You may recall at the beginning of the year all the talk from FC Dallas Head Coach Nico Estevez and Technical Director Andrew Zanotta was about how much this year was “a process.”
And yet, what a start it was to the season! 6 wins, 4 ties, and just 1 loss… 22 points!
Since then, the Last 7?
Yeah, not so much. 1 win, 2 ties, and 4 losses… 5 points.
We can and do go quite deep into all the various reasons for the slide on 3rd Degree the Podcast but one topic this week had to do with the roster and I thought it was worth reproducing what I said about it (give or take it was a live discussion).
You see, the secondary transfer window is about to open on July 7th and Coach Nico Estevez is using one of the smallest rotations I can remember.
So Might FCD make a move?
Why yes, I predict they will.
In fact, I predict several moves.
Or at I will be floored/stunned/gobsmacked if there aren’t anyway. The rotation explains why.
The Rotation
If you follow sports, you will know what the rotation is.
It’s the players who actually take part in the bulk of games. Starters and subs that the coach relies on. Not garbage time minutes or one or two appearances all year. It mean frequent play.
So who is that right now for FC Dallas?
Here’s the last starting XI vs Inter Miami…
The rest of the players in the rotation are…
Franco Jara – 2nd choice 9, regular sub. (16 games, 2 starts)
Jader Obrian – The most common wing sub and frequent starter. (16 games, 9 starts)
Brandon Servania – At linking 8 he’s in a battle with Tsiki and, up until this week, was the nominal starter. (15 games, 12 starts)
Edwin Cerrillo – Won the 6-job at the start of the year and still plays quite a bit. (16 games, 8 starts)
Ema Twumasi – Right back competition, starts more than Nanu. (16 games, 11 starts)
Nkosi Tafari – First choice CB sub or spot starter. (13 games, 6 starts)
Jimmy Maurer – 2nd keeper, starts when Paes is out which isn’t much but he’s still key. (2 games, 2 starts)
Not including Maurer, that’s a 6 player bench and that’s about it. Joshué Quiñónez is maybe just on the fringe with 5 sub appearances.
Out of the Rotation
Joshué Quiñónez – 5 subs
Kalil ElMedkhar – 3 subs
Eddie Munjoma – 2 subs
Beni Redzic – 1 sub
Lucas Bartlett – 0 subs
Thomas Roberts – 0 subs
Szabolcs Schön – 0 subs
Antonio Carrera – on loan to North Texas SC.
Justin Che – on loan to Hoffenheim.
Nicky Hernandez – on loan to San Antonio FC
Isaiah Parker – 0 subs, plays with North Texas SC.
Dante Sealy – on loan to PSV.
Collin Smith – on loan to North Texas SC.
That’s a lot of names. 13 to be specific. Over one third of the roster.
But….
The bottom 6+1 I think you can ignore. Carrera, Che, Sealy, Smith, and Hernandez are on loan already. Parker is basically on loan but I think he will be back with FCD at some point as he’s a Generation adidas player. Beni Redzic is a slightly older Academy homegrown.
Then it gets more interesting.
Quiñónez is a recent arrival and prior to his injury was beginning to be in the rotation.
Bartlett was just drafted quite high – 6th overall – and is very cheap. FCD won’t want to give up yet on either.
Past that though…
ElMedkhar and Munjoma are both college Homegrowns in their 2nd and 3rd season respectively… college homegrowns usually get a very short leash when compared to Academy HGs.
Roberts is just back from loan and even though I think the world of his talent he hasn’t played a single MLS game since 2019.
And Szabolcs Schön? Your guess is as good as mine.
Those last 4 names I listed (as much as it pains me to say it) – ElMedkhar, Munjoma, Roberts, and Schön – are where I think you should pay attention.
If you need to make some roster room and some cap room. Then you can only look at Schön who is on a $350k base but as he is a U22 Initiative player he only has a hit of $200k. The other three are all cap protected.
And since Schön still gets called into the Hungarian National Team he probably still has value in the market.
Stay tuned.
Got Room?
By my calculations, FC Dallas should have two senior roster spots available. So FCD can probably move a little without dropping anyone. But in all fairness, the cap room might be more of an issue than the roster slot.
I appreciate the break down. Now we need an uplifting for FCDALLAS. #whoyougonnacallup.
What’s up with Blaine Ferri?Why isn’t he signed? Seems like we could easily add him and wasn’t he competing for a spot in pre-season?
I don’t know. It’s quite confusing. From what Nico said at the start of the season I was expecting him to be signed… and yet here we are.
So is Roberts going to go to another team?
Not yet, depends on how much he plays.
Lol well I guess we see the writing on the wall then. I would just like to see him get a chance, same with Schon but I don’t see that happening either.