New England Revolution Looking to Add Striker

"We were looking to improve in that spot in the summer. It didn't happen, but we will definitely continue to look to improve in that spot in the offseason, like we will in every spot."

Photo By J. Alexander Dolan

The New England Revolution have had waves of output from the striker position but the club will look to add another striker ahead of the 2025 season.

“We were looking to improve in that spot in the summer,” head coach Caleb Porter said. “It didn't happen, but we will definitely continue to look to improve in that spot in the offseason, like we will in every spot.”

New England entered the 2024 campaign with just two strikers on the roster, Bobby Wood and Giacomo Vrioni. Strings of injuries and poor form have exposed the lack of depth at the position.

Vrioni is actually New England’s leading goal scorer but the majority of his nine goals came when he scored six goals in six games prior to Leagues Cup. Post tournament, the designated player has been unable to find the back of the net with any sort of consistency.

Bobby Wood has more struggled to stay healthy. He has dealt with what has been described as a chronic knee injury that kept him off the field for large parts of the season.

Porter discussed the lack of consistency from the striker position.

“The best forwards aren’t as streaky,” Porter said. “I think it has been a rhythm thing. With Giacomo [Vrioni], it took some time for him to get into rhythm. Then he got into a great rhythm where he was producing goals, and then he was injured and out for five, six weeks, and then he’s lost his rhythm. In that time, Bobby [Wood] kind of found a little bit of rhythm and was scoring goals. But we all know where Bobby is at in his career, and he can't play every game. That is kind of where we are at in that spot.”

While Vrioni has shown some bright spots, he has been far too inconsistent to be a DP. If he was even a Targeted Allocated Money player there wouldn’t be as much scrutiny of his game. But since he takes up a DP spot, he is wasting valuable cap flexibility that New England could utilize.

Wood is more of a backup who can occasionally start at this point in his career. The 31-year-old shouldn’t be the only other option besides Vrioni at the position.

So it will be interesting to see what the Revolution end up doing in the offseason. It is hard to imagine they move on from Vrioni but if they did it would allow for New England to acquire a gamechanger. Otherwise, it seems as if the Revs will add a No. 2 to compete with the DP and allow Wood to have more ability to rest and rehab.