They won the wooden spoon, and were pretty much targeted by fantasy players as the team to bet against if you wanted easy points. Outside of Wondo’s chase for the MLS goal record, there’s not much that went well in 2018. And to be honest, 2019 isn’t looking much better.
Tactics & Key Players
Matias Almeyda won the CCL with Chivas due to an aggressive man-marking approach. Whether San Jose has the personnel to do that is an open question, but if it works you’ll see the QUakes create a lot of chances on the counter.
Fantasy Managers will be looking to see if Nick Lima and Vako can become consistent producers, but there’s not much more that’s apparent right now.
Notable Changes
Andrew Tarbell is among the most hated players by his own fans, and San Jose fans are expecting either JT Marcinkowski or Daniel Vega to take that spot. They’ve brought in Judson and Marcos Lopez on loan, hoping to shore up defensively. If that seems underwhelming for a team that was awful in 2018…well, you’d be right.
Fantasy Expectations
Outside of Lima and Vako in DGWs, I don’t see a lot of potential here. With a unique and foreign tactical approach, I expect San Jose to really struggle in the first few weeks as they learn the system.