One of the big offseason days is upon us as the Loons will announce this afternoon which players’ options they have picked up and which they have declined. There are tough choices being made on this list, from guys who have underperformed but have potential to several young players who haven’t made an impact yet.
My two big takeaways from this exercise:
- The Loons wildly underperformed their talent level last season.
- The next coach absolutely must have a youth development plan in place ASAP
Minnesota has the pieces in place to be really good, a serious contender even, in the very near future. There are going to be playing time battles where 2-3 rock solid, MLS-caliber players are going at it, and the team is better for having that.
Playing time hasn’t been effectively distributed in the past, however, and there tends to be a concentration of talent in some places (striker, central attacking mid) and a notably lack of it in others (fullback, fullback, fullback, fullback, defensive midfield).
Enough preamble, let’s get to the players. Huge shoutout to Colin O’Donnell for compiling the list of options for me!
Michael Boxall
For at least the last three seasons, Michael Boxall has been the team’s spiritual captain and occasionally its actual captain as well. He’s a fan favorite and while his performances slipped toward the end of the season, he’s still clearly an MLS-caliber central defender as shown by his Fbref percentiles.
That aerials number is worrisome, but he’s still absolutely elite at blocking shots and good at cutting out passes as well.
Wil Trapp is fully out of contract and I don’t think will be brought back; losing both your spiritual and actual captain in the same offseason where you’re replacing the coach and chief soccer officer is an awful lot of turnover. Cutting leadership to the bone like that may be the right thing to do when a situation has turned incredibly toxic, but I don’t see that being the case here.
Bringing Boxall back doesn’t mean I think the new coach should be forced to start him, in fact I don’t think the Loons should rely on Boxall as their first-choice defender anymore. Ideally, the Loons would acquire a young CB and let Boxall mentor him before making the full transition in 2025. That may, in fact, have been the idea behind bringing in Mikael Marques last season until he couldn’t stay healthy.
If I could conduct the whole scenario, Boxy spends next season as a part-time player, then transitions into a coaching role with the team for as long as he wants it, but honestly I have no idea if he’d be interested in that path or if he’d like to move back to New Zealand.
No matter what, Boxall deserves a chance to take one last lap of honor around Allianz Field and the fans deserve a chance to say a proper goodbye. I would give him one and I’m confident the Loons will, too.
Dan: Keep MNUFC: Keep
Bakaye Dibassy
This is one of the toughest calls the Loons will have to make, especially without their new coach in place. Bakaye Dibassy came back well from his nightmare thigh injury, making five starts — three at center back and two at left back. When he was healthy, he and Boxall paired reasonably well in central defense, but I’d start Miguel Tapias over both of them, and he prefers the same left-sided role that Dibassy does.
In Adrian Heath’s 4-2-3-1, the fullbacks need to be two-way players and I don’t think Dibassy offers enough going forward to fill that role. With Heath out however, that formation is no longer set in stone. He last played a considerable amount of left back in 2018-2019 with Amiens when he was 28 years old. Asking him to play 30 games or more there at age 34, particularly in a formation that required him to be one of the team’s principle pressers.
Could Dibassy be an outside back in a defense-first 4-4-2 or as the third CB in a 5-3-2? I think he absolutely could, but I don’t see the team wanting to go defense first when they’ve invested so much in their attack over the last 2-3 seasons. If they go 3-5-2 and actually attack with most of the front seven, Dibassy could be a superb piece of that back three, but that commits a new coach to a very aggressive formation and to what end?
Dibassy was the team’s sixth-highest earner last year and his option is likely to be in the same ballpark. It’s not an outrageous amount of money, but it’s also not a contract the team should give out without a plan for how Dibassy will fit in.
I really can go either way here. I won’t be upset if he’s retained, but I feel like there’s a player out there better suited to fill the Loons’ needs than Dibassy is and potentially for less money as well.
Dan: Release MNUFC: Keep
Eric Dick
Not every contribution a player makes to a club happens on the field. Eric Dick is terrific in the Loons’ social media stunts and seems to be a genuinely great locker room guy. He makes a little bit over the league minimum, but not enough to make that a deciding factor in keeping him.
