Taking stock of TFC's off-season

The addition of Sigurd Rosted is likely the final add of the pre-season. What do we think?

Photo by Nick Fewings on Unsplash

With today’s signing of Sigurd Rosted, it’s likely that TFC’s off-season business is over. There is still time left in the window, of course, but it seems more likely that they will wait things out until the summer, when that third DP slot could be filled.

The hope is that they will be looking to add a piece to put them over the top in a Supporters’ Shield chase. The reality is just as likely that they are fixing an error they have made in the window now. It’s rare that you nail all your additions. That goes doubly in MLS, where the quirky nature of the league means that 1 + 2 doesn’t always = 3.

That’s a discussion for July, however. For now, let’s take a look at the off-season and evaluate what went down.

In total, seven players have been added to the roster. They are:

1. Sigurd Rosted (CB)

2. Sean Johnson (GK)

3. Raoul Petretta (LB)

4. Adama Diomande (FWD)

5. Víctor Vázquez (CMD)

6. Matthew Hedges (CB)

7. Tomás Romero (GK)

The first thought here is that’s a lot. I mean, they were second runner-up to the Wooden Spoon last year, so they needed a change, but it’s still a lot. Typically, it takes time for players to adjust to MLS and teams with a lot of turnover rarely win stuff.

Think about the 2017 treble team. A lot like the 2016 how-the-hell-did-you-lose-to-a-team-that-didn’t-get-a-bloody-shot-on-goal team, wasn’t it? That was by design and it was a big reason why they were able to win ******* everything.

This is not that. Does it mean that they can’t win this year? Well, no, but it does mean that they would be going against trend if they did.

The second point might be a reason to believe that TFC can beat that trend. That is that there is a lot of MLS experience in what they’ve added. The smart teams in MLS have looked to add proven MLS value in recent years. As stated above, it often takes in-transfers a year or so to adjust, but that’s not necessarily the case with players coming from MLS, or who have been in MLS in the past.

Five of the seven TFC additions are MLS experienced. Only Petretta and Rosted are new to the league.

Of course they are also two of the more important signings. Both are likely to start in the re-made back-line. Bluntly, I have serious doubts about Petretta. His form has not been great and, well, see above about adjusting. The problem here is that he has to adjust since TFC has zero depth at left-back.

Rosted seems like a safer signing. He’s a physical presence and, I suspect, will be a solid, if not spectacular, addition.

That’s all they need from him though because they did hit it out of the park with the biggest two additions. Johnson and Hedges were two of the three big free agent targets in the league this off-season. To get both was impressive. It was also risky because of Johnson had decided to stay in New York we’d be in full panic mode right now, but he didn’t.

By adding both, TFC should feel confident that they have put themselves in a position to succeed.

It took more time than most fans liked, but in the end the Reds got to a place that is pretty satisfying. There’s no guarantee the pieces will fall in place, the depth is non-existent and this is an old team again. So, there’s questions.

And hope. For the first time since those strange COVID games in Hartford, really. There’s a chance this team could be good.

Now all we have to do is wait to see how it plays out. Just 18 days to go.

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