While the New England Revolution has added experienced players to both the backline and midfield since Jay Heaps took over as head coach, one area that has gone largely unaddressed is striker. Since the Revs declined options on Argentinean striker Milton Caraglio and Danish forward Rajko Lekic, no proven replacements have signed on.<\/p>\n
Now, head coach Jay Heaps says the team is in talks with one striker and could likely add a second as well.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re in talks with adding one definitely and most likely two,\u201d Heaps said on Sunday.<\/p>\n
Who those strikers are remains to be seen, but the Revs recently had 25 year old French striker Sa\u00ebr S\u00e8ne on trial<\/a><\/span> and were reportedly in talks with 23 year old Trinidadian Jamal Gay<\/a><\/span>. Heaps did say the team was talking to some of the trialists.<\/p>\n \u201cThe list of players that as trialists we\u2019ve had into camp there has been some good and some players that we won\u2019t sign,\u201d said Heaps. \u201cThere are some guys that we\u2019re certainly having dialogue with.\u201d<\/p>\n But while Heaps sees the need to improve up top, he\u2019s been happy with what he\u2019s seen from his midfield so far and is ready to begin figuring out his best formation.<\/p>\n \u201cWe really like where the midfield is in terms of talent level,\u201d said Heaps. \u201cYou don\u2019t want to start building your formation before [you bring the players in], so we wanted to see the personnel and see what we\u2019ve got. From now we are going to start building what kind of formation we\u2019re going to play – built around the players we have.\u201d<\/p>\n One new player who has made an immediate mark on the midfield is rookie Kelyn Rowe. The first round draft pick had an assist in the Revs preseason opener, a 2-1 win over FC Tucson on Saturday.<\/p>\n \u201cIn terms of his soccer IQ, Kelyn [Rowe] is very mature,\u201d said Heaps. \u201cYou can see that he\u2019s adapting to the speed of the game. Obviously it\u2019s different than college and he was with the [U.S.] U-23s, so he has a sense of the speed and he\u2019s going to get there, there is no question about it. He\u2019ll be an impact player this season.\u201d<\/p>\n Rowe has also left an impression on fellow attacking midfielder Benny Feilhaber. While training with the U.S. National Team, Feilhaber got to see Rowe with the U.S. U-23 National Team.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve seen him a couple times with the U-23s and I watched him a couple times with UCLA as well,\u201d said Feilhaber. \u201cI think he plays a little bit similar to how I play actually. He tries to keep possession of the ball as much as he can, but he\u2019s still looking up field and trying to find the forwards and trying to find the dangerous passes.<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s a really smart player with his movements,\u201d Feilhaber added. \u201cHe tries to find little spots on the field so he can get the ball off the defense. I think he\u2019s a guy that\u2019s definitely going to help us keep possession in midfield and be dangerous at times. He\u2019s a guy that regardless of where Jay uses him \u2026 he\u2019s definitely going to help us go forward this season.\u201d<\/p>\n How exactly Rowe and Feilhaber fit into the same midfield is still in question, but the early signs were positive with Rowe\u2019s impressive preseason debut on the left. Most important now is that the Revs figure out who the strikers will be that the pair will be creating chances for.<\/p>\n As for Re-Entry Draft selection Nate Jaqua, a striker, Heaps said he hopes to begin talks with him again soon. The team is currently in talks with left back Danleigh Borman, another Re-Entry Draft selection.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Heaps hopes to add at least one more striker to play in front of Revs creative new midfield.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8438,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nesoccertoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/01\/rowefeature.jpg?fit=490%2C240&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8836"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8836"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8836\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8839,"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8836\/revisions\/8839"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/8438"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8836"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8836"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8836"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}