More practically, Dick is, at best, the Loons’ third keeper. Dayne St. Clair will be the presumed starter next year and Clint Irwin is still under contract. I suspect the decision on Dick will come down to whether the team wants to give their first ever homegrown player, Fred Emmings, a real shot or if they’re content to let him go elsewhere.
Dick is 29 and while keepers can play forever, I would guess he’d like a shot to be at least the backup somewhere or starting in USL rather than fully buried on the Loons bench. I suspect parting is best for everyone in this situation.
Dan: Release MNUFC: Release
Cameron Dunbar
In no way did the Loons have to position Cameron Dunbar’s arrival last winter as a response to sending Aziel Jackson to St. Louis, but they did. That’s an unforced error and one that’s unfair to Dunbar. I don’t bring that up out of bitterness or malice, I think Jackson’s success with St. Louis makes it harder to cut bait on Dunbar if they want to, because doing so admits that not only was sending Jackson away a huge mistake, they also failed to bring in his replacement effectively.
But should they want to cut bait in the first place?
Dunbar came to the Loons with no small amount of fanfare. He netted 12 goals in USL Championship at age 19 for LA Galaxy II and close observers of the league were excited to see how he could do at the next level. His time with the Loons wasn’t great and he found himself frozen out of the minutes he needed to continue developing (sound familiar?) so while he did score five goals in nine appearances for MNUFC2, this whole season feels like a wasted year for him, especially since his loan move to Orange City produced nothing either.
Picking up his option is probably the worst thing the Loons could do for Dunbar. All that does is give him one more year in the club where he’s either going to have to beat out Emanuel Reynoso, Caden Clark, and potentially Ismael Tajouri-Shradi for playing time or mean he’s headed back to MLS Next Pro assuming they don’t loan him. But if they’re just going to loan him, why retain him in the first place?
I think Dunbar has a future with Minnesota United, especially if the new coach they bring in is as youth-focused as he ought to be. But I think to give Dunbar the best possible chance at reaching his potential, he needs stability and a plan for his development, which means giving him a new contract, not just picking up his option. Give him a new deal, send him on loan somewhere he hasn’t played yet (going back to USL isn’t going to be challenging enough for him) and see where he is this time next year, or let him find his own way now.
Dan: Keep, but with a new deal MNUFC: Pick up option
Mender Garcia
Fun fact: The Loons were 4-0-0 in games where Mender Garcia scored or assisted in 2023.
Much less fun fact: DP striker Mender Garcia only contributed four combined goals and assists.
Garcia has been a disappointment, I can’t imagine anyone with the team — or indeed Garcia himself — would feel differently, but contextualizing that is important. Yes, Garcia is taking up a DP slot, but he’s the just 12th highest paid player on the team and can be bought down into being a TAM player this offseason. Assuming that happens, he would occupy more or less the same roster and salary position as Franco Fragapane, who contributed three G+A this season.
If the Loons were deciding whether or not to eat his contract outright, then maybe that faint praise is enough to keep him on the roster, but that’s not the decision being made. The Loons have to make an affirmative choice to keep a striker who contributed just a pair of goals in his last 800 minutes with Teemu Pukki and Sang Bin Jeong all already in line for minutes at his position, Bongokuhle Hlongwane and Robin Lod more than capable of stepping in up top, and Tani Oluwaseyi waiting in the wings — much more on him later.
This would all seem like a bit of overkill, burying a player that the team clearly had no reason to keep, but at least when Heath was in charge, the rumor was that the team planned to keep him. This is the decision I’ll be most interested in on December 1.
Dan: Release MNUFC: Keep
Jan Gregus
Much like Dibassey above, there is a case to be made for keeping Jan Gregus, but it’s largely context-dependent, and that’s a tough ask when the new coach isn’t in place yet. He’s a superb progressive passer, a solid corner- and free kick-taker, and great source of directed energy on the pitch. On the other hand, he’s not the most capable defender, isn’t a great shooter, and can get a little overrun by quicker players on counter attacks.
