We’ve been saying all year, mostly on 3rd Degree the Podcast, that the FC Dallas roster is poorly constructed. That’s easy for us to say from the outside without bothering to explain it.
With FC Dallas eliminated from all competitions and a week to kill before the season final, now seems as good a time as any to explain why, in our book, it’s so poorly constructed.
On the macro level, there are a whole bunch of things that add up to make it poor. I will try my best, and probably fail, to simplify it all in this space.
So in the words of another bit that I do…
Let’s break it down.
The High-Risk Problem
On the macro level, FC Dallas has too many injury-prone players, a great many of them in the spine of the team. The injury-prone problem is magnified by the age of many of the club’s most important players.
We qualify “old” as players ~30 and up since the peak performance of players usually comes between 26 and 29. Every player is different. But, in general terms, the older the player the more often, statistically, they get hurt and the slower they are to recover.
Soccer is a young man’s game.
Sure, on average, FCD’s roster isn’t that old. That’s because they have a bunch of kids who while technically on the roster don’t play or can’t even get on the active roster, let alone the bench.
“Old” players in the rotation at the time of this post: Sebastian Ibeagha (32), Asier Illarramendi (34), Sebastian Lletget (32), Jimmy Maurer (36), Omar Gonzalez (36). Getting close (29): Paul Arriola, Ruan, and Eugene Ansah. That’s an old team.
“Injury-prone” players who, in our view, have missed more than a normal share of games over the last several seasons: Jesus Ferreira, Paxton Pomykal, Paul Arriola, Sebastien Lletget, and Ema Twumasi.
Those two factors magnify each other.
On top of that, FCD carried two players who were, effectively, out for the season: Alan Velasco and Geovane Jesus. We’ll get into that more below.
As an organization, you know a certain amount of injuries are going to come even to young healthy players as it’s the nature of sport. Examples this year: Marco Farfan, Patrickson Delgado, Liam Fraser.
So to enter a season with a bunch of old players, injury-prone players, and a couple of players out for the year is a recipe for disaster.
And voilà, 2024.
The DP Problem
In MLS, the Designated Player rule enables the club to pay outside the cap for serious talent. When you miss on a DP signing, that seriously limits your ability to compete.
And FCD has a couple of issues at DP spots.
| Player | How It Started | How It’s Going |
|---|---|---|
| Petar Musa | Newest DP. | His 15-goal (so far) season breaks the FCD newcomer season scoring record. That’s a hit signing. |
| Jesus Ferreira | Asked to shift positions, struggled with injuries. | Lowest production since 2020 if you count the COVID year and since 2018 if you don’t. |
| Alan Velasco | FCD went into 2024 knowing one of their DPs was down 9-12 months. | Exceeding our expectations, he made it back with 8 games to play but that was too late to save 2024. Missed 26 games, the US Open Cup, and Leagues Cup. |
It was a subpar season for the highest-paid (base salary) player and your 4th highest-paid player was MIA till it was too late.
DP failure will ruin your season every time.
The TAM/GAM Problem – AKA, the Luxury Player Problem
In case you don’t know, TAM and GAM are “fake” money internal to the league.
TAM/GAM players are signed to a salary high enough they would be DP players if they were not bought down by using TAM or GAM. This year that’s any player making over $683,750. FCD, as usual, has 4 TAM/GAM players with a 5th player inches from this category (Sebastien Ibsagha).
“The luxury player” is not an official designation. It’s what I call a high-paid, TAM/GAM player that isn’t used to maximum capacity as a starter. It’s a TAM/GAM player who is a role player or bench player. A player that is extra or surplus. A luxury that – more than likely – a team can’t afford in a salary-cap league. A player that costs the club a potential TAM/GAM-level starter.
To be a top-tier MLS team, most players getting paid this kind of TAM/GAM money need to be lock starters with high impact.
| Player | How It Started | How It’s Going |
|---|---|---|
| Paul Arriola | Captain and former US National team player. Not the same player since missing the ’22 World Cup, now a wingback. Great leader and a great person. | Wingback or outside back is – in the Hunt budget – a low-salary, low-impact position. Arriola makes, $1,7 mil. His stats are in line with his career in MLS but the money is out of line with the Hunt budget for that position. |
| Paxton Pomykal | Fantastic Homegrown linking midfielder but with a history of injuries. | $1 mil salary for 6 minutes played. Placed on season-ending IR. FCD was forced to sign a replacement (Show Cafumana). |
| Sebastian Lletget | Had a solid 2022 after joining from New England, but fell off hard due to off-field issues (probably). | He’s been fantastic since Luccin took over. But is he even a starter if everyone is healthy? It appears not and ~$850k is a lot of money on the bench. |
| Eugene Ansah | FCD worked for over a year to get him. Eats an International spot. | $700k this season for 1 goal. He’s not even close to a starter at this point with just 5 starts in two seasons. His 421 total minutes = $1,663 per minute played in 2024. |
There is so much wasted 2024 cap money here.
