By Jacob Burgess

Memphis 901 FC is about to start their fifth season in the USL Championship with a huge amount of expectations along with a pile of questions. The team is filled with young, exciting, and goal scoring talent, bringing an electric style of play. 

 After finishing second in the eastern conference, and making it to the quarter finals, there is a high confidence and hope that the team can build upon last season and make it even further this season. The roster is nowhere near filled out, and the arrival of a new coach has fans wondering if the team can reproduce the results from last season. 

The roster as of January 23, has several holes just a month half before the start of the season. There are twelve players on the squad with nine returners and no current goalies on the team. With the high turnover rate of players in the USL, this is a problem for all teams on a varying scale. For 901 FC this year, it’s drastic. The midfield is the only section of the team that kept a majority of players. The team was able to keep leading scorer, Phillip Goodrum and youngster Nighte Pickering, but the defensive half of the field is lacking needed depth. 

This issue of an empty roster is made even more drastic with the arrival of new coach, Stephen Glass. A team with a new head coach, means that the assistant coaches likely came with Glass to make a whole new coaching staff. A new coach brings a new way of playing, from practice to formation during a game. With the roster not filled out completely, the ability to get comfortable with a new coaching department and strategy for the coaches to learn about the players will take time into the season. 

The incomplete roster and new coaching staff, makes the expectations for the season a good bit lower than past performance expectations especially early on in the season. The team will have more missed passes, miscues, losses or ties than expected. Fans must remember the team is still filled with professional athletes who have years of experience and can still be successful every year.