With two CBs leaving the team, Rodrigues and Bruno Wilson, and no other additions, the team is expected to return to a back four formation in 2026. There is also a shortage of natural wingers on the team, especially with the best of them, Espinoza, now playing for Nashville. The addition of Werner, who achieved his greatest success as a striker in a pair, points more towards a two-striker formation, allowing Werner and Judd to play against each other up top. This opens up the midfield for both Leroux and Tsakiris to play higher up, while defensive midfielder Ronaldo Viera can play under them last season. Overall, these personnel changes indicate a formation shift to a 4-4-2 diamond, as noted by Matt Doyle. The formation has been used to solid effect by Arena before. The only thing the team is missing to best fit a diamond formation is the real creative #10 that plays under Werner and Judd. But given how that role has fallen out of favor in the global transfer market, the Quakes should be able to recruit someone pretty good here without too much trouble, especially with some open DP slots.
While there have been numerous departures from the Quakes, there has only been one major addition this season. Arena shows a lot of confidence in the youth on the roster to take a step forward. The underlying numbers from last season show that this team performed well enough to finish solidly in the play-off spaces, but can the remaining roster match that outcome? Timo Werner brings a level of elite production that this team hasn’t seen before and perhaps Judd can completely replace Martinez’s scoring goals. The changes in defence, the likely formation change and the improved defensive performance of the players higher up the pitch could see the Quakes recover the goal by conceding they have been sunk in 2025. They’ll be hoping that Daniel was a goaltending blunder in 2025, that his decline isn’t a slide caused by the ongoing injuries, and that we might see the 2023 version again. It’s more likely that we’ll wake up tomorrow to the alarm clock playing “I Got You Babe” as the DJ welcomes us to a new February 2nd. Time to hit that snooze button.
By Harrison Crow
Look, I’m here to write to the people who probably aren’t that familiar with this team and put them in their plight. I’m not here to get super squirrely and bang on about Lukas Magnason or Dylan Kropp, their pair of first-round CB picks, and how that relates to the continued rebuilding of their backline in the long term.
So if you’re looking for an in-depth analysis, I have a few other stops to support you:
Back in August, I pretty much covered their 2025 season, and if you haven’t read it, let me save you some time and give you a very brief summary: It was disappointing. Unambiguous. A team looking to host a playoff game landed a play-in wild card spot by the slimmest of margins, and with the talent level in the Western Conference increasing, the organization now doesn’t want to be left behind.
Part of last year’s problems stem from the team’s real inability to make deals. You can probably say that some of that was due to yet another change in ownership, but the other part was simply the under-par key players. The result of that has been significant roster turnover – which is inevitable and not nearly as drastic as, say, Toronto or Sporting KC, but nonetheless the team is trading away roughly 3.5 starters (Brayan Vera, Braian Ojeda, Diogo Gonçalves and Rwan Cruz) in an effort to reshape their work.
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