Injuries, DP problems, & TAM/GAM problems alone are enough to wreck any team hard in MLS.
But wait, there’s more!
The U22 Initiative Problem
The U22 Initiative is designed for MLS teams to buy young, hot, more expensive prospects to develop and then use as pieces in their team or sell on for profit. MLS allows for three, FCD has two.
Keeping in mind, these players take up a senior roster spot and usually an international spot. They should be impactful.
It seems pretty clear that Andre Zanotta is using the U22 initiative on the flip-for-profit plan and not the impactful player plan.
| Player | How It Started | How It’s Going |
|---|---|---|
| Geovane Jesus | Exciting young right back. Out for 9-12 months with the ACL tear.~$350k salary. | Tore his ACL 1 month before Velasco (Sept ’23) and is still out after having some kind of scar-tissue-related setback. The issue here is more about the lost U22/senior roster slot than his pay |
| Enes Sali | In theory, “one for the future.” The reported $3 mil buy price was a head-scratcher even if it was refuted by my FCD sources. Also on ~$350k pay packet. | 0 minutes played in MLS and eats a senior roster spot. He’s been good for North Texas SC with 8 goals and 5 assists in 25 games (20 starts). |
For positions that can be high-impact, FCD got nothing in 2024.
Even if these are “kids for the future,” like Sali, 0 minutes from both is quite poor for such a high-value roster mechanic.
Side note: If FCD wants to buy Patrickson Delgado, his price probably means they need him to be U-22 Initiative in the future.
The Center Back Problem
Most media people local or national who cover FCD came into this season saying FC Dallas needed a top-flight center back. (We at 3rd Degree have been saying that since Reto Ziegler departed because Jose Antonio Martinez didn’t live up to that mark.)
And that was when we expected four at the back with two center backs.
Being short a quality CB, it was utterly mystifying that Nico Estevez chose to play a shape (3-4-3) that needed three center backs and compounded the problem. Once 3-4-3 was chosen, FCD then needed two additional top-line center backs to be good defensively.
So it was even more mystifying when Peter Luccin did the same thing focusing on the 3-4-3.
Here’s all the CBs FCD has to work with.
| Player | How It Started | How It’s Going |
|---|---|---|
| Nkosi Tafari | A physical center back who plays with an aggressive style. Coach Estevez thought he was capable of being an All-Star caliber player. | He’s now 27 and he has some flaws. This is his peak, he won’t get much better and in 2024 he was worse than in 2023. I blame the system. He’s underpaid at ~$350k. |
| Sebastien Ibeagha | A journeyman reserve MLS CB that for some reason FCD saw as a top-line starter. I said at the time he should be the third CB in a back 4. | He’s over-performed his career numbers but is over-paid in our opinion (~DP salary) and underperforms that pay. Someone at FCD clearly thinks way more of Ibby than we do. |
| Omar Gonzalez | 36-year-old former star CB who came in to be FCD’s third CB. Good value salary at ~$115k | He’s one spot too high on the depth chart and he took a PT that should have gone to a developing player. |
| Amet Korca | A younger player who is, in theory, being developed. Came into 2024 as the fourth CB on the roster. | He should have been the fifth CB, not the fourth. 0 minutes for FCD this season after 4 games and 2 starts last year. |
| Marco Farfan | A defensive first left back. 5’10” on a good day. | Used by Peter Luccin as a center back. Amazing as that is. |
| Sam Junqua | A left back or wingback with a solid offensive game. Can play on the right as well, or even wing. | Used by Nico Estevez as a CB. At least he’s 6’ tall. |
| Carl Sainte | Signed mid-season as a center back prospect. | Pretty much never used by FCD as a center back. Due to injuries played 6 games as a 6. Goes back to NTX and plays as a 6 more than as a CB. Is there a plan here? |
| Nolan Norris | A Homegrown signing. Is he a left back, center back, or 6? Nico Estevez says 6. | Gets 4 games with 2 starts this season as a 6. Goes down to NTX, plays some as a 6 but also as a CB. Plays left back or left center back with USYNT. Again, what exactly is the plan here fellas? |
What a mess.
Even now, a season later, FCD still needs a top-tier (hopefully lefty) smart, tactical, experienced center back to play with the less experienced and more aggressive Ibeagha or Tafari in a back four.
