As players depart to spend time with families and enjoy some rest after a long season, Technical Director Fernando Clavijo heads into the busiest time of his season - building the 2016 FC Dallas roster.
“I think we are in an incredible position,” he said. “I think we have a really good core of players and I think we have identified some issues [where we need to improve] in key positions.”
First and foremost on his list is goal scoring.
“If we would’ve scored, we would’ve won in Seattle and against Portland here and we didn’t,” Clavijo said of this year’s playoff run. “I think that in the forward position, it’s a key [piece] that we need to find.”
With the departure of Blas Perez and declining an option on David Texeira’s contract, Clavijo heads into the shortened offseason focused on finding what he calls a ‘Golden Boot striker.’ Add with that a desire to continue to add depth to the midfield, and the U.S. Soccer Hall of Famer is set for a busy month and a half before the start of preseason. But surprise depth at one position from 2015 will allow him to focus intently elsewhere this winter.
“At the beginning of the year we never planned that [goalkeeper] Jesse [Gonzalez] would be playing that many games and doing really well and sitting two really good goalkeepers,” he said. “So that’s something positive again for us that gives us an opportunity to [focus] on a different [position].”
While the homegrown ‘keeper’s quick rise to fame was a surprise to an unsuspecting Clavijo, not much else is when it comes to FCD player personnel. Unlike many of his counterparts across the league, he says, relentless planning and thought toward the future goes into his offseason signings and contract negotiations, planning not only what 2016’s roster looks like, but 2017 and beyond.
“There are teams that just sign for the year, players, and don’t really look into what’s going to happen next year and [then] can’t keep the players you just signed because they don’t look ahead,” Clavijo said. “[Last year] we put ourselves in an incredible position to manage those things not only with 2015 in mind, but 2016 and 2017.”
He’ll be the first to tell you that credit for the meticulous planning goes to more than just him. Clavijo and Luiz Muzzi, Assistant Technical Director and Director of Soccer Operations, are constantly meeting with FC Dallas President Dan Hunt and CFO Jimmy Smith to plan, manage and account for every dollar spent against the salary cap for not just the current season, but many to come.
“We always look two years ahead and making sure that we know exactly what is going to be in all the bonuses, and all the players, and all the percentages the salary goes up, that we still can afford them. This is the difference between us and everybody else,” Clavijo said. “There’s work done off the field that many people don’t know about, but has allowed this team to have a very good group of young players and to keep adding hopefully meaningful players for the future of this team and this franchise.”
And keeping the young core intact for years to come, like the signing of Kellyn Acosta to a five-year extension Thursday, is key to maintaining his vision for the club long-term.
“Soccer is a moments game,” he said. “In one moment you’re not playing well and you’re not making money, and in another moment you’re a star and you’re winning championships and making money. So [you have] to be able to have a balance in numbers throughout the years [of a contract]…If you can balance things and have [a player] there for some time, I think you can plan ahead without a risk of any problems and that’s what we’ve been doing.”
“I think we’re going to see [our way paying off] very soon with how many teams and how many players teams are missing because they didn’t plan ahead. It’s not easy, but I think we’re doing it right."