Paired with a true defensive midfielder, Gregus’ passing could open up lanes for Reynoso to more fluidly orchestrate the attack, and his ability to dribble into space without being a liability on the ball would make the Loons harder to press against. Unfortunately, other than 61 games from Ozzie Alonso, a lack of a defensive midfielder has been a consistent weakness for Minnesota and expecting them to fix it this offseason is hoping a bit against hope.
Also like Dibassy, Gregus comes with enough of a budget charge to give a front office pause, even though he’s no longer a DP the way he was in his first stint in Minnesota. If they think they can bring in enough defense this offseason to make a box-to-box midfielder viable, they could hardly do better for the money than Gregus, but that’s too big an if in my mind to make him worth the risk.
Dan: Release MNUFC: Release
Emmanuel Iwe:
One of two Loons making truly league minimum, Emmanuel Iwe represents the lowest risk player on the list for the Loons. I honestly don’t have a good sense at all of how much he can contribute. He was bright and dangerous in the brief cameos he got, but extrapolating out from 53 minutes of mostly garbage time is a fool’s errand.
I’m in favor of bringing him back for one reason beyond his low cost: He’s a model for the MLS Next Pro and academy kids. Letting Iwe go after just one season makes his rise to the senior squad a bit transactional, as though he filled a need but nothing more, while giving him a second year to make his mark makes it seem like there’s a real chance to turn strong MNUFC2 performances into senior appearances.
Call me a softy, but for less than $68k, I don’t see much downside to bringing Iwe back.
Dan: Keep MNUFC: Keep
Ryen Jiba
A year ago, the Loons liked Ryen Jiba a lot. Not only did they draft him, but because American soccer is a mess, they also paid a transfer fee for him — the largest fee in USL League One history in fact. A year lost to injury later, has that changed? Would they have drafted someone else had Jiba been 23 instead of 22?
If you like a player enough to draft AND buy him, at the very least see what he can do. The only reason I can see for MNUFC not to bring Jiba back is if they felt he didn’t take his rehab/recovery seriously. Failing that, particularly given the team’s struggles finding good fullbacks, there’s virtually no reason to let Jiba go at this point.
Dan: Keep MNUFC: Keep
Tani Oluwaseyi:
Further complicating the decision around Garcia is the fact that Tani Oluwaseyi absolutely tore through the USL Championship last season. He scored 16 goals and added seven assists during the regular season for San Antonio, good for the second best G+A mark in USL Championship, and added another goal in the playoffs. San Antonio went 7-3-1 in games where Oluwaseyi scored.
Stating the obvious, it’s not likely that Oluwaseyi will be a double-digit scorer in MLS next season, but if his domination of USL Championship isn’t enough to get him a longer look with the Loons, what would have been? He didn’t pad his stats with a bunch of PKs against second-division goalkeepers — in fact, he did not take a penalty for San Antonio this season — and put a rock solid 44% of his shots on frame. He’ll need to be quicker with his shot in MLS than he was in USL Championship, but that’s an eminently learnable skill.
At the risk of belaboring the point, if what Oluwaseyi did last season isn’t enough to earn him a good-faith chance in Minnesota, what was the point of sending him on loan? What was the point of drafting him in the first place? The Loons relationship to the younger players is broken and nothing but time and actually giving young players a chance to succeed will fix it, but it’s got to start with a guy like Oluwaseyi, otherwise why would any young player looking to break through in MLS try to do it in Minnesota where few before them have gotten a fair look?
The decision between Garcia and Oluwaseyi doesn’t need to be made immediately, the team has the slots and money to sign both, but there are only so many minutes to go around as Pukki’s backup. I’ll be supremely disappointed if the team gives those minutes to Garcia as a last chance instead of seeing if Oluwaseyi can build on an incredible season and become a key contributor off the bench.
