It’s interesting watching our Berna saga and seeing the same thing in the Saudi league for a number of players, namely Benzema. Huge contract that others teams can’t take on so both players will need to consider that. Difference being we probably want to sell compared to Al Itihad.
I’m still struggling to understand how a cheap loan deal makes sense for TFC, both in the financial and roster rule sense.
It’s addition by subtraction for me. Leaving aside the personal stuff, if we want the attack to move past glacial speed one of these guys has to go.
Appreciating the all look stuck for the time being, team really needs to ask itself what it needs to do to support making LI look like more than an Italian Andy Welsh.
Put more speed around the field and some other good pieces, maybe he’ll look like the world class player we thought we were buying
LI doesn't even need to be super fast physically as long as his decision making and ball movement is quick.
The Arsenal game Saturday was a good example. I think it was their fourth goal, the time from being in Raya's hands to back of the net the other way was 10 seconds. That's the kind of quick movement we've been sorely lacking. Hopefully he can play that kind of game.
Yeup this - The first few games with LI when his morale was still pretty high and he had the good vibes going from joining a new city and club, he wasn't moving all that quick either because of coming back from I think it was a thigh/hamstring tightness - but his chip/lobs into the box or to switch flanks, the hold up play and gravity he creates when he sucks in a dm/wb or dropping deep midfielder... its enough gravity on that wing that even without pace when he's popping off and feeling good (and not feeling greedy), its enough. If we can get that good vibes insigne back, he doesn't need the pace of the fullbacks or an inverted running midfielder/spicer/striker can do the pacey work.
One thing I think he does need to do tho is go full giovinco and messi and reinvent his freekicking/ distance/deadball shooting. He demands the Freekick and last season/even beginning of his time here he couldn't hit the broad side of the barn with that curling shot. He needs to get it on net more then not if he wants to be the guy. Even his outside the box tirragiros were low percentage shots that just ended up killing plays/conceding possession more then adding any value - those are the two spaces he should be hitting the extra hours on the practice pitch to add more value in the mls (remember how much of a weapon those Giovinco freekicks were? Messi ever since he reinvented his freekicks at barca?). He won't get any faster, but his dead ball skills can always be improved and honed
Didn't Herdman say 7 days ago that he would announce the new captain in a couple of days?
"There are some people who might have better technique than me, and some may be fitter than me, but the main thing is tactics. With most players, tactics are missing. You can divide tactics into insight, trust, and daring." - Johan Cruyff
Doyle has us in the “no significant transfers yet” group:
https://www.mlssoccer.com/news/trans...e-clubs-so-far
If the DM we got was an American, Doyle would say it was significant.
Roma reportedly willing to move Belotti in a swap deal. Bernadeschi has history with both their coach in De Rossi and best player in Dybala. Could be a route out if Berna's agent tries hard enough.
Better?!
Check out this tweet at [URL]https://twitter.com/DiMarzio/status/1749501618477789585[/URL]
This has been a dreadfully slow offseason so far. The cap situation must be much worse than any of us realized. Or our reputation as being an awful and dysfunctional team is hindering certain players from committing to TFC.
Oso is Captain.
It was never gonna be anyone else. Just gotta hope Oso can pick it up this year.
They're being exceptionally careful. They only have two spots to fill, assuming we sign Charlie Sharp, and minimal cap space. But Herdman has a long list of players they're interested in.
I wouldn't expect anything significant until closer to day one, because my impression from talking to a couple of folks is they want to free up some space by moving assets before then.
I think that's also why we haven't seen the buyout exercised yet. It'll be last moment, when they're sure they're not going to get enough trade or transfer value to sign any of the pieces they want, potentially.
I don’t think we sign Sharp. I think we had to bring him in for another look given his last season but we have so much bloat at striker already. Is he that much better than Ayo, Perruzza, Kerr, etc? Maybe everyone but Kerr but I can’t see us wasting any roster room for him and if anything, he’s signed to TFC2.
I dunno, they seem pretty high on him. They think he has MLS breakout potential, that he has a natural eye for goal and where to be.
The issue is whether he'll be able to fight for his place in the box and shake MLS-level defenders. If he can't, I still think they'll sign him to a TFC II deal, as you suggest.
It wouldn’t suprise me if we don’t move anyone, or at least anyone of note unless some magic circumstances fall into place re Bernie. It’s not daming though, Hernandez spoke of the possibility at the year end. It seemed likely them and it seems likely now. Hopefully they can at least sign two more meaningful players without moving anyone else.
I appreciate I’m probably the most pessimistic person posting here and I fully expect this season to go down in flames but to not even have a CB replacement for Hedges at this stage just tells me this management team is basically waiting shit out until the mistakes of the past fall off the books.
There’s no serious attempt at pushing for anything meaningful this year. It’s fairly obvious on paper.
That's not my sense of it.
They're working constantly on trying to move pieces, but we're in a very difficult position. We have overrated players on overvalued contracts, a combination that is very hard to shed within MLS rules and still gain cap space, which is what we need.
But with a new MLSE head coming in, and my sense that they've had multiple board-level warnings already, I suspect multiple people's jobs rely on us making the playoffs this year.
I would suspect that Herdman is pragmatic enough to know he can only do as much as he can do. If they can't get him any players, I doubt he's going to be as worried about this year as they are, because he knows he's there to lead a full cultural rebuild.
I think we could be winless through the first two months and he'd still be safe.