New England Revolution

‘We need pieces’: With MLS transfer window closing soon, Caleb Porter says Revolution will be ‘active’

New England, currently last in the Eastern Conference, is aiming to make some improvements before Tuesday's deadline.

By Hayden Bird

April 19, 2024

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As the Revolution have simultaneously struggled both to score and prevent goals in 2024, changes are inevitably coming.

And with the briefly-held CONCACAF Champions Cup dream now firmly extinguished—evaporating under a torrent of Club América goals in a recent 9-2 aggregate defeat—New England turns its full attention back to the MLS regular season.

Through seven league games, the picture has been bleak on the domestic front: One win, one draw, and five defeats, good for last place in the Eastern Conference (and a conference-worst -8 goal differential). A somehow even more frustrating takeaway for newly installed head coach Caleb Porter was that his team regressed in last week’s 2-0 loss at Yankee Stadium against New York City FC.

“Early in the year, we were playing more the way I want to play and we were on the cusp of breaking through,” Porter told reporters on Thursday. “I think the last game [at NYCFC] was a step in the wrong direction the way we played.”

It was hardly the start that Porter, a two-time MLS Cup champion, intended when he was hired as New England’s coach in December.

Still, MLS season is long—spanning 34 regular season games between Febuary and October—and the margins are always thin. Even amid a near-historically bad start, the Revolution currently sit just six points behind what would be a wild-card playoff spot.

Immersed in crisis, one silver lining is that Porter is getting a better understanding of the current roster.

“I’m learning more and more every day about who I can count on, and the type of quality that I’m going to get out of guys,” said Porter. “You especially know that when your backs are against the wall, you see everybody’s best face when adversity kicks in like this. You can see everybody’s worst face. But if you’re a winner and you’re a leader, and you have quality, then you step up in these moments.”

That said, beyond a rerrangement of the lineup (which Porter acknowledged is probable this weekend in Toronto), New England is in need of reinforcements.

“We need pieces,” he admitted of the team’s roster.

“We’re hoping to make some moves in this window and in the next window,” said Porter of possible transfers and trades. “Whether that happens, [it] just depends on getting the deals done and all that.”

The current MLS transfer window will remain open through Tuesday, April 23. The summer transfer window runs from July 18 to Aug. 14.

Exactly what business the Revolution can get done before the end of Tuesday remains unclear. Ghanian defensive midfielder Iddrisu Baba, currently on loan from Mallorca to struggling La Liga side Almeria in Spain, is rumored to be a transfer target.

Porter did provide an outline of the type of player(s) he would like to add.

“In terms of additions, I’m not going to talk positions,” he told Seth Macomber of The Blazing Musket, “but can we add guys that bring a little more athleticism? I feel like at times we’re lacking a stretching presence.”

One name likely to help change New England’s lack of athleticism in the Starting XI is Dylan Borrero, the 22-year-old Colombian international who has been inching toward his return following a torn ACL in May of 2023. The talented winger looked sharp before getting hurt a year ago, and could help provide more speed and dynamism.

Beyond that, however, it remains to be seen how much roster reshaping the Revolution will be able to do in 2024. MLS roster rules, notoriously complicated, have several built-in limitations, the stated purpose of which are to sustain some level of league parity as well as financial stability.

Currently, the Revolution have no available Designated Player spots (with all three occupied by Carles Gil, Giacomo Vrioni, and Tomas Chancalay). This limits potential options to players who fit under the 2024 salary cap of $5,470,000 per team.

Changes could be coming on that front, as MLS owners reportedly voted recently to approve a few roster requirements. The proposed updates—which could potentially be implemented as soon as this summer—would include an expansion of the number of U-22 Initiative roster spots allowed per team.

If the reported updates are approved by MLSPA, New England could pursue two more players like Borrero (the only current U-22 player on the roster). Though the salaries would still need to fit under the cap, there would be less limitation on the transfer fees.

But before he can make profound changes to the roster, Porter will have to work with the players currently at his disposal to find better results.

Having lost to Toronto 1-0 in the 2024 home opener—a game in which the Revolution largely dominated but frustratingly failed to score—New England will be looking to return the favor at BMO Field on Saturday evening.

“I hate losing,” Porter said. “I don’t like where it’s at. I’m not patient, but it’s great to have alignment. There is 100-percent alignment in the club. We know what we need, we know what we’re adding. It’s going to take some time, for sure, but looking at the pieces we have now, it’s my job to find solutions and figure out how to put it together in a way where we can move in the right direction.”