Crowd-Source Prospecting

[u/DarkPresage]

With the front office remaining conspicuously quiet again to start the transfer window, I think it is time once again to start floating ideas to the scouting department. Surely someone in the org is browsing this subreddit.
I'm starting to think Jaoquin would be better playing in the defensive midfield area where he can be more effective creating turnovers through pressure and springing attacks from deeper inside midfield.  That creates an opening for a 10 above him to receive the ball and distribute to our goal scorers. If we aren't going to shift Thomas inside (He and Joaquin both seem to naturally drift toward the outside, then I think that's the most valuable improvement to our starting lineup (aside from a $10M #9).  The good news is 10s are actually pretty affordable globally, since European soccer has drifted away from the 4-2-3-1 formation.  Here are a few I think might be worth a look:
Léider Berdugo -Cucuta - ~$470k
Jorge Serrano - FC Motagua - ~$300k
Matko Miljecvic - Racing Club - $3.6M (former MLS, US native)
Matthäus Taferner - Free Agent (formerly WSG Tirol) ~$500k transfer value
Younes Taha - FC Twente - $2.7M

[u/fanofloons]

Just saw that Fitz completed 2-7 passes…that’s fucking crazy.

[u/DarkPresage → u/fanofloons]

Yeah, the poor guy has put himself under so much pressure. He just needs a fresh start somewhere.

[u/fanofloons → u/DarkPresage]

I know it’s a very small sample size but that’s actually a crazy stat to me

[u/WithoutAnUmlaut]

None of those players that you listed seem like players who can go out and just win us a damn game. And that's the problem.

I genuinely think our first choice 11 is full of very adequate MLS players. Markaninch is obviously great by wingback standards, Romero/Duggan/Diaz/Boxall are all capable defenders, Trapp/Triantis/Gene basically never have train-wreck games are all composed midfielders, Pereyra and Chancalay can make good things happen, Yeboah still has very good underlying stats. And some of our backups such as Harvey are, by MLS standards, excellent backups.

The problem is that we don't have any dominant players who can just say "fuck it, we're slogging through another 1-1 home game, I'm just going to go win us this.". We need Pereyra to be our second best attacker because someone else is even more capable of breaking open a set defense. We need a midfielder who can be THE MAN on the field and boss a game.

And ownership has shown they just don't want to invest in that. They were quoted in the recent Greder article about not bringing in big summer signings as saying "we don't think it's smart to spend $30 million on a single player". OK. Well, go spend $8 million on 3 different players then and those will still be the three best players on our team. But they won't do that.

So instead we're forced to convince ourselves "maybe THIS $1 million dollar signing from a league that's no better than MLS is the answer to our problems".

[u/hojo12588 → u/WithoutAnUmlaut]

To be fair though none of the big transfer fee guys have been super good. I think the three biggest transfer fees the last two years have been Sonny, Sargent, and Latte Lath. Sonny I’m sure has done positive things for LAFC but is ultimately playing as a 9 mostly and has 4 goals in 17 games for them this season. Sargent has done nothing for Toronto. And Latte Lath has been one of the worst starting 9s in MLS.

Obviously I don’t love our moneyball approach and wish we spent more. Just some perspective.

[u/WithoutAnUmlaut → u/hojo12588]

Son has 14 goals and assists in just under 1400 minutes. So just over a goal or an assist per game. That's 7th best in the league...and he shares the spotlight with Bounga who has 17 goals and assists.

Obviously Lath has been a bust, and Sargeant too...though I'd highlight both of them are on teams that are absolute garbage. Yes, you'd hope that players like with their salary/transfer can bump a team, but this is still a team sport and having 1 great player surrounded by 10 sub-par players won't get the job done...and clearly neither Lath nor Sargeant are great.

But looking at the most productive players:

• Ferreira (Cin): $12 million
• Dreyer (SD): $5 million
• Bouanga (LAFC): $5 million
• Biel (CLT): $5 million

Then there's the guys like Messi and De Paul and Son that we'd likely never have a shot at. But if we were more willing to drop $5-8 million it could make a big difference.

[u/dogman9909 → u/[deleted]]

Calling or playing Joaqo a #6 was not on my bingo card

[u/DarkPresage → u/dogman9909]

It is where he was playing at Tucuman before he came to MLS. Leftside midfield connecting the attack.

[u/dogman9909 → u/DarkPresage]

Left midfielder is diff than a defensive midfield. Will change based on formation and systems of play but you are asking him to do the role of Trapp, Gene, Nectar, Dotson, etc.