Preseason Look: NY Red Bulls

For the 5th Eastern Conference team evaluation, we've got 2019 Supporters' Sheild winning Red Bulls who have been mostly good for years now. Before we get to the roster, let's update some team vitals:

		Player Ratings		TransferMarkt Value (000)
	Team	Starters	Bench	Starters	Bench
1	ATL	70.9	65.9	$ 40,695	$ 4,703
2	NYR	69.7	64.9	$ 15,653	$ 2,903
3	CLB	69.3	66.2	$ 19,125	$ 3,240
4	PHI	68.0	56.1	$ 8,015	$ 4,106
5	FCC	67.5	64.7	$ 8,538	$ 3,398

Atlanta is still on top of my leaderboard, with NYRB and Columbus not far behind. I've got that table sorted by "Starters" average player rating, which is why NY are edging out Columbus. Looking over to the right you see that the Crew have a better bench and more value on the roster.

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NEW YORK RED BULLS

New York has a hole to fill with Tyler Adams getting promoted up to RB Leipzig in the Bundesliga and their bench being slightly thin in the central midfield department. Right now I've got Florian Valot or Alex Muyl trying to fill Adams' shoes, but both are a measurable drop off. 

It is entirely possible that this opens the door for 18-year-old Ben Mines, who is with the U19 US National team, to move in and get regular time. The Red Bulls, more than any other MLS team perhaps, are comfortable inserting young players. Particularly regional ones. Mines seems to have a bright future.

Rating	Name	Position	FM19	FIFA	WS
72	Bradley Wright-Phillips	Centre-Forward	71	78	72
71	Kemar Lawrence	Left-Back	66	74	71
71	Kaku	Attacking Midfield	68	75	71
71	Aaron Long	Centre-Back	67	73	71
71	Michael Murillo	Right-Back	65	72	71
71	Tim Parker	Centre-Back	68	73	71
70	Sean Davis	Central Midfield	69	71	70
69	Luis Robles	Goalkeeper	68	74	69
68	Daniel Royer	Left Winger	65	74	68
67	Amro Tarek	Centre-Back	67	71	66
67	Connor Lade	Right-Back	69	67	67
67	Florian Valot	Right Winger	59	67	72
67	Ryan Meara	Goalkeeper	66	67	69
66	Alex Muyl	Right Winger	66	66	67
64	Derrick Etienne	Left Winger	57	68	64
63	Anatole Abang	Centre-Forward	64	62	63
63	Vincent Bezecourt	Attacking Midfield	61	63	66
63	Brian White	Centre-Forward	57	63	63
62	Andreas Ivan	Right Winger	58	64	62
62	Kyle Duncan	Right-Back	59	62	73
62	Cristian Cásseres	Central Midfield	57	62	62
57	Marcus Epps	Right Winger	57	63
56	Ben Mines	Right Winger	56	59
56	Jean-Christophe Koffi	Midfielder	56	59
53	Evan Louro	Goalkeeper	53	59
0	Rece Buckmaster	Defender
0	Roy Boateng	Defender
0	Sean Nealis	Centre-Back
0	János Löbe	Left Midfield

As far as the rest of the roster, they are returning a bunch of starters and MLS familiar faces like Robles, Bradley Wright-Phillips, Tim Parker, Aaron Long, and Kemar Lawrence. I think the biggest battle for the team will be whether or not they want to climb the mountain again. They will be a hard out with the defense they have right now. All of them rate above 70, which means good and no weak links.

One final note here: There are a few reports that Kaku might be on the way out. If so, then it's another team in the East that will be missing a number 10. Either way, NYRB seems to find a player that fits in well enough, often even within their own team dev system. This team is a comfortable playoff team.