Analysis: Charlotte FC exits MLS expansion draft in a great spot, even without a DP
Two S-words came to mind following Tuesday’s Major League Soccer expansion draft: Strategy and speed.
The first S, strategy, because Charlotte FC is rolling in general allocation money (GAM) after completing trade deals off two of its picks. The team isn’t technically rich in GAM, considering Charlotte FC previously traded away some of its allocation money for other players. There’s also the fact that GAM isn’t real money.
“It’s monopoly money, so we can’t go out and celebrate tonight,” Charlotte FC sporting director Zoran Krneta joked.
But the front office still had reasons to consider the night a success since those trades will eventually land Charlotte FC $875,000 in GAM, which is an MLS roster-building mechanism that can be exchanged in other trade deals and used to buy down player salary budget charges. It was the most GAM ever received in an MLS expansion draft.
“We want to be flexible. We want to be in control. That’s the idea behind it,” Krneta said. “We want to make sure that we can pick the players and trade where we want.”
GAM, for example, can be used to buy down the salary budget charges for Charlotte FC’s future designated players, whose salaries and acquisition costs exceed the league’s Maximum Salary Budget Charge ($612,500 this year). The designated players, or DPs, are typically a team’s best and most expensive players and Charlotte FC so far hasn’t used any one of its three available DP slots.
Charlotte FC’s director of player personnel Bobby Belair told The Observer that the club plans to fill all three of those slots before the inaugural season in 2022.
“We have a bunch of signings that hopefully we can move forward with soon,” Belair said. “I think the reality of the expansion draft is we were never going to go out and get our starting forward and our starting wingers, like our DP players, there.”
That doesn’t mean the team is lacking in talent. Charlotte’s roster totals 14 players, with Krneta hinting that another announcement could come as soon as Wednesday afternoon. Most players announced so far are defenders and midfielders, which highlights a theme that Krneta and head coach Miguel Ángel Ramírez previously discussed: They said that they wanted to build a roster starting from the “spine.”
Ramírez said that building that spine included adding 24-year-old English defender Anton Walkes from Atlanta United and 28-year-old full-back Joseph Mora from D.C. United during the draft. He noted Walkes’ speed as a key element for the defenders in the type of possession-based and fast-paced system that he wants to run, while pointing to Mora’s MLS experience in a system that has so far focused heavily on international talent.
Separate from the “spine,” Charlotte FC added another young attacking player to its roster, selecting 23-year-old McKinze Gaines during the expansion draft. He joins 19-year-old Brazilian forward Vinicius Mello as the only two front-field players on Charlotte FC’s roster so far.
Gaines was on the scouting department’s radar during his time playing in Germany, and Ramírez took a particular liking to him after watching a match in Austin. Belair said that Ramírez will aim to mold the young center forward into a dangerous winger for Charlotte.
“He’s got electric speed, a lot of pace, he gets in behind players, and so we think he compliments what will be the rest of the squad really well,” Belair said.
Ramírez also commented on how Gaines could fit into his system.
“With Independiente del Valle, we won the Sudamericana Cup with super fast wingers and we killed the opponents at the wings,” Ramírez said. “So it was an unbelievable chance for us to have this profile of winger, super fast.”
Charlotte’s roster-building will continue during the MLS offseason. Free agency opens Dec. 15 and Belair said that the club is looking to pursue players in that camp. Positionally, the team is still aiming to add forwards and goalkeepers, especially. (Pablo Sisniega is the team’s only announced goalkeeper and MLS teams typically carry at least three players in that position.)
As for where those next players will come from, it could be anywhere in the world. Charlotte’s roster has a heavy international influence, which is a trend that’s likely to continue since the club has 10 international roster slots it’ll aim to fill for the 2022 season.
While it’s anyone’s guess on the next wave of players’ home countries, a few things seem certain: Those selections will be strategic and those players will have speed.
This story was originally published December 15, 2021 at 6:00 AM.