And if FCD is going to stay 3 at the back, they still need two top-tier center backs.
The Wingback Problem
The problem with wingback is that FCD doesn’t have any.
Or they didn’t. They have one now since trading for Ruan.
A wingback needs to be able to run the entire field with a high-rate engine and contribute on both ends. On this roster, only Ruan really fits that bill. Sam Junqua is the next closest.
Here are all the wingbacks that Estevez and Luccin tried.
| Player | How It Started | How It’s Going. |
|---|---|---|
| Ruan | An actual (right) wingback on a fairly reasonable $440k. | Not a problem. But he’s out of contract in two more games. |
| Paul Arriola | Not really a wingback. Lacks the defensive side. Can play both left and right, though. | When he plays wingback he’s given immense freedom. He often is way upfield and causes FCD to play a lopsided shape. He knocks the whole thing out of wack. Also, $1.7 mil at wingback. |
| Bernie Kamungo | A winger who is lost in a 3-4-3 system without wings. | Out of desperation, FCD has used him as a wingback a bit. It’s not good. |
| Sam Junqua | Can play both sides at outside back. Works hard and has a better offensive game than a lot of outside backs. Has the engine. | He’s a better wingback than Arriola – cause defense – but not a better overall player. And Arriola’s salary is getting on the field no matter what. |
| Dante Sealy | Won the left wingback job out of spring camp, almost by default. | …And then stunk. Mediocre on offense, terrible on defense. 80% effort all the time. |
| Ema Twumasi | Right back. Former winger. One would assume his offense would make for a good wingback. The fastest (in-game) player on the team until Ruan arrived. | Injured too much. Did Estevez coach the offense out of him? A player that led Austin Bold in chances created now is nervous going at people. Hasn’t played much since Ruan arrived. |
| Marco Farfan | Not a wingback as he lacks the offense. But remains a trusted player. | The salary is a touch high for an outside back at ~$550k. But he’s not suited for it. Hence the PT at CB under Luccin. |
| Isaiah Parker | A wing converting to back, has the physcial skills to be a great wingback but the mental side is lagging. A Generation adidas player, no cap hit. | Hated by Nico Estevez, banished to NTX, was having a good season as a wingback. Suffered a season-ending injury around when Luccin took over FCD. GA cap-free salary is wasted. |
| Geovane Jesus | U22 Initiative. He has great offensive ability and motor. Should be an ideal wingback. | Missed the year with an ACL tear. |
| Herbert Endeley | A college wing/mid with some verticality and offense. Another player that might be a nice wingback someday. | After a short spell with FCD during injury troubles (4 games, 1 start), he’s been banished to NTX since May other than 28 minutes in the Open Cup loss to SKC. |
The Insurance Problem
Coach Nico Estevez came into 2024 desperate to get more older, experienced guys on the FCD roster. By action, it’s clear Estevez didn’t want to use kids. He wanted vets.
As a consequence, FCD signed some older more veteran players. Sure, some of them were signed to the Supplemental (off-budget) FCD roster on “club-friendly” contracts.
Players like Omar Gonzalez (36), Jimmy Maurer (36), and Tsiki Ntsabeleng (26) should be on the senior roster not eating up cap-protected spots. A player as deep down the depth chart as Eugene Ansah (29) is eating a senior spot. You can maybe even include the luxury players we talked about above in this scenario.
All these players provided insurance and maybe on a big club on the cusp of an MLS Cup title, I could understand that concept. But insurance for someone like FCD eats up roster spots and playing time for the future of the team.
The entire idea is antithetical to the FC Dallas way. All the great success FCD has had in the last decade, mostly under Oscar Pareja, was with Homegrown talent in the team.
The Burn is about the progression of kids and in a cap league, these free-from-cap-hit spots need to have developing players in them. Not insurance.
As a consequence of the Estevez program, a litany of young talent, including several homegrowns, got very little PT in 2024. It’s the minutes more than the games.
| Player | Games | Minutes |
|---|---|---|
| Carl Sainte | 6 | 147 |
| Nolan Norris | 4 | 194 |
| Herbert Endeley | 4 | 111 |
| Tomas Pondeca | 3 | 116 |
| Tarik Scott | 2 | 52 |
| Antonio Carrera | 0 | 0 |
| Malik Henery-Scott | 0 | 0 |
| Geovane Jesus | 0 | 0 |
| Amet Korca | 0 | 0 |
| Isaiah Parker | 0 | 0 |
| Enes Sali | 0 | 0 |
| Ale Urzua | 0 | 0 |
The lack of youth play was a massive contributor to the “wasted” 2024 season. Very little to no progress was made by youthful, up-and-coming talent.
