First kick is just over three weeks away, which means that teams around the league are starting to scramble to fill some holes (or in some cases, to create new holes that will subsequently need to be filled).
Eastern Conference today, Western Conference tomorrow. Here are a few of the teams I’m keeping an eye on at the moment, and the questions that need answering:
Will Toronto be able to remake their roster at all?
TFC are in the throes of a very, very, very slow-moving rebuild. Remember back five years ago, when they came into this decade as one of the league’s most ambitious and most successful teams? They finished second in the table during that COVID-shortened season, and it seemed like the 2020s would look much like the back half of the 2010s did for the Reds.
Nothing but pain since then. They’ve finished 26th, 27th, 29th (Wooden Spoon) and 22nd over the past four seasons. They’ve run through five coaches in that time – new boss Robin Fraser, who had a hand in all that 2010s success, is the sixth. They have not spent big in the transfer market, but they made two of the more ambitious DP signings in league history in Lorenzo Insigne and Federico Bernardeschi, and plied them with lucrative, long-term contracts. And thus they are always up at or near the top of annual roster spend.
It’s been a rolling disaster. And as of now, the plan appears to be… run it back? Again?
The good news for Reds fans: this might not matter. MLS is a weird league, and if Fraser can get buy-in up and down the roster, and can develop a couple of the young (or youngish) guys available, TFC could outkick their coverage even if the team’s a collection of the same faces in the same places.
Still, both Fraser and GM Jason Hernandez have been explicit this winter that the team’s in the market for a new center forward. And, well, I’m going to refer you to that “slow-moving” characterization of the rebuild.
“I don’t know if I can say progress,” Fraser told reporters on a Wednesday Zoom call, as per the good folks at Waking the Red. “I definitely know that there’s a lot going on, put it that way. It’s not really my area of expertise, but in my constant communications with Jason, I know there’s a lot going on. No door has been closed yet, I think there are a lot of irons in the fire.
“I think the answer at this point would be goals by committee. If we can execute the things that are being asked of us, lots of different people will have goalscoring opportunities.”
Oooof.
Are Chicago keeping a DP slot open for the summer?
Gregg Berhalter said this team would have four or five new starters coming out of the winter window and heading into the season. So far they’ve added:
- One DP attacker in Jonathan Bamba, who’s most likely to play as an inverted left winger, but could also play some as a No. 10.
- TAM central midfielder Rominigue Kouamé, who’d play alongside Kellyn Acosta in a two, or as a free 8 if Berhalter uses Acosta as a single pivot.
- Veteran Swiss winger Philip Zinckernagel, who looks set to start on the right side.
- U22 right back Leonardo Barroso, who’s almost certainly an immediate starter.
- Free agent center back Jack Elliott, who’s been one of my favorite MLS CBs for a while and seems perfect for Berhalter’s system.
If Sam Rogers wins the other starting center-back job, that’ll make six new starters.
I don’t think that’s a bad thing! Chicago have been mostly terrible for a decade-and-a-half (shoutout 2017 tho), so a rebuild’s naturally going to see some guys move on.
At the same time, it does make sense to keep a little bit of powder dry for the summer. For one, the global transfer market is more frothy at that point, and for two maybe the data Berhalter gets in games that matter from February through June changes his thinking on what kind of DP he needs to add in July.
Is this the year RBNY finally go gigantic on a new DP signing?
Said every year since Thierry Henry hung ‘em up after the 2014 season, and now hit with an extra bit of urgency given how close the Red Bulls were to actually winning MLS Cup last year.
The two things that make it feel more possible this season are 1) the team actually did go fairly big last year with the acquisition of Emil Forsberg, who was talismanic (an overused word in soccer, but accurate in this case) when available in 2024, and 2) they just moved along Dante Vanzeir, who got his moment of glory in the 2024 postseason but was mostly another failed DP signing.
There are two current rumors. One is Timo Werner, the 28-year-old German international forward who’s been miserable on loan from RB Leipzig to Tottenham Hotspur. The confounding factors are that Spurs are short of bodies, so they need all hands on deck, and Werner is now part of that problem due to a hamstring strain he just picked up.
