Too Many Goodbyes - Thorrington, Lowry, John, Krol, Brown, McBride, Conde?, Ljungberg?
by Mark Rogers on Nov 29, 2010 12:36 PM CST
in Fire Roster News & Analysis
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PrintWow, so here we are just a couple weeks past the MLS Cup Final and already so much has changed. I think after our performance in this past season, it was to be at least moderately expected. It’s not often you miss the playoffs and opt to keep everything the same. I’m just not sure we expected the absolute roster implosion that we’ve seen thus far. Let’s recap our losses, counting rumors, thus far:
- John Thorrington - Expansion draft by Vancouver Whitecaps.
- Peter Lowry - Expansion draft by Portland Timbers.
- Collins John - Released.
- Krzysztof Krol - Loan expired, released.
- C.J. Brown - Retired.
- Brian McBride - Retired.
- Wilman Conde - Searching for work elsewhere. (not definitely gone yet)
- Freddie Ljungberg - Entertaining offers elsewhere (not definitely gone yet)
More on these players after the jump.
That’s a loss of 8 players if Charlie Corr's article saying Ljungberg and Conde are 'exiting'. Thorrington barely saw the pitch last season due to injury, and I think given his injury issues we’re okay with letting him go. We have some young talent waiting to come up the ranks in midfield like Corben Bone, Baggio Husidic, and Victor Pineda. We also had Peter Lowry though, who I felt near the end of the season was starting to really shine. Guess we can cross watching him blossom off our list of awesome things to do next year. I feel the bigger problem is losing so many veterans in the same year.
McBride, Thorrington, Brown and Freddie all provided a veteran presence. More importantly, we lost a lot of offensive veterans. Sure, we still have Pause, but he’s not exactly who you look for leadership on the attack. We have a young midfield now, without a true defining leader that can put their stamp on the game every night. If you were to build our typical formation (if you could call any formation typical for us last season, with the constant changes) of 4-4-1-1 or perhaps 4-1-4-1, it’d look rather young. You have to imagine a backline of Kwame Watson-Siriboe, Dasan Robinson, Steven Kinney and Gonzalo Segares, which is actually pretty good. Then you’d have Logan Pause sitting in front of them. After that you have Marco Pappa and Patrick Nyarko out wide. That leaves us with the option of Husidic, Bone, or maybe Nery Castillo in the middle and Calen Carr in the forward position.
Let’s assume for now that Castillo isn’t fit, and thus doesn’t make the starting eleven. I’d love to assume otherwise, but I’ll wait till he proves it. That leaves you with Bone or Husidic in your #10 spot with a combined total of 2153 minutes played in MLS across their careers. To put that in perspective, Freddie played more minutes last season than those two have gathered on the pitch together. I think they’re both potentially great players, but there just isn’t a lot of experience there in facilitating the attack.
That leaves us with Calen Carr up top currently. I’m not a huge fan of the lone striker, and I’m even less of a fan when that lone striker isn’t a target man. Carr seemed to do alright here and there with Freddie facilitating, but Freddie may not be here next year. Plus Carr often came in late as a sub, and his fresh legs gave defenders fits. In games he started up top by himself, he didn’t seem nearly as effective. You lose that ability to push the ball upfield to a player that can hold the ball to let the midfield catch up and get forward. I think Carr deserves a true strike partner.
The most worrisome part for me is that we’ve said a lot of goodbyes, but haven’t said hello to anyone yet. There hasn’t even been a rumor about us going after anyone. The offseason is still incredibly young, but we have a lot of needs to be filled. We’re shallow at almost every position currently. We have Ristic that can fill in at a variety of places, or maybe even become an everyday player. After that though, our bench looks quite lacking. We have a lot of questions that need answers, and for my money, I feel we need more fire power up top. This past season we suffered through a four game drought of goals, and never seemed to be consistent. Now we lack depth and strength. I know Chicago is a city that prides itself on defense, but I think our defense is at least passable. FC Dallas may have proven that you can draw the majority of your games and still be successful, but I’d personally like to see some goals.
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First, welcome to the team!
Great start here.
As for no rumors, come on? You don’t count Michael Mifsud? The Coventry Telegraph says we have a chance and Maltese Football Starlets says he isn’t going to Pohang Steelers.
Meanwhile the Vancouver Whitecaps might sign Robbie Keane. I’ve seen better days in Chicago Fire Country….
Hot Time In Old Town SB Nation's blog for Chicago Fire, Soccer, & Chicago History
Tweed,
I saw this rumor this morning. Definitely an interesting rumor, and after doing more research, I saw that Michael Mifsud is only 5’5". Now, players like Schelotto have shown that size isn’t everything, but the MLS tends to be a more physical league than many others around the world too. I can’t imagine what would happen to him going up against someone like Omar Gonzalez…
by Ryan Sealock on Nov 29, 2010 5:43 PM CST up reply actions
Thanks!
I don’t count Michael :) I don’t think you replace McBride and John with someone that’s 5 foot 5. Then Carr would have to become our target man, which would at least would be humours to watch I suppose.
Agreed...
I still worry about cohesiveness. That was a major problem last year, as constant injuries forced lineup juggling. This reduced players familiarities with each other, which obviously affected team chemistry. I worry this will be a problem again next year. Unfortunately, I think it will be an issue we have no choice in facing. We have lost so many players already that chemistry will be an issue, especially with bringing in new faces. I just hope we get signing some people soon. Hopefully Frank and CDLC’s recent European scouting trip turns out some transfer targets.
As NYRB showed, a team can be gutted and still be successful, but in my opinion the best teamwork, and in particular the best formula for strikers, is playing time together. Players get to know each others tendencies, thoughts, where they will be on the field, etc., and once we get that, I really think our scoring attack will come back strongly. Here’s to hoping it’s sooner rather than later.
Ljunberg was good for you guys last year
but not 3 million good. or whatever he is asking for.
Win or lose, we will always be here for you.
by johnjahafanclub on Nov 29, 2010 9:52 PM CST reply actions
This might be a bit soon.
Re Entry draft is next week. The Fire are going to have a HUGEMONGOUS amount of cap space. I fully expect some action during it.
I see where your coming from but with so many empty roster spots I find it hard to project any sort of lineup. The way I see it we have three guaranteed starters on the roster at this point. Pause, Kinney, Sega. Kwame or Dasan are probably going to start as well I just don’t know which one.
There are going to be a significant amount of new faces. After last season’s up and down performance I don’t see why that is a bad thing.
bad thing?
i dont know that anyone is saying it’s a bad thing (however, if it turns out to be, can we refer to this as the Ljung-pocalypse?) as much as its disconcerting to see what little stability we had last year being spun off so quickly without a clear plan or articulated vision going forward. For now, i’m holding out hope for the scouting trips to bring positive returns. Until then though, the rate of turnover is a little unsettling.
by Cornfield___no, seriously on Nov 29, 2010 11:33 PM CST up reply actions
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