That’s not to mention the talent at North Texas SC that might have been signed and wasn’t because of the blockage like Pedrinho or Diego Garcia.
Even players who got large amounts of PT like Dante Sealy (17 games, 9 starts, 857 minutes) and Bernie Kamungo (27 games, 11 starts, 1162 minutes) regressed.
2024 in the End
FC Dallas has lost its way and veered from its identity not just in method but in roster building.
FCD isn’t better today than they were at the season start. Poor roster construction led to a wasted season.
I remember Sali getting minutes in a game. Was it USOC I am thinking of?
Leagues Cup
Great analysis. Seems that the issue is with the GM and not the coaches. you can only coach who you have. it’s been obvious that the D is terrible and yet minimal changes.
“So it was even more mystifying when Peter Luccin did the same thing focusing on the 3-4-3.”
Nailed it – move on to the next HC
I doubt we’ll ever get a straight answer, but I’d genuinely love to know if that was a Luccin decision or if it was some kind of front office edict. Cuz for the life of me I can’t see which of our players benefited from playing that shape.
There’s always been a disconnect between the FO and the coach in my opinion.
Andre Zanotta needs to go. Too many busted signings.
I’d love to be able to get a truth serum answer from Hunt on how long of a leash Zanotta has left. Cuz Musa’s been good and he’s the big $ move, but (as this article is pointing out) so much of our roster is clogged with baffling signings that underperform or don’t even see the field.
Eugene needs to stay. Less pt than kamungo but better. Lower his salary and keep him. The talent is there but he hasn’t had a real shot with the team and he has shown moments of brightness.
I think I just found my “go to” for reporting on FC Dallas. Nice work!
Check out the podcast.
While there are some items I agree with, mostly I disagree with the contention that the roster is poorly constructed. Instead, I think the poor season is mostly down to poor utilization of the roster, which is primarily the fault of the coach, not the TD/GM. I feel that you are making Zanotta the scapegoat for FCD’s poor play when it really is more on the coaches and players. Sometimes players just don’t perform and sometimes coaches make things worse – that I think is a far better explanation for the 2024 season.
Agreement
1. Not acquiring a starting level CB in the offseason. This was the biggest roster failure, but I don’t know how much is on Zanotta vs. Estevez. Both Estevez and Luccin continued to prefer Ibby to any other CB on the roster which makes me question their judgement regarding the position. Maybe they weren’t as concerned about the position and so Zanotta didn’t make that a priority.
2. Preferring mediocre veterans over young player development. This shift in playing time philosophy clearly came from Estevez and not Zanotta. However, having hired Estevez, I think Zanotta was bound to support him in this decision. In hindsight, I think this was wrong so Zanotta at least shares responsibility.
Disagreement
1. Not putting Velasco on the season ending injury list. FCD’s approach to Velasco’s injury was entirely reasonable given Velasco’s contract length and DP status. I think it is highly doubtful that any DP level player you could have brought in would have been willing to take a one year deal, so that would have left you with at least 4 DPs under contract for the 2025 season. You would have had to buy out, trade or sell one of your DPs from a weak bargaining position which would’ve made no business sense. Because of who the owners are, all player decisions at FCD have to make business sense. As long as the DP rule exists in its current form and as long as this is a salary cap league, injuries to DPs just screw teams.
2. Too many “luxury” players. First off, Ansah is not a TAM player according to the Club Roster Profiles released by the league. He is overpaid for what he gave FCD but his salary cap hit is minor compared to what a lot of teams are paying for non-performing players. Just to name a few – Ruidiaz ($2.7M), Pukki ($3.6M), Cabral ($1.9M). Of the two healthy TAM players Dallas has, Arriola has played 81% of the total minutes to date and Lletget has played 60%. Those are pretty high usage rates. Whether the players are being utilized in their correct position is another thing, but that’s a coaching decision. When Arriola was acquired by Zanotta, it was to be a wing in a 4-3-3 and he proceeded to have the best year of his career. I don’t see how Zanotta can now be blamed for Arriola being played out of position by two successive coaches.
3. Too many injury prone players. Of the players that are listed as being injury prone, only two, Illaramendi and Pomykal, had significant injury history prior to their most recent contracts. So how would Zanotta or Estevez have known that so many players would’ve incurred significant injuries prior to signing them? This seems to be a “hindsight is 20/20” take. And as far as age is a concern, Dallas only had three players over 30 that were intended to be starters or regular substitutes (Illaramendi, Lletget and Ibeagha). That is lower than most teams in the league and especially most playoff teams (in the West only Vancouver and Colorado used fewer 30+ players consistently). Dallas is not an old team and it doesn’t overly rely on older players.
