Buy 'Em or Bag 'Em Week 3: Houston, We Could Have a Problem

Roster change deadline: Friday March 18, 7:00pm ET

Amount of Free Transfers this week: 2

It's been two ugly weeks of soccer for the New York Red Bulls.  For a team returning nine of eleven starters from last year, it would be inferred that there should be chemistry, familiarity and continuity.  Unfortunately, those all seem to be missing at the moment.  The 2015 Supporter's Shield winners led the league with 62 regular season goals.  They still haven't found the back of the net in 2016.

Those two vacancies from 2015 play a very important role with the team: Center back.  The position is currently very shaky.  When CB suffers, the CDMs need to help.  When the CDMs help, they can't get forward to back up the CAM on offense.  A CAM without the ball leaves the lone striker as a spectator to the game.  For this reason, I recommend to bag Bradley Wright-Phillips.  Not really his fault, but when a forward needs a telescope to locate the ball, you know there is a problem.  The Red Bulls only have four shots on goal in 180 minutes of play.

In a very uncharacteristic play, I will tell you not to buy anyone this week from the Red Bulls.  The Houston Dynamo just dropped five goals on FC Dallas, who is a favorite for the Supporter's Shield and MLS Cup.  Furthermore, they scored three on New England in Week 1.  If Houston continues their offensive hot streak, you will be losing points with anyone you grab on the defensive side of the ball.  And if the Red Bulls continue to struggle on offense, it's tough to tell where the goals will come from.  BWP had a good chance against Montreal and Ronald Zubar (returning from suspension) had a header just miss off a corner.

I wish I could be more optimistic on this!  And I hate judging teams before the end of April, but the Red Bulls haven't shown me that they are creative enough to turn a switch and fix a leaky defense.  Therefore, the offense suffers as a downstream impact.

The Red Bulls return home to face Houston on Saturday at 7:00pm ET.

Buy 'Em