Dan: Keep MNUFC: Keep
Joseph Rosales
Even the most ardent of Loons fans could be forgiven for missing a key development during the last international break considering it happened in late-night TV windows and featured a player even the Loons don’t totally seem to know how to use. But in two games against Mexico playing at left back, Joseph Rosales was outstanding for Honduras.
He got forward well in the first leg as Honduras beat Mexico 2-0 and as the team was defending that lead in the second leg, Rosales was defended brilliantly, winning 77% of his duels, making 14 recoveries, and intercepting four passes. He was dribbled past just once in 120 minutes of play.
Rosales has been moved around too much for the Loons to get comfortable in any one spot — he’s suffering from Hassani Dotson Syndrome, but with your donation, we can find a cure in our lifetime — but seems to be settling in at left back where the Loons have struggled mightily to find a long-term answer. His crossing needs work, but as a capable dribbler, Rosales will be able to give the Loons the width they need in attack by forcing defenders to close down the space in front of him.
I’m not wholly sold on Rosales as the long-term answer at left back, but he’s young, cheap, and is showing a ton of promise against very respectable competition. If he can give the Loons solid-if-unspectacular performances there, it allows them to invest more heavily in a defensive midfielder and a right back, which raises the level of the team overall. And who knows, he’s just 23, maybe a concerted run of games at left back will shape him into a top-class option there, which would be the icing on the cake.
Dan: Keep MNUFC: Keep
Ismael Tajouri-Shradi
In 2022, the Loons’ summer transfer window consisted of Garcia and Alan Benitez, making it one of the worst windows the team has ever had. Summer 2023 was the polar opposite. Pukki took some time to warm up, but scored 10 goals and had a 50% shot on target rate, and Ismael Tajouri-Shradi became the supersub the team has always needed.
The book in ITS is pretty well established at this point: He’s incredibly talented in tight spaces and has a cannon of a shot, but his thigh/hamstring is never going to let him be a 30+ game starter. The injury isn’t career-ending the way Bruce Arena said it was, but it’s still nagging him and it has caused him to miss a few games already in his half-season in Minnesota.
The good news is that the Loons don’t need him to be a 30+ game starter, they have that guy already. If ITS can give Reynoso 10 games off in 2023 without forcing the Loons into a formation change or functional white flag, that alone would be worth his contract, and that’s a stupendously low bar for a player of his caliber.
This is a no-brainer for both sides to me. ITS gets a chance to show he’s healthy for a full season, before hitting next offseason looking for a starting role, the Loons get insurance for Reynoso and a superb bench option.
I have some questions about how the minutes get divided up when Clark is in the mix as well, but without knowing what Clark will bring to the team, I wouldn’t let him change the calculus here too much.
Dan: Keep MNUFC: Keep
Zarek Valentin
This one is hard for me; I’ve really liked having Zarek Valentin as part of the club. He’s unquestionably one of the best citizens the team has ever had, he’s not afraid to speak up for causes he believes in, and he seems to genuinely care about the community. As far as off-field performances go, Valentin is an MLS Best XI-caliber player and one I love having in Minnesota.
On the field? That’s a different matter. Valentin wasn’t a total liability, Ethan Bristow stands alone in that regard, but he’s also clearly not the answer at fullback. This is a yikes-level scouting report from fbref:
If the Loons had two good fullbacks in place, plus maybe an MNUFC2 player ready to make the jump, I’d be totally fine with keeping Valentin. He gets action in US Open Cup games, as a stopper at the end of games, or as a short-term injury replacement, but otherwise has an elder statesman role and helps the next generation of players become good people as well. Until they have those consistent starters, however, I worry about having a backup that you really don’t want to see on the field unless it’s necessary.
Here again as numerous times above, if Heath had left the Loons in a better position, this would be a clearer decision. As it is, Valentin’s future with the club probably depends on their internal belief that they’ll sign functional starting fullbacks, which isn’t a great position to be in considering they’ve only really done it once before.
If Valentin does stay with the Loons, I won’t be upset at all, but if the decision were mine to make, I wouldn’t feel good about keeping him.
Dan: Release MNUFC: Keep