4. Poor use of the U-22 slots. Before he got hurt, Jesus had started to really play well and justify his acquisition. The knee injury and subsequent setback in his recovery is not something that can be blamed as poor roster construction. The Sali purchase makes a lot of sense if he was acquired to play in a 4-3-3 as an attacking winger since that is what he is. It doesn’t make sense if Zanotta knew that Estevez was switching to a 3-4-3 before the purchase. Sali was acquired in December. The first indication we had that Estevez was switching formations was at the opening of training camp in January. Had Estevez told Zanotta he was switching formations in December? My guess is no. So that would be poor communication on the coach’s part.
Zanotta is just as culpable as the coaches. So is Dan Hunt who is part of the committee that makes player acquisition decisions. A couple comments on your disagrees.
1. Having 1 or 2 DPs out kills the season. Even if you disagree on their being recourse, it’s still a terrible season killer.
2. TAM isn’t the only way to buy down players. GAM buy downs are not indicated and Ansah being paid over the DP line puts him in this category.
3. It’s not about other teams. Old players are higher risk for injury. it’s the combination of players out, age of primary players, and injury prone players that was bad.
4. Zanotta said he knew about the formation change WAY in advance and players were adding accordingly. The desire to change was made known last season. Then in January, Zanotta said to me directly “we’re good at center back” while the team was well into the change.
How is Zanotta culpable for the injuries which you appeal to in your responses #1 and #3? I’ll repeat the question i asked in my initial comment – How would Zanotta or Estevez have known that so many players would’ve incurred significant injuries prior to signing them? Most of the players who incurred significant injuries were not old (Velasco, Pomykal, Ferriera, Jesus, Delgado, Fraser, Farfan) and only one of them had had a prior history of injury (Pomykal). Are you saying that Dallas should not have extended Pomykal in January 2023? Because i don’t recall you questioning that move at the time.
It’s apparent you don’t like Zanotta. This post as well as other posts, and even more so, the podcasts over the last couple of years make this clear. I think it is biasing your judgement. I don’t think Zanotta is perfect but compared the the GMs who’ve been here before i think, overall, he has been the best Dallas has had under the Hunts. He’s also had the benefit of being able to spend more money – so maybe some of his good appearance is simply good luck on his part. Or maybe he was able to influence the Hunt’s to spend more money because he was so successful at selling – something that neither Clavijo or Muzzi did.
I just want to clarify that when I say you don’t like Zanotta I mean the way he handles himself as a TD/GM. Not suggesting you dislike him on a personal level but your description of the way he avoids you and has responded to some of your questions is probably frustrating to say the least.
He doesn’t avoid me more than anyone else. I think most FCD related media people wish he could talk more.
I don’t like or dislike Zanotta. All we judge TD’s on is performance. Wins and losses.
Clavijo was the TD when the best run in club history happened under Oscar. That makes him better, for me, than Zanotta. The other TD aside from them was Gorman, who stunk.
I care very little about Zanotta’s ability to make money via sales, that means nothing to me. The Hunts have BILLIONS, they don’t need the money.
But they choose to pursue money and hired a TD with a reputation for selling. He has done that, they clearly love it, and they gave him a raise and a promotion for it as the team has gotten steadily worse.
But I think if Zanotta were given the priority to build a winner rather than make money, he could probably do that. He’s not dumb.
If you listen to the last podcast, I quite clearly talked about the committee that makes player decisions.
Yes, Zanotta, but also Dan Hunt, both coaches, the TD, the scouting department, Hayden, they are all part of this build. All are culpable.
All deserve culpability. If I thought it was all Zanotta alone, I would say that.
Luccin and Nico have basically the same PPG this season in all comps. It’s not the coaching. Its the roster.
As for injuries, no you can’t predict them. But you can get players that don’t have a track record for them. You can look into players medical history, see how much the play. They have scouts for a reason. Knowing good and bad records for injury is part of their job.
Farfan for example is rarely injured. Paxton we liked being extended because he’s a good player. But we quite clearly – in this space and on the podcast – raised many, many concerns about his history of injury. We clearly talked about his pay be a LOT of money for a guy hurt as much as he is.
Just as we did with Jesus. If you have a set of players who get hurt more than others (Pomykal, Ferreira, Arriola, Twumasi, etc) and you compound that with a string of older players in key spots… then you get a higher rate than normal of injuries… as we saw this season.
Yes, You are almost always going to get some injuries. The one time they didn’t recently, resulted in the good 2022 season. But when you can compound the usual level of injrues and you get a season like this one.
Sometimes you beat the odds, sometimes you don’t. They took a risk and it didn’t pan out.