Still, the potential move to RBNY makes a lot of sense from where I sit. Werner doesn’t really have a future either with Tottenham or at Leipzig, and while there are a dozen Bundesliga sides he’d help, he’s on wages through 2026 that only a couple of Bundesliga sides are capable of paying. That means it’s Red Bull Global on the hook, one way or the other (once the Spurs loan ends, anyway), so why not send him to a place where he’d potentially rejuvenate his career and help catalyze a fanbase that’s had their hopes and dreams stoked over the past 12 months?
There is a lot of smoke around this move.
The other name I’ve seen thrown around is Patson Daka, a former RB Salzburg striker who got a big move to Leicester City a few years ago and has mostly not cut it at the Premier League level. Daka’s two years younger than Werner, less injury-prone, and on roughly half the salary, so… lots of boxes checked here, especially when you look at his goalscoring track record in Austria.
It’s another move that would make a ton of sense if RBNY truly do want to win a cup of some sort. But there’s a lot less smoke here, and virtually none from proven outlets.
Will Charlotte go with Big Pat up top or are they in the market for a DP 9?
My Pat Agyemang agenda is alive and well after his exceptional showing with the US men’s national team in two caps this past month. Started and scored in the first game; came off the bench and scored in the second. Was all over the ball throughout, and I thought his movement was good.
But not great. Let me show you what I mean:
(Yes, I shot that on my iPhone, we’ll all just have to deal with it.)
My one little gripe with Agyemang today was the timing of this run. He’s got to read the play and start sprinting a step sooner. If he does it’s a goal. Doing that is the difference between being a consistent 10-12 goalscorer and a consistent 15-20 goalscorer.
Compare Agyemang’s reactive movement to the way Brian White proactively sets up his defender by drifting off his back shoulder, then actually starting his sprint before Diego Luna lays in a through-ball:
White has none of the ability to score the types of run-through-the-lines-and-leave-defenders-in-the-dust goals that Agyemang buried twice with the US, but he’s a 15-goal scorer in MLS anyway because of how polished and ruthless his off-ball movement is.
Given the improvement curve we’ve seen from him over his first two years as a pro, I am very bullish on Big Pat’s ability to add that kind of thing to his game. As per Tommy Scoops, Charlotte intend to give him that chance this season.
Bonus Question: Is Dean Smith going to play Pep Biel, who has returned (but is not on a DP contract) as a true No. 10, or is he going to be inverted on the right wing again?
I’m of the belief that Charlotte need more creativity out of midfield to go up a level, even with the addition of Wilfried Zaha and with Agyemang’s presumed improvement. But Smith preferred a more utilitarian approach in central midfield last year, and getting a pure creator into that mix would signify a big shift.
Could Orlando get involved in the intra-league transfer market with a move for Evander or Cristian Olivera?
The Lions sold Facundo Torres for a club-record fee last month. Since then they reportedly got close with Croatia international winger Marco Pašalić, but that seems to have fallen by the wayside. And that’s really about it, save for some links to Evander (who seems unlikely to play another game for the Portland Timbers at this point).
Evander is a true No. 10 who would make a lot of sense for any MLS team that’d build around him and pay him what it takes to make him happy. It’d also allow Orlando to slide Martín Ojeda out into Torres’ old spot as an inverted winger (though don’t be surprised if there’s news about South American interest in Ojeda as well; no guarantee he’ll be wearing purple this year).
A potential Olivera move is the one that intrigues me most, though. The Uruguayan international is a true winger who’s made for a 4-2-3-1, which means he’s likely not a great fit for LAFC this year. There’s been whispers about selling him on, and I can’t imagine there’d be a more natural fit for a 22-year-old South American with these numbers than playing for Oscar Pareja in Orlando:
The intra-league cash transfer rule is brand spanking new. Nobody’s availed themselves of it yet, but it seems to me that its best function is keeping players like Evander and Olivera – entertaining players that people pay to see – in MLS. And then on top of that, there is the removal of guesswork in re: adjusting to a new country and culture. Both Evander and Olivera have been here for a couple of years, which means the adjustment period’s over.
I want both of these guys to be in MLS this year. They’re great players, even if they’re not perfect fits (for one reason or another) with their current clubs.
We shall see.
