GM Tim Bezbatchenko highlights Crew's plans, updates on Zelarayan contract situation
Addressing the media for the first time since the 2021 season ended, Crew president and general manager Tim Bezbatchenko said the focus this offseason will be to build around a core group of players, find ways to keep those players available after injuries significantly affected the season, then finish atop the Eastern Conference in 2022.
"Obviously the year was probably defined by how our depth was tested — international call-ups, injuries, and clearly still this pandemic,” Bezbatchenko said. “But at the same time, those factors are consistent among a lot of teams in our league. We're not in the business of making excuses. We just dropped too many points during certain portions of the year that it was difficult to climb back.”
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Bezbatchenko acknowledged that the players brought in after the Crew won MLS Cup in 2020 didn’t pan out as expected. Winger Kevin Molino played just 11 games and will miss half the season next year after tearing his ACL. Young winger Alex Matan didn’t score or have an assist, and forward Bradley Wright-Phillips scored just once and was eventually surpassed by Miguel Berry in the depth chart.
He said being able to travel and scout international players in person this year should help significantly.
"I think it's important to address that in a lot of ways we didn't see the fruits of our labor for the players that we did bring in last year,” Bezbatchenko said. “We're all looking at ourselves, myself included as the leader of this organization, to be better with a player that you do bring in.”
Bezbatchenko didn’t specify which players would not be back for the 2022 season. The Crew is expected to announce final roster decisions by next week before Thanksgiving. However, he did reiterate coach Caleb Porter’s emphasis on adding one or two wingers this offseason to a core group that will remain in tact.
Bezbatchenko also cited outside back as an area to improve, noting how impactful French right back Steven Moreira was once he joined the club midseason, getting three assists in seven games.
"Some of that (production at winger) will come from players that are just a little bit better than they were last year that are on our roster,” Bezbatchenko said. “And then others, that would be a position that we absolutely will explore and be looking for potentially a new player or two.”
When asked what type of transfer fee the Crew might spend on a winger, Bezbatchenko said he doesn’t think the club has to be among the top eight teams in MLS in spending to win. But they’ll spend enough to be competitive, like the $8 million they paid Tigres UANL before 2020 for Zelarayan.
“I would imagine it would be significantly less for a winger than we spent on Lucas,” he said. “But meaningful."
While there will be a few changes, they won’t significantly alter what Bezbatchenko and Porter believe to be a strong core group of players.
"We're really excited about next year because we're not going to make material or significant changes. Well, they're always going to be material, but the core of our roster will be back,” he said. “We have a good core. We just need to make sure that they can be available for a variety of reasons and the players around them can be available.”
Updates on contracts for Zelarayan, Room, Valenzuela
The Crew are currently in contract negotiations for three of those core members, though Bezbatchenko left it open-ended as to whether or not left back Milton Valenzuela is a long-term fit for the club.
Goalkeeper Eloy Room and Valenzuela said at the end of the season that they were out of contract and wished to stay with the club. When technical director Pat Onstad was introduced as general manager with the Houston Dynamo, he said the Crew was in the middle of negotiating a contract extension with Zelarayan.
Bezbatchenko said he wants all three deals to get done, but there was nothing official yet. Zelarayan is still under contract for next season. The negotiation, Bezbatchenko said, is to reflect Zelarayan’s actual worth for what he has accomplished.
"Lucas has, in a lot of ways, overperformed over the last two seasons,” he said. “It's important in the global game that the contracts reflect what they do for your club. That's something we're talking (about) with Lucas' group. ... He creates moments that are worth the price of admission, maybe more.”
As for Valenzuela, Bezbatchenko mentioned how he helped the Crew when he returned from injury, but that teams need their best players available. Valenzuela was out all of 2019 with a knee injury and played in just 14 games in 2021 through multiple hamstring injuries.
"His number of injuries and just general availability, I wouldn't say give us pause, but we just have to look at all the different pieces of information, and that's one of them,” Bezbatchenko said.
No imminent hiring of a technical director
With Onstad out, Bezbatchenko said the Crew aren't moving quickly to fill the role of technical director. He said between himself, assistant general manager Corey Wray, director of player personnel Issa Tall and scouting director Neil McGuinness, the tasks that Onstad was in charge of can be divided appropriately.
"I wouldn't say anything is urgent or immediate, but open to different additions that are going to help our team,” he said.
When will Crew 2 begin?
The Crew have teased the formation of a second, reserve team since the 2019 season, even announcing Wray as the GM of Crew 2 last year. It appears the official formation of that reserve team will likely be formally announced this offseason.
MLS announced a new league in June that would create another level for a playing pathway between the clubs’ academy teams and the MLS club. The teams would likely be similar to the U23 leagues in Europe. Over the next couple of weeks, Bezbatchenko said there might be an announcement.
"We're really excited about it. It's heading in the right direction but nothing to announce yet,” he said. “We would look internally first to see if we have candidates for a head coaching position, if and when.”
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This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Crew GM Tim Bezbatchenko talks Lucas Zelarayan extension
