Preseason Look: Philadelphia Union

Up to my fourth MLS team preseason evaluation, so It's a good time to see how things are shaking out. Keeping it very simple right now. What I have so far:

1. Player Ratings: Median between three ratings, Football Manager 19, EA's FIFA 19 and their WhoScored score (which I made out of 100).

2. Market Value: Just a sum of what Transfer Markt has them.

		Player Ratings		TransferMarkt Value (in millions)
	Team	Starters	Bench	Starters	Bench
1	ATL	70.9	65.9	$52.5	$6.1
2	CLB	69.3	66.2	$24.7	$4.2
3	FCC	67.5	64.7	$11.0	$4.4
3	PHI	68.0	56.1	$10.3	$5.3

I'm also recording player positions, birthdays, size, foot, where they were signed from and where they are from. From this information, I project starting lineups and the bench. Once I have a few more teams evaluated, I'll expand out strength by position (Forwards, Mids, Defenders) and add some further info like wages, needs, weaknesses, etc.).

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THE PHILADELPHIA UNION

Out of the four Eastern Conference teams I've evaluated so far, Philly is the most incomplete. They have a gaping hole in the midfield with the loss Borek Dockal (sounds like he's not returning, anyway) and the backline is weak. 

I've got Fabinho starting back there but it looks like Philly FO is going to start 21-year-old Cameroonian Olivier Mbaizo or Matthew Real (both Bethlehem Steel, limited time in MLS) to fill the shoes of departing Keegan Rosenberry (who was, by some distance, the best player in defense for them). My guess is his upcoming pay increase will be easily double his $120k he's at now. Which leads up to...

The Union are a team on a budget. MLS might not want to admit it quite yet, but dwindling interest in the team is likely to blame. I like that Ernst Tanner is playing small ball right now, but each passing day puts them further behind in regards to roster build. Dropping two of their best players means his team is significantly worse now than when the season ended.

Rating	Name	Position	FM19	FIFA	WS
72	Alejandro Bedoya	Central Midfield	72	74	67
71	Andre Blake	Goalkeeper	71	75	68
70	Haris Medunjanin	Central Midfield	70	76	68
69	Kacper Przybylko	Centre-Forward	74	68	69
69	Ilsinho	Right Midfield	69	67	69
68	CJ Sapong	Centre-Forward	68	69	68
67	Fafà Picault	Left Winger	64	67	70
67	Cory Burke	Centre-Forward	64	67	68
66	Ray Gaddis	Right-Back	67	66	66
66	Fabinho	Left-Back	70	66	63
66	Auston Trusty	Centre-Back	64	66	68
66	Jack Elliott	Centre-Back	66	66	68
65	Warren Creavalle	Defensive Midfield	66	65	65
65	David Accam	Left Winger	65	71	65
65	Mark McKenzie	Centre-Back	62	65	67
64	Derrick Jones	Central Midfield	60	65	64
63	Sergio Santos	Centre-Forward	63	67
61	Anthony Fontana	Attacking Midfield	57	61	63
59	Olivier Mbaizo	Right-Back	59	57	73
58	Matthew Real	Left-Back	58	57	64
0	Matt Freese	Goalkeeper
0	Brenden Aaronson	Attacking Midfield	56

If they can find an attacking mid of Dockals quality they still have needs on the backline and on the bench. Heck, just warm bodies as well. Their roster is just 22. Action is needed with preseason play right around the corner.