The saying that you go to war with the equipment you have, not the equipment you want. So while some Sounders fans are wondering why a certain older forward is still on the team, or how weak the depth at right back is, this is pretty dang close to the roster that will be playing until the secondary transfer window in the summer. It should be noted that the primary window doesn't close until April 15th, and that the salary guarantee date is likely some time in late spring/early summer.
Sigi is looking at the Cascadia Summit as a way to finalize his units saying;
Obviously we have to make a decision a little bit in terms of the units we are going to play, when we are going to play one unit, when we are going to play the other. That’s something we are still kicking around a little bit but it’s important for us to continue to play well, continue to work well as a team.
But to this point we do have some guidance as to who will be used where, and how often. There are some slight changes to the depth chart formatting from the past. First, any injured player will just be dropped to lowest in their primary role. Second, there is a role added for Roger Levesque called the ForMidFender. He's going to be used as a utility guy so the depth chart should reflect that.
These, as always, are my best guesses based on what we know about the players. The only one on the list that I have not seen personally is Mauro Rosales. For #TheTrialist I have had to guess where he would be based on his very limited playing time.
Bold = MLS League play starting quality player in that role.
Regular = Non-League starting quality player (US Open Cup, CONCACAF Champions League)
Italics = Depth and Reserve League players
After the break lets see the depth chart as best we can tell
Nkufo |
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White |
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Noonan |
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Zakuani |
Jaqua |
Fernandez |
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Montano |
Montero |
Rosales |
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Fucito |
Neagle |
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Estrada |
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Evans |
ForMidFender |
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Friberg |
Levesque |
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Gonzalez |
Seamon |
Riley |
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Tetteh |
Alonso |
Scott |
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Carrasco |
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Parke |
Hurtado |
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Wahl |
Ianni |
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Graham |
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Keller |
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Boss |
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Meredith |
Players in Camp | |||||
Injured List: | None |
Ford |
31 | |||
Injured | ||||||
Seamon | Depth by Role | |||||
Jaqua | Forwards | Wide Mids | Center Mids | Full Backs | Center Backs | |
Montero | Zakuani | Alonso | Gonzalez | Parke | ||
Nkufo | Fernandez | Evans | Riley | Hurtado | ||
Jaqua | Rosales | Friberg | Tetteh | Ianni | ||
White | Tetteh | Rosales | Wahl | Wahl | ||
Fucito | Neagle | Seamon | Scott | Graham | ||
Rosales | Montano | Carrasco | Ianni | Scott | ||
Estrada | Estrada | Ianni | Levesque | |||
Neagle | Levesque | Levesque | Neagle | |||
Levesque | Evans | |||||
Noonan | Fucito |
Yes, when Lamar Neagle was announced as a signee he was mentioned as a forward. Let's remember that the team still lists Mike Fucito as a midfielder. Neagle is likely to get most of his playing time on the right wing, and so that's how he's listed. He also seems to be the ForMidFender of the future as he has time as a WF, RW, RM and RWB, he could probably play LW and CM as well.
Rosales is nearly impossible to slot, but the team has used him as a CM and RW so far, and he has time as a forward though to little effect. Of course, he still has to make the team, hopefully with 00 on his shirt and #TheTrialist on his back.
Nate Jaqua isn't listed as a wide midfielder anymore, because the chances he gets time there outside of an interchange is going to be so minimal. Also, Bryan Meredith being above Josh Ford is only a reflection of their draft status. I don't think any two players are closer to each other in overall rating by the team than these two.
As stated earlier today, this is a roster without a lot of churn.