Boston Sports Extra

As I’ve already mentioned, this offseason was one of, if not the most important offseason in Revs history. And it has also been one of the best offseasons for the team as well. Coming into the offseason, the team needed help defesivley and offensively, and they got both. They needed a goal scoring striker, a number 10 to replace Lee Nguyen, and a winger to replace Kelyn Rowe. It seems as if they have filled all of those roles in 2019. But how good did the team do in each category?

Goal Scorer: B-

The revs were desperately missing an attack last year. They never really had a solid goal scorer they could rely on. They acquired Juan Caicedo to play striker, who will hopefully step up and be the Revs new goalscorer. Caicedo is big, and will definitely have a big presence in the box this year, but his track record is the difference between his B- and a B+. So far Juan seems to be having himself a decent preseason with the team, only time will tell if he continues his form in the regular season

Play maker: B+

To replace Lee Nguyen, and his number 10 role with the team, the Revs have brought in Spanish playmaker Carles Gil as a DP player. As it stands, Gil is lining up to be the new number 10 for the Revs, unless they end up bringing in another attacker, in which case Gil will likely move to right wing position. Revs were also linked with Spanish player Bojan Krkic.

With Gil New England is set to have a decent attacking midfield as he posses a lot of skills the team has lacked in recent years. So why a B+? Gil is, for the most part, an unknown player to most. He certainly won’t be a reason to go to games alone. He is a skillful player who did very little with his short time in the premier league. After a few loans and his team getting relegated, he moved to the second division in Spain, which is still a high level, but not a guaranteed difference maker. Gil will have a lot of hype to live up to with the Revs.

Right Wing: C-

As of now, there isn’t a guaranteed spot for any player at right wing. The position is up for grabs, hence the low rating for it. The position could fall to as many as 5 players: Diego Fagundez, Justin Rennicks, Tajon Buchanan, Juan Agudelo or Dejuan Jones. While any 5 of those players could play the position, they will be fighting for minutes. Of the 5, Justin Rennicks would probably be the most suited for the spot as it is his most natural position, and has the most experience playing it. As mentioned earlier, the team could also sign a new player to take the spot or move Gil there. If this were to happen the grade could go up, but for now they get a C-.

Left Back: A-

Is Edgar Castillo the best left back in the world? Not even close. Is he one of the best left backs in MLS? Yes. If Castillo can stay healthy at the nimble age of 33 in 2019, the Revs will be solid at the left back position. This is a spot they have really struggled to fill the past few seasons. Castillo has been rated as the top 5 left backs in MLS the last few years for Colorado, if he can continue that form, our left back problems could be over. The only problem remaining at left back is their depth. The only other left back under contract with the team is Gabriel Somi. But Somi has been very vocal about wanting to leave due to lack of playing time. However, with the European transfer window closed, he most likely won’t be moved until the summer.

Center back: D+

Revs made no change to their Centerbacks beside trading former club captain Claude Dielna. The team currently only has 3 center backs under contract. This isn’t good if one of them gets injured. The team has however recently been linked with two American center backs who currently play for QPR in England. The two wouldn’t be starters, but they would be low-risk options for depth. If a player were to be unavailable for whatever reason, one of the two could fill in. Currently, their starting center backs will most likely be Michael Mancienne and Antonio Delamea or Jalil Anibaba. This isn’t the worst pairing, but it’s the same groupings that helped the Revs conceded 55 goals last season.

Overall: B+

Coming into the offseason, the Revs had 5 major needs to improve the team, and so far they have acquired 3 of the 5, and 4 if you count the Justin Rennicks signing. With the European transfer window coming to a close, the Revs have a lot of potential to snag up some players in Europe in the next few weeks including another max salary player as club president Brian Bilello hinted at. The Revs have definitely had one of the best if not THE best offseason in their 23 year history. Now, they have to prove it on the field

Playing Ability

Up until now, we can only really speculate what happened. There really is no definitive answer.

You can’t really say he was benched due to poor form because he wasn’t in any particular bad form. In fact, according to whoscored.com, Claude Dielna was the Revs best defender this year with a 6.73 rating. In comparison, Michael Mancienne had a 6.71 rating, Anibaba a 6.61 and Delamea had a 6.66 rating. The only “defender” to have a higher rating than Dielna was Andrew Farrell who had a rating of 6.89. But Farrell plays a more attacking position than Claude.

There were also reports that Spanish La Liga side Real Betis are interested in signing him this offseason. So here are the top 3 reasons why Claude Dielna may have been benched.

3. Off-Field Incident

Anyone who has seen Claude play on the field knows he’s bound to get into trouble. This year alone he has 4 yellow cards and 28 total fouls in just 17 games. So there’s a definite possibility his lack of discipline got him in trouble with Brad Freidel. Perhaps he said something to the coach or maybe even another player that coach didn’t like that got him put on coach’s naughty list.

It’s no secret that Freidel seems to hold a grudge. In his first game ever, Toni Delamea got a red card in the 24th minute and it took Toni over 2 months just to get back on the field.

If there was a feud, it seems that Brad Freidel is the one who’s holding back as Dielna took to Twitter to explain his side of what might be going on in a tweet he quickly deleted, saying, “…I am ready to play for Coach whenever my name is called upon.”

If there was a feud, Freidel isn’t ready to get over it yet.

2. Not Good Enough

I know I said earlier that statistically, Doielna is the Revs best center back, but maybe the reason is as simple as Brad Freidel doesn’t think Claude is good enough for this team.

The only problem with this theory is that when a team has only won two home games since June and is struggling as bad as they are, it’s hard to not be good enough. In the offseason, Freidel made it clear he wanted to bring in his own guys and seeing how Claude isn’t one of “his guys,” perhaps he thinks playing Claude could do more damage than good.

It could also be that Freidel just values the other options he has more.

1. Money

Knowing Robert Kraft, this is probably the most likely reason. Before Michael Mancienne, Claude was the highest paid defender on the team, and at on point the whole league. In that ginormous $900,000 contract, there is most likely a few bonuses and clauses.

Perhaps the Revs are keen to play him because they don’t want to trigger a clause that will give Claude a big payday. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing depending on the clause.

Any potential clause could range from triggering a 1-year contract extension to triggering a big cash bonus. It is entirely possible there is a clause to give Claude a contract extension and Freidel has decided he doesn’t want to bring Claude back so he decided to bench him.

Either way, it seems as if Claude’s time here is up, and with his contract expiring at the end of the season, I doubt we’ll see him in a Revolution jersey next year.