The Offseason So Far: Ok I lied when I said that only Portland and Atlanta were moving the earth. San Jose changed coaches, signed two Homegrowns, unloaded a bunch of veterans, picked up three guys from their USL team, signed a Swedish left back, and then signed the top scorer/best player in the Allsvenskan on a DP contract. Jesse Fioranelli has been busy.
It looks to me like the goal is to be the opposite of last year, when they came into the season with so much uncertainty and spent preseason kind of spinning their tires. This year they seem to have most of their work done early, and save for finding some fullback depth. That's not a pressing issue.
Here's what is: new head coach Mikael Stahre loves the 4-3-3, and the only real place to play Chris Wondolowski in that formation is as a center forward. He can do it – his movement makes him tough to mark, and as he showed last year his vision remains underrated. But it would have to be a highly mobile, free-flowing 4-3-3 that can rely in the central midfield trio to control games, hit early balls, and swing the opposing defense from side-to-side.
If they're able to do that, Wondo, Vako and new arrival Magnus Eriksson should be able to hit from all angles:
Is it March yet? #WelcomeMagnus | #ForwardAsOnepic.twitter.com/GkOdTB8ToR
— San Jose Earthquakes (@SJEarthquakes) December 21, 2017
It will not be super easy to conjure that from the start, but the Quakes roster has evolved into one you can point to and say "they've got some guys who can play pretty." It's a big change, and it'll have to be part of something even bigger if this Scandinavian experiment is going to work.
PS: Please show me an Anibal Godoy/Jackson Yueill/Tommy Thompson central midfield trio just once. Please.
JAN. 2 UPDATE: On top of the pile of new signings they re-upped with Danny Hoesen, who I thought was promising as hell last year (he is one of those players who is much more impressive when you watch him in person than on TV, for what it's worth).
And that leads us to elephant in the room: It feels like there's not a natural starting spot for Wondo next year. Wondo can really only play at a high level as a second forward. He's too slow to be a winger, and he's not really a lead-the-line type of No. 9 who can be goal-dangerous by battling directly with center backs, who can hold the ball up when his team's under siege, and who can bring his wingers into the play.
Hoesen does all that. Fioranelli's two biggest signings (Vako and Eriksson) are best playing off a guy like Hoesen, not with a guy like Wondo.
So... "Chris Wondolowski, Super-Sub" might be a thing everybody has to get used to next year.
JAN. 24 UPDATE: The Quakes grabbed 21-year-old Uruguayan center back Yeferson Quintana on loan from Peñarol, which means they're now five(ish) deep at CB. Then they shipped out one CM (Darwin Ceren to Houston for GAM and TAM), while bringing in a young, domestic player (20-year-old Eric Calvillo, from NASL's New York Cosmos) to presumably fill that role on the depth chart.
Were I to wager, I'd bet that makes it likelier we see one of Yueill or Thompson in the starting lineup. And I'd also wager that the big moves are done for the Quakes this winter – it'll be what you see right now, with first-round SuperDraft pick Paul Marie adding fullback/wingback depth.
