Midfield upgrades add depth
He talked about the core. He talked about the culture. He talked about the style of play. He talked about the preparation, the pre-hab and fitness.
Marc Dos Santos talked about all of the things he saw during the first week of the Vancouver Whitecaps training camp. He also talked about what he didn't see.
“What stands out is still some of the needs we have,” said the Caps coach, who will see 24 of 28 players return from last season.
“Certain positions that we need to upgrade and become better at — and we're working on that. … As long as we bring the right pieces to complement the needs that we have.
“We feel there's a culture that's been installed now, and it's normal when we have a big group of players coming back from one year to the other.”
The midfield, long a source of angst for fans, now appears to have something it's lacked — depth. While the elusive Designated Player No. 10 is still yet to be found, the Caps appear to have added another quality player in Botafogo's Caio Alexandre. The 22-year-old No. 6/8, despite playing for a team destined for relegation from the Brazilian Serie A, is one of the most well-regarded young players in the league.
Although negotiations are reportedly in the final stages, it will still be a long time before Alexandre could join the club, with visas, quarantine and training acclimation still before him before he'd set foot in a game.
“As the coach right now, I have to look at the big picture of how we want to play. What I don't want to do this year is deviate from that,” Dos Santos said.
“In our conversations with the staff and with Axel, (we say) let's not get away from what we want to be about. And even if we will have to wait a little bit longer for a piece that we think it's a need, well, we're going to have to find somebody on the roster that we have that has the ability to to play that role to the best of his ability, until we get the right piece here.
“What we don't want to do is `no, now let's play in another certain way, just because we don't have that missing piece.' We don't want to go into that route as a club,” he added, referring to the numerous systems and formations the team utilized the previous two seasons, leaving the squad somewhat unsettled from game to game.
“It's something we talk about every day. With our recruitment, with our staff … that concern is here with us on how much we want to grow in a certain position. We are going to improve the team is piece by piece. On players (we have), I think we're in a very different spot than in the previous two or three seasons. What is very, very positive is where we're at with the core; we could almost play a game today and be ready.”
The Whitecaps and Botafago are in advanced negotiations, with Alexandre expected to fetch a transfer fee of more than US$4 million. He's being acquired under the league's new U22-Initiative, which allows for unlimited transfer or loan fees for players under 23. They can maintain that status until the age of 25.
With the Caps already acquiring Déiber Caicedo under the same U22-I, that indicates the prospective No. 10 would also be under 23. The U22-I rule states teams can have up to three, if one of the three senior DPs is also under 23, otherwise they are capped at one U22-I player.
One player happy to see the club making major investments in the midfield is striker Lucas Cavallini. His six goals led the Whitecaps last year, but it was a far cry from the double-digits he'd scored in every year but one over the past nine seasons. The striker's biggest strengths are his finishing, and space he can open up with his power or off-ball movement, but to maximize those skills, he needs a playmaker.
At Phoenix in Uruguay (201316), he had Uruguayan international Martín Ligüera help him to seasons of 16 and 12 goals. At Puebla, in Mexico's top flight, Colombian No. 10 Christian Marrugo was a big part of his 13- and 16-goal seasons. Even last year, three of his goals came off of assists from Fredy Montero — playing as a pseudo No. 10 — and a fourth was off the rebound from a Montero shot.
“I think it would be great if we're if the club was able to acquire a key No. 10, playmaker,” Cavallini said. “I know in the past when I become top scorers of my leagues, it's usually when I have a No. 10 behind me. Hopefully, the club gets an agreement with one soon. I know it's tough, due to all the restrictions and so forth, but I know they're doing their best in order to find somebody to tell me eventually score the goals we need in order to be successful this year.”