FC Dallas: More roster changes imminent

The FC Dallas rebuild should come fast and furious over the next few weeks as the Western Conference giants have been linked with several prospects.

Following the death-spiral that ended FC Dallas’s season, the once 2017 MLS Cup favored Texas club is ready to reboot and move forward into a new year. After falling out of the Western Conference Playoff race, Dallas started their earlier than planned offseason by declining a whopping ten player options for 2018 along with letting goalkeeper Chris Seitz’s contract expire after spending the last seven seasons with the club.

In a somewhat surprising move, center back regular and promising young player Walker Zimmerman was traded to MLS newcomers Los Angeles FC for $250,000 and the top spot in the MLS Allocation Ranking. Veteran defender Maynor Figuera signed a new one-year contract, before landing 24-year-old Bulgarian fullback, Anton Nedyalkov on a free transfer. Seitz was replaced by New York Cosmos ‘keeper Jimmy Maurer, who will likely back up Jesse Gonzalez.

Reported Targets

Keeping with the trend of rebuilding their backline, reports have surfaced that 32-year-old, River Plate defender, Jonatan Maidana. Maidana, nicknamed, “The Wall”, would be an exceptional partner with Matt Hedges as a prospect with the ability and experience to handle some of the attacking talent coming to MLS thanks to a long professional career in Argentina and Ukraine.

Dallas made a minor slip up when they inadvertently tweeted a shortlist of a few player targets. The list didn’t include Maidana (but it did include his 22-year-old teammate, Alexander Barboza) and several of the pieces have already signed or been moved to other clubs. Following the trend of rebuilding from the back, most targets listed were defenders along with 28-year-old goalkeeper, Tomas Mejias, a bench option for Middlesbrough in the English Championship. Mejias may not be a target anymore thanks to the Maurer signing, especially considering the Spaniard Mejias would likely take up an international spot on the senior roster.

Attacking Options

One of the major pitfalls of the clubs downfall last season was the surprisingly inconsistent attack. Young Designated Player Cristian Colman failed to make an impact before losing his starting position to MLS veteran, Maxi Urruti. Dallas declined offers for Urruti last transfer window for a move to South America but Urruti is still the rumored target of a few foreign clubs.

Colman’s play in 2017 left him surrounded by doubt to go along with Urruti rumors, making forward the biggest question mark for Dallas moving forward. However, the leaked shortlist and other rumblings around the team have only linked them with a pair of midfielders, Argentine winger Federico Carrizo (who’s also linked to LAFC) and Paraguayan Jorge Salinas. Carrizo would likely be a TAM player, but wouldn’t necessarily be an upgrade over Michael Barrios (who was also involved in some impressive transfer rumors this last window) or Roland Lamah, who were both solid contributors last season. Salinas would likely be a depth option.

Next: Will Jose Salvatierra start at right-back for FC Dallas next season?

Getting back into form should be the club’s main focus this offseason and maybe the few small changes they’ve already made will help them get there. A new-look and lockdown defense behind Kelyn Acosta, Carlos Gruezo, and a healthy Mauro Diaz would allow the attack pieces to run wild and that could make all the difference, but don’t be surprised if Urruti moves on and the Toros find a way to land a new target up top, especially considering Dallas made a major move to jump to the top of the MLS Allocation Ranks.