Seattle Sounders 2019 Offseason

[Glasgow Seahawk]

Nothing to do with Sounders or MLS, but loving what I see from Tim Weah at Celtic so far. Looks like he could be a great player.

 

[Uncle Si]

Nothing to do with Sounders or MLS, but loving what I see from Tim Weah at Celtic so far. Looks like he could be a great player.

Its a good level for him to gain confidence.

Hoping it parlays to a loan to a bigger french club or maybe a mid table Bundesliga or even PL side.. to see how he developed

 

[Glasgow Seahawk]

Nothing to do with Sounders or MLS, but loving what I see from Tim Weah at Celtic so far. Looks like he could be a great player.

Its a good level for him to gain confidence.

Hoping it parlays to a loan to a bigger french club or maybe a mid table Bundesliga or even PL side.. to see how he developed

Don't think it would do much for him going to some of those leagues. Top players are top players, Van Dijk could have went straight to Liverpool from Celtic rather than Southampton, teams are just too snobbish to do so. There's a lot of mediocrity in English football that make a ton of money. If Weah keeps up the form here I think he could play in a top 6 EPL team and easily below that. It's early though but his speed is frightening. Hard for him to make the PSG team though given who they have up front.

 

[Uncle Si]

Snobby? Hes 18

If he was at Monaco/Lyon, Everton/Leicester, Hertha/Schalke hed be getting the same competition but also the playing time to develop.. which ultimately he needs.

Being at Arsenal, Chelsea, United hed struggle to get time. City, Liverpool hed struggle to make the bench. Maybe sign and loan.

Hes a good player with a high ceiling. Needs playing time... as did Van Dijk.

Lots of very promising young American players all over the world right now.

 

[Glasgow Seahawk]

Snobby? Hes 18

If he was at Monaco/Lyon, Everton/Leicester, Hertha/Schalke hed be getting the same competition but also the playing time to develop.. which ultimately he needs.

Being at Arsenal, Chelsea, United hed struggle to get time. City, Liverpool hed struggle to make the bench. Maybe sign and loan.

Hes a good player with a high ceiling. Needs playing time... as did Van Dijk.

Lots of very promising young American players all over the world right now.

I'm holding out hope we get him for 18 months and play in the champions league next year. He is only 18 but I think in a couple of years he will be top class and there will be no way we can keep him long term. Agree he would be a bench player at Liverpool etc now but bottom half EPL teams? Not sure I agree. At Celtic he'll learn how to handle pressure and expectations, they are a huge club bigger than most EPL teams but hampered by a geographical border. That can only be good. A lot of players crumble under that.

I say snobby as most EPL fan boys turn their noses up at Scotland while vastly over rating the Championship and bottom half of the EPL. There are a lot of extremely mediocre players in England on huge wages. I get Scotland is not the best standard but its also not as bad as made out.

Van Dijk didn't need games, he was strolling it in the Champions League with us. Could easily have went straight to Liverpool.

 

[Uncle Si]

Snobby? Hes 18

If he was at Monaco/Lyon, Everton/Leicester, Hertha/Schalke hed be getting the same competition but also the playing time to develop.. which ultimately he needs.

Being at Arsenal, Chelsea, United hed struggle to get time. City, Liverpool hed struggle to make the bench. Maybe sign and loan.

Hes a good player with a high ceiling. Needs playing time... as did Van Dijk.

Lots of very promising young American players all over the world right now.

I'm holding out hope we get him for 18 months and play in the champions league next year. He is only 18 but I think in a couple of years he will be top class and there will be no way we can keep him long term. Agree he would be a bench player at Liverpool etc now but bottom half EPL teams? Not sure I agree. At Celtic he'll learn how to handle pressure and expectations, they are a huge club bigger than most EPL teams but hampered by a geographical border. That can only be good. A lot of players crumble under that.

I say snobby as most EPL fan boys turn their noses up at Scotland while vastly over rating the Championship and bottom half of the EPL. There are a lot of extremely mediocre players in England on huge wages. I get Scotland is not the best standard but its also not as bad as made out.

Van Dijk didn't need games, he was strolling it in the Champions League with us. Could easily have went straight to Liverpool.

I think its pretty easy to turn your noses up at Scottish soccer this season, while still appreciating that Rangers and Celtic are putting out a decent product. The rest of that league, however, has been poor.

Weah could do well with another loan at Celtic. But I think he'd be better served at a mid-table English, French (only because PSG own him) or German team, simply because the level of competition is so much better, which is what I keep saying. Im not suggesting Cardiff here, but Bournemouth, Leicester, even Everton? all pretty solid options and he'd get a good run out each week.

