfielder qualities, and Kobe doesn't have enough of either, not yet.
Maybe he'll start here by default, but I wouldn't be surprised to see a midfielder like Thompson or Blessing converted, at least temporarily, because they have the speed.
Really, they need to get a competitive CB in. But the bigger need right now is wide speed. We have one player, a college kid coming off NCAA and an ankle injury, who has sufficient speed to play WB in our system. (Well... two if you include Jesus Batiz, but he's probably not ready yet to step into a two-way MLS role. He's very fast and tricky, though.)
if you have ever seen ‘Moneyball’, that’s how I have envisioned TFC scout meetings going.
Well at least it's better than our old YouTube scouting and our more recent Transfermarkt version.
i was at the tfc fan forum thing on monday.
some key points from it:
oso:
- seemed in genuine very good spirits, said it's best he's felt in his career mentally and physically
- his armband is going to be custom made and have the supporter groups emblems inside of it, alongside the date he made his debut and the date tfc won mls cup
- promised that he'll make every single player go and applaud the fans in south stand regardless of result
herdman:
- heavy on both corporate motivational speak but also decent analysis
- analysis on MLS concluded:
- toughest league in the world to get an away win. will change the way the team travels etc in same way they did for canada to try to make it easier
- most goals in world as a proportion scored in transition, meaning team will be high pressing
- mls has heavy imbalance in terms of quality of attackers vs defender, so will have 5 at the back to give numerical advantage (noted that most the consistently successful MLS teams play 5 atb)
- didn't stop crowd or discourage when crowd was cheering for richie to come back. potential transfer?
- a couple more players expected this week, hoping to have join in 2nd training camp
fin.
hernandez and manning were both there. i realized we now have sean rubio, john herdman + staff and jason hernandez doing the same job that bob was doing by himself last year.
It is. And how!
I understand your position within the context of MLS perceptions and realities; more than reasonable. And, even more likely considering those players opinions of self and own expectations. The Italians at the wings have simply not produced results as expected. With Herdman we will now see if the issue was in part a question of coaching personality/style. If it is also a question of the supporting cast to the Italians on the wings, we will see if a culture change will in part reboot all the other teammates confidence and play into better cohesion. It may, as well, be a question in part of tactics and formation flexibility. As for Bernardeschi, IMO, he performed best and was most productive, within the Fiorentina system; which sometimes used the 3-4-3. There he was used in multiple roles, essentially ‘wide’ either as R-W/WB/M, or L-W/WB/M; yet also as C-AM. When on the right he was at times behind or in front of Chiesa. I concede my suggestion to be hopeful/far-fetched, and more than probable, just a possible tactical and formational solution to get TFC’s best current assets all on the pitch. If a double pivot, Flores on the right, would cover Bernardeschi’s wanderings. I am fine with a front two of Bernardeschi, Insigne with Osorio in the hole of a mid five if a Laryea type is at RWB. I am fine with Bernardeschi or Insigne in that hole with others like Kerr or Owusu upfront and Osorio paired with Flores. I am most worried that TFC’s default this season again is a front three of Bernardeschi on the right, Kerr/Owusu in the centre and Insigne on the left. I believe that needs to be shaken up somehow. Maybe a healthy Mailula adds initiative to the attack?
Last edited by Mr. Inbetween; 02-08-2024 at 11:34 AM.
I'd prefer to see him at CF so his dibbling into mutliple defenders and losing the ball would be mitigated and mostly all defensive responsibility would be as well. Plus he has good feet and it'd be nice if he was forced to shoot from somewhere other than his one favorite spot that's easy to defend since you know where he's working to get too every time he gets the ball. Same for Insigne but him I would like to see him more centrally or more east, like in Turkey.
That’s all fair. The point I am trying to probably badly convey is that Herdman somehow needs to shake it up more on the pitch; positionally for the Italians.
Interesting.
Could the following comment be then interpreted as more of an issue or question to maintain whatever goodwill gains that may have been achieved so far of squad culture and cohesion under Herdman’s style? That is, in the sense that simply bringing someone in at a position without similar outgoing may just reignite feelings of discontent and disunity within certain corners of a still fragile dressing room?
Or simply, really a problem of International Spots?
Check out this tweet at [URL]https://twitter.com/JohnMolinaro/status/1755618069701865821[/URL]
i think there are 2 signings pretty far along (per hernandez on monday).
but after that looks like outgoings needed before more incomings.
would rather we took our time tbh. we saw last year how badly it can hurt you long term if you try to build too fast.
Looks like Richie could be getting a chance with Forrest to finish out the season in England.
Check out this tweet at https://twitter.com/BBCRNS/status/1755644104216612976?s=20
I was thinking more about who we have if Blessing is gone. So much depends on what is possible… give us Alastair Johnson and Richie and yeah, I’ll agree. But that’s the question, who can play those roles for us?
wow, that is news!
Because Turner is still there?
My guess is Forrest would like to keep Richie around in case of relegation. If they stay up, they'll sell him. If they go down, good chance he gets a legit shot to earn a spot.
They moved one of their main wingbacks the other day, likely because of financial fair play, and now only have three experienced on the roster, plus a couple of kids who could step in.
But the fact that Richie is the guy they've chosen is very good, yes. He'll almost certainly get some playing time behind Neco Williams, as they have other options they didn't go with.
Nuno may have seen his offensive upside, which they need, or there may have been enough external interest to realize that five appearances was not a fair shot.
I think Richie ran into Steve Cooper wanting to rebuild his squad with mostly domestics, and trying to fight an internal power struggle over who handled the signings. Marinakis wasn't going to fire his own kid, which meant either Dane Richards or Cooper had to go, and Cooper was beloved at the time.
So everyone Richards identified -- mostly foreign players -- got benched or loaned out.
But he never really did get a shot there, and in his limited appearances, local press said he acquitted himself so well they were puzzled he hadn't gotten more of a chance.
Surprised Zach Brault-Guillard hasn't got a new team yet. Always thought he was decent depth at least.
Romell Quioto is also out of contract again after his new team in the UAE league released him after less than a month. Decent player but probably doesn't fit what we need right now.
Yeah, it was certainly Cooper and the politics of the moment. But when someone doesn’t get an initial shot at a club sometimes things don’t change.
If they’re asking too much in transfer fees for him to come back to MLS, it makes sense that they use him. Making sense, in this situation, is refreshing.
I think I saw every match Richie played with them and he did well enough for a proper shot. And certainly the fans responded to him. In his last match they were cheering almost every time he touched the ball. He had a couple of good moments in his pinched zones to the right of goal that suggested he could be thrilling. Probably though if Cooper was really using him he would have been given a shot on the other side when they really needed someone there. Too, his impressive world cup appearances didn’t seem to alter his standing at the club at all.
The team is now in California for the second part of training camp. Isn't this where we were promised by Hernandez and Herdman more bodies in camp?
Posting Permissions
