Preseason Look: Chicago Fire

Chicago is going into this season with an incomplete roster. Recent pickup Przemyslaw Frankowski is not nearly enough to make this team anywhere close to ready. The team is missing starting players at right and left back, central midfield, goalkeeper as well as a number 10.

It's entirely possible that Chicago plans to try and move Schweinsteiger back up into the midfield, but they have absolutely nothing to backfill his CB spot (of which he inexplicably filled last season). I do think the Argentinian Nicolás Del Grecco pick up mid-year last year was an attempt to fix that, maybe? He never made an app in MLS and was passed along to the Tulsa Roughnecks.

Perhaps it's better to look at what the Fire have going for them. Nikolic up top. Katai out on the right. It pains me to say it, but Schweinsteiger is a part-time player and playing in a hard position to have much impact on results, given his skill.

		Player Ratings (avg)		TransferMarkt Value (000)
	Team	Starters	Bench	Starters	Bench
1	ATL	70.9	65.9	$ 52,497	$ 6,067
2	TFC	70.5	65.7	$ 25,027	$ 4,315
3	NYR	69.7	64.9	$ 20,192	$ 3,745
4	CLB	69.3	66.2	$ 24,671	$ 4,180
5	NER	68.7	64.5	$ 13,278	$ 5,115
6	PHI	68.0	56.1	$ 10,339	$ 5,297
7	CHI	67.8	63.7	$ 17,022	$ 3,955
8	FCC	67.5	64.7	$ 11,014	$ 4,383

As it stands, Chicago is barely above expansion side FC Cincinnati. It's not going to take just one or two signings to make them competitive. The need half the starting lineup.

Rating	Name	Position	FM19	FIFA	WS
73	Marcelo	Centre-Back	73	75	69
73	Bastian Schweinsteiger	Central Midfield	73	80	71
72	Nemanja Nikolic	Centre-Forward	72	75	67
72	Dax McCarty	Central Midfield	72	74	69
71	Aleksandar Katai	Right Winger	70	75	71
68	Przemyslaw Frankowski	Right Winger	68	70	64
67	Marcos Ureña	Centre-Forward	63	68	67
65	Cristian Martínez	Right Midfield	59	65	67
64	Raheem Edwards	Left Winger	61	64	67
64	Fabian Herbers	Right Winger	62	66	64
64	Nicolas Hasler	Central Midfield	63	66	64
63	Diego Campos	Right-Back	54	63	65
63	Grant Lillard	Centre-Back	63	63	66
63	Jorge Corrales	Left-Back	61	63	66
63	Mo Adams	Central Midfield	62	63	65
63	Richard Sánchez	Goalkeeper	60	63	63
63	Brandt Bronico	Central Midfield	63	62	65
62	Djordje Mihailovic	Attacking Midfield	62	62	69
62	Stefan Cleveland	Goalkeeper	59	62	68
61	Nicolás Del Grecco	Centre-Back	61	66	0
60	Amando Moreno	Left Winger	59	63	60
60	Elliot Collier	Attacking Midfield	58	60	64
0	Jeremiah Gutjahr	Midfielder	0	0	0