Roster Reset #5

Not a striker.

The fight is on for roster spots as half of last Reset’s trialists are gone and new faces arrive for the Florida camp. I’m still not seeing the potential for significant improvement in the weakest areas (finisher, left back), but at least we’re no longer stuck in stasis-land and the depth issues look like being addressed.

Your current roster + campers…

Salary Budget Players (minimum 18 required)

1. D (I) Jakovic, Dejan
2. D Woolard, Daniel - Is he really a starting-quality MLS fullback?
3. D Korb, Chris1
4. D McDonald, Brandon
5. D Russell, Robbie - Past it or the second coming of Namoff?
6. D/M Kitchen, Perry
7. M Morsink, Kurt - Under threat from trialists? Svard inclusion says maybe…
8. M King, Stephen2 - Ditto
9. M (I, DP) Boskovic, Branko - Ready to make a statement?
10. M Cruz, Danny
11. M/F DeLeon, Nick
12. M/F De Rosario, Dwayne
13. M/F Pontius, Chris
14. F Brettschneider, Blake - Wonder how safe his spot is…
15. F Wolff, Josh
16. F Santos, Maicon
17. -
18. -

Optional Salary Budget Players (maximum 2 allowed)

1. -
2. -

Off-Budget Players (maximum 10 allowed)

1. GK (HG) Hamid, Bill
2. GK (HG) Willis, Joe
3. D (HG) White, Ethan
4. D/M (HG) Shanosky, Conor - Ready to play with the big boys?
5. M (HG) Najar, Andy
6. -
7. -
8. -
9. -
10. -

Trialists

1. GK Dykstra, Andrew - MLS experience, excellent competition for the largely unproven Willis if the price is right
2. GK Lambo, Josh - ex-GenAd and youth nat; has pedigree but has yet to live up to it
3. D Rodriguez, Charles - Suppie pickup. Projects as left/center back depth?
4. D Zayner, Jed - Versatile back-line veteran, but is he healthy?
5. M C’deBaca, Seth - Trained with the big boys last year and played with U-23’s so we should have a firm handle on his qualities
6. M Richter, Ryan - Union washout, college goalscorer (for what it’s worth)
7. M Rozeboom, Lance - Suppie pickup. D-mid depth?
8. M Svard, Sebastian - journeyman Danish d-mid
9. F Adlam, Alanzo - 22 year-old Jamaican domestic-leaguer and youth nat. Hope this isn’t the solution at striker or that FO have concluded Santos is.

Just as an exercise, shoving the players actually signed to the roster into an eleven…

Biggest weaknesses there?

1. Not thrilled with the high-forward options.
2. King’s not terrific in the link-man role and Boskovic is a wild card. If neither perform, pulling De Rosario back to fill the creative void in midfield weakens an already weak striking corps.
3. Shanosky’s unproven and White is still raw. Room for another veteran center back?
4. Zayner might have some say at left back if healthy, but that’s the biggest problem-spot now (even if I’m not thrilled with the options up top).

So, if this were my FM team, I’d be looking for a starting left back, options (preferably proven ones) up top, veteran help in central defense, and a passing central midfield option. You?

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1. Korb turns 25 this year, making him (to my understanding under previous year’s rules) ineligible for Off-Budget status. ↩

2. Listed as Off-Budget on dcunited.com, but turned 25 last year. Doesn’t that make him ineligible for Off-Budget status? ↩