Van Dijk is a monster, but if you look at his development with Southampton (and Netherlands) in his time there you can see it was good for him, whether he couldve played at a bigger team or not.

anyways, exciting to think about. there are (with the two Bayern purchases this window) about a dozen US teens playing in German first division, most regularly, Pulisic soon to be at Chelsea, Weah making a name of himself. All good for the development of the US program and US soccer in general.

 

[Glasgow Seahawk]

Snobby? Hes 18

If he was at Monaco/Lyon, Everton/Leicester, Hertha/Schalke hed be getting the same competition but also the playing time to develop.. which ultimately he needs.

Being at Arsenal, Chelsea, United hed struggle to get time. City, Liverpool hed struggle to make the bench. Maybe sign and loan.

Hes a good player with a high ceiling. Needs playing time... as did Van Dijk.

Lots of very promising young American players all over the world right now.

I'm holding out hope we get him for 18 months and play in the champions league next year. He is only 18 but I think in a couple of years he will be top class and there will be no way we can keep him long term. Agree he would be a bench player at Liverpool etc now but bottom half EPL teams? Not sure I agree. At Celtic he'll learn how to handle pressure and expectations, they are a huge club bigger than most EPL teams but hampered by a geographical border. That can only be good. A lot of players crumble under that.

I say snobby as most EPL fan boys turn their noses up at Scotland while vastly over rating the Championship and bottom half of the EPL. There are a lot of extremely mediocre players in England on huge wages. I get Scotland is not the best standard but its also not as bad as made out.

Van Dijk didn't need games, he was strolling it in the Champions League with us. Could easily have went straight to Liverpool.

I think its pretty easy to turn your noses up at Scottish soccer this season, while still appreciating that Rangers and Celtic are putting out a decent product. The rest of that league, however, has been poor.

Weah could do well with another loan at Celtic. But I think he'd be better served at a mid-table English, French (only because PSG own him) or German team, simply because the level of competition is so much better, which is what I keep saying. Im not suggesting Cardiff here, but Bournemouth, Leicester, even Everton? all pretty solid options and he'd get a good run out each week.

Van Dijk is a monster, but if you look at his development with Southampton (and Netherlands) in his time there you can see it was good for him, whether he couldve played at a bigger team or not.

anyways, exciting to think about. there are (with the two Bayern purchases this window) about a dozen US teens playing in German first division, most regularly, Pulisic soon to be at Chelsea, Weah making a name of himself. All good for the development of the US program and US soccer in general.

I think Pulisic to Chelsea will be a disaster. I can't see him getting game time or developing his game there. Excited about the rest though.

Is Matt Polster any good?

Celtic also signed a couple of US kids from college Andrew Gutman and Manny Perez. How good is the college level? Is this likely long term developmental signings?

 

[Uncle Si]

Polster's ok.. not really a name in the national set up. Was surprised to see him head to Scotland (how did they even hear of him?).

Gutman and Perez are interesting, and certainly not "developmental signings." They are young, but were raised in the Chicago Fire system, so good club education. Gutman went all 4 years at Indiana, easily the most notable of college programs. The college game is physical, fast and direct. A bit comparable to the Scottish league. Perez is just under 20, has U20 caps for the national team and is at the right age to make a move like this.

You may not see much of them this season, but you should expect them to battle for places in August.

And I agree on Pulisic.. right time for a move, wrong club to move to. I think he will play for Chelsea initially, but it will be a tough slog. They are going to transition quite a bit in the summer.

 

[Glasgow Seahawk]

Polster's ok.. not really a name in the national set up. Was surprised to see him head to Scotland (how did they even hear of him?).

Gutman and Perez are interesting, and certainly not "developmental signings." They are young, but were raised in the Chicago Fire system, so good club education. Gutman went all 4 years at Indiana, easily the most notable of college programs. The college game is physical, fast and direct. A bit comparable to the Scottish league. Perez is just under 20, has U20 caps for the national team and is at the right age to make a move like this.

You may not see much of them this season, but you should expect them to battle for places in August.

And I agree on Pulisic.. right time for a move, wrong club to move to. I think he will play for Chelsea initially, but it will be a tough slog. They are going to transition quite a bit in the summer.

Good to know on the college guys. We've loaned them to the USL till the summer for now. Rangers have had some American players in the past- Reyna, Edu, Bocanegra, Beasley, Bedoya. A lot of them in their prime before they went bust.

Probably just trying to find value in the US market, the EPL teams vacuum up most prospects in Europe, so its probably worth trying elsewhere and they can pay more than MLS teams for non DP'd players. It's also easier for Scottish teams to get work permits for non EU players compared to English. They tried the Mexican league for talent with Efrain Juarez, Carlos Pena and Herrera but I think the British weather and style of football was too much of an adjustment. Most of them ended up partying too much and didn't last long. Some central American players adapt though like Emilio Izzaguirre, Cristian Gamboa too (who just isn't very good).

