Difficult lineup construction for Sigi Schmid starts now

The loss sucked. Josh Ford is now on loan back from loan, while Ockford and Zavaleta are still away. Parsemain and Lowe are on the DL still. Remick was listed as questionable last week. Rave, white and blue contingent are out for the rest of May at least.

This may be the most difficult lineup for Sigi Schmid to build.

Let's look at the options by position group for primary and secondary role

Forwards: Martins, Cooper, Barrett, Neagle, Okoli, Bowen, Estrada, Weaver
Wide Mids: Neagle, Pappa, Bowen, Barrett, Cooper, Okoli, Kovar, Estrada
Center Mids: Alonso, Pineda, Rose, Azira, Periera, Kovar
Fullbacks: Gonzalez, Remick (?), Scott, Azira, Anibaba, Kovar, Estrada
Centerbacks: Marshall, Traore, Scott, Anibaba
Keeper: Frei, Hahnemann, Ford (?)

For the most part Sigi's used a 4-4-2/4-2-3-1 hybrid this season, with three matches in a 4-3-3 without a CAM. Assembling either of those with the current healthy and available roster is kind of a mess. There are 24 here right now. It's a deep team, but this next match will still be a test.

All of the issues of the team to this point in the season are more amplified this weekend than at any point this year.

In light of the loss it is hard to say that there are "known starters."

The last no Dempsey, no Evans chunk of the season saw the 4-3-3. With the current players available that would be something like;

Frei; Gonzalez, Traore, Marshall, Azira/Anibaba; Alonso, Pineda, Rose; Neagle, Martins, Cooper/Pappa

This would lack some width in the central third, but it is also going to be more defensively stout than what Seattle's run out for some time. In their two 4-3-3 matches without Dempsey (he played LW against Portland) they gave up two goals, none were in the run-of-play. They also only scored three times in those two non-Dempsey 4-3-3s.