Sounders Depth Chart - 3XIs Feels So Good Edition

Winning is fun isn't it? But with healthy being less of a concern, a few reserve games and scrimmages under the belt and five games into the season we have some insight into usage patterns by Sigi Schmid. Now with several Sounders returning to health, others in a solid form, and one plummeting down the depth chart things are different than they were during the last depth chart.

Returning to starting availability soon will be Nate Jaqua, Fredy Montero and Mike Fucito. They probably return in that order, though the difference between starts for Jaqua and Montero likely is not health. Fucito could be in the 18 as recently as this weekend.

Erik Friberg and Mauro Rosales both have been stellar. O'Brian White certainly has the hot "head" right now, and is playing Sigi's target role as well as any over a two game stretch. The curious case of Alvaro Fernandez also is reflected in the chart.

With the maturation of the Academy players there may be a time soon when youth players like Deandre Yedlin start showing up on the chart prior to their beings signed by the team. Call-ups to national teams like his recently as well as Aaron Kovar and Sean Okoli make this act tempting. But as of now, let's just deal with the guys under contract.

Format Explanation
Primary Role is the role I anticipate that we will see a player most over the next several League games.
Depth by Role is a listing of any role a player may make a contribution in League play by intent of the coach.
Injuries are now only listed on the secondary role and in orange for non-Injured Reserve moves. Red would be when a player is on the IR.
Within Depth by Role a player in bold is starting quality, in regular font is a rotational player and in italics is someone that would only fill in as a sub.

As always this is our attempt to read the tea-leaves of substitution patterns, starts and statements by the coaching staff. It is not their official chart, and they won't be releasing one. Click on and see

The biggest questions people will have will be in regards to Brad Evans v Erik Friberg, and as Friberg as a CM. This issue is two fold. First, Rosales is more likely to retain time with Montero coming back. Mauro forces the left side defense to react in ways similar to Steve Zakuani. He is also more a right mid by history than a forward, and he can work with Fernadez learning Sigis system. Another issue with Evans v Friberg comes down to what Sigi expects from his more advanced CM, and Evans has more defensive balance than Friberg. Friberg would be more CAM than CM, and we know how the CAM/Montero thing works.

You will also notice movement in the forwards. All of these have to do with recent form by those moving up, and a lack of play for those moving down. The down movers aren't less than we thought they were, but OBW and Rosales are just better than they had been expected to perform.

The other moves are all related to the Reserve games.