Sporting KC: Peter Vermes has some explaining to do

This week, Sporting KC have made some major roster surgery, especially at the striker position. Only, it seems as if they have gotten worse. Peter Vermes has some explaining to do.

For many years, the Achilles’ heel of Sporting Kansas City has been well known. Peter Vermes manages a well-drilled team that is disciplined, industrious and defensively stifling.

But Sporting KC have consistently lacked a true number nine, a leading centre-forward who can provide both goals and a focal point for an attack that requires a back-to-goal striker to hold up play, stretch the channels, and create space and opportunities for those around him.

Those same problems existed this season. SKC would end the regular season atop the Western Conference. But in the playoffs, they fell to the Portland Timbers, in large part because they were unable to finish the slew of chances they created, especially in the second leg at Children’s Mercy Park.

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This offseason, it seemed clear where one of the most complete teams in MLS needed to strengthen to rival the very elite of the league. And yet, if you were to quickly survey the moves that have been made so far this winter, you would question if Vermes sees the same problems.

KC’s top goalscorer and most prolific centre-forward was traded away. A striker who can play out wide was acquired. Another centre-forward who was only signed last offseason has also departed. And Krisztian Nemeth still remains at the club and is now in line to see more playing time.

SKC traded Diego Rubio, who had scored a goal every 95 minutes last season, to the Colorado Rapids for Kelyn Rowe and $300,000 in allocation money. Khiry Shelton is off to Europe, per the reports. And the only attacker to be acquired is Erik Hurtado of the Vancouver Whitecaps, who was traded for a 2020 second-round SuperDraft pick and 2021 first-round SuperDraft pick. Hurtado, for the record, has never scored more than five goals in an MLS season or topped 600 minutes of action.

Vermes, though, is apparently happy with his striking options. Speaking after this string of moves, Vermes stated:

"“We’ve added Hurtado, we have Nemeth, as you saw this past year, [Daniel] Salloi can play in there as well. We have other abilities to play that position, I feel comfortable with those guys and confident. Pretty simple.”"

Now, that is all well and good, but Hurtado is hardly a reliable striking option, Nemeth has scored just two goals in his last 20 MLS appearances, and Daniel Salloi, while a player with a clear eye for goal, perhaps lacks the physicality to lead the line on his own. He is better suited to a wide role that gives him free rein of movement in the final third.

Put simply, the striking options that Sporting KC have amassed are not good enough. That, in and of itself, is damning enough. When you consider that this has been the primary shortcoming of this team for several years, especially in the playoffs, it is an absolutely criminal mistake in roster construction.

Vermes has attempted to explain the moves by expressing his confidence in Hurtado, Nemeth and Salloi. But from an objective stance, that seems like an ambitious move at best and a downright foolish one at worst. To the Sporting KC fans, therefore, Vermes has some explaining to do.