 

[Glasgow Seahawk]

Waylon Francis traded to the crew. Was shocked how much he was making given how mediocre he was.

 

[SeatownJay]

Waylon Francis traded to the crew. Was shocked how much he was making given how mediocre he was.

Last year we trade $50k of GAM to Columbus for Francis. This year we trade Francis to Columbus for $50k of GAM. Basically it was an overly complicated one year loan.

 

[knownone]

What’s the vibe like in the city for the upcoming season? I’ve been in and out of town for work, and I haven’t had a chance to catch up on things.

Are you folks as concerned as I am about the lack of moves? It feels like they’re taking the wait and see approach with how Morris fits in rather than being proactive and covering their bases. I still think this team needs a genuine target forward to be effective and that’s not Morris. Morris is probably most effective in a similar role as Ruidiaz or playing out wide.

Don’t get me wrong, they’ll be a great pairing in MLS. Its just that the Sounders front office has created a very odd system around their players. Ideally you’d want the threat of your pace outside to create space for Lodiero to be your creative engine in the middle. But without a true aerial threat teams are just going to crowd the box taking away Ruidiaz and Morris best attributes and that of half your attacking midfield.

Admittedly, this might just be a quirk about MLS and salary cap leagues in general. It’s just odd to me that they wouldn’t try to address such a glaring need on paper.

 

[Glasgow Seahawk]

I'm okay so far. I'd like another forward and defensive midfielder depth post Ozzy but it seems to be the front office MO to get better value in the summer.

Under Schmetzer and this GM we start slow and get hot at the right time, usually after some summer additions.

I'd like a more complete season and be in contention for the supporters shield too but we don't seem to give a crap about it anymore. It would help with play off seeding though. Hopefully not digging a massive hole like the last 2 years to start.

We need to avoid injuries though. I imagine Morris is a wide player at this point, I wonder how much speed he has lost post injury, hope Marshall comes back as solid too.

Would have liked Torres off the books and reallocate resources for another wide player.

 

[SeatownJay]

Here's the current first team roster.

Goalkeeper: Stefan Frei, Bryan Meredith, Trey Muse
Center Back: Jonathan Campbell, Kim Kee-hee, Chad Marshall, Roman Torres
Fullback: Kelvin Leerdam, Jordan McCrary, Brad Smith, Nouhou Tolo
Midfielder: Handwalla Bwana, Jordy Delem, Nicolas Lodeiro, Victor Rodriguez, Cristian Roldan, Alex Roldan, Harry Shipp, Gustav Svensson, Henry Wingo
Forward: Will Bruin, Jordan Morris, Raul Ruidiaz

I can easily imagine Seattle running out a 4-4-2 looking something like this:
Stefan Frei
Kelvin Leerdam, Kim Kee-hee, Chad Marshall, Brad Smith
Victor Rodriguez, Cristian Roldan, Nicolas Lodeiro, Gustav Svensson
Jordan Morris, Raul Ruidiaz

That could easily morph into a 4-2-3-1 by dropping Roldan and Svensson into the defensive midfield, and having Morris drop back and wide to join Rodriguez and Lodeiro in the attacking midfield with Ruidiaz up top.

 

[SeatownJay]

Tonight's pre-season match is streaming on soundersfc.com.

https://www.soundersfc.com/post/2019/02 ... son-action

 

[Glasgow Seahawk]

Sounds like Torres is gone

 

[Sgt. Largent]

Sounds like Torres is gone

Like I said back in December;

Campbell's a solid CB, I like this pickup. Should fit nicely into the CB rotation.......and probably also spells the end of Torres.

He's definitely no longer worth the salary.

Now that Marshall's on schedule health wise to be ready by opening day, no reason to keep four starting CB's.......and Torres's 600k salary.

 

[SeatownJay]

Sounds like Torres is gone

Like I said back in December;

Campbell's a solid CB, I like this pickup. Should fit nicely into the CB rotation.......and probably also spells the end of Torres.

He's definitely no longer worth the salary.

Now that Marshall's on schedule health wise to be ready by opening day, no reason to keep four starting CB's.......and Torres's 600k salary.

Torres is back training with the team. He isn't going anywhere at the moment.

 

[Sgt. Largent]

Mushekwi would look pretty damn good on the wing.

https://www.sounderatheart.com/2019/2/2 ... mits-again

 

[Uncle Si]

Watch a lot of S. African soccer, Sarge?