Fixing Sporting Kansas City
David Lee has his work cut out for him.
One of the blockbuster moves this MLS offseason wasn’t the departure of a player or a big free agent signing. It was David Lee’s move from New York City FC, where he had been sporting director since 2019 and part of the team since 2014. Moving from a fairly stable and successful team to one of the worst teams in MLS in Sporting Kansas City was in many ways a surprise, but for Lee the project represents one of the biggest opportunities in the league.
Sporting KC’s 2025 was marked with upheaval as they fired manager Peter Vermes, who became essentially the sole decision maker over his 16 year tenure with the club. His removal failed to stop the skid, and Sporting KC tumbled to the bottom of the barrel, barely escaping the Wooden Spoon by 2 points.
The Problems:
The deep seated problems with Sporting KC have been evident for a long time. For years, their identity has been based on controlling the ball, keeping it high up the pitch, and maintaining that possession with an aggressive press to quickly regain the ball if lost. This has traditionally been a pathway to success in the league, with teams like LAFC, the Columbus Crew, and even Lee’s NYCFC winning MLS Cups on the back of that system.
In many ways, Sporting KC was successful in what they set out to do. In 2025 they were second in the league in positive field tilt (the amount of possession they had in the attacking third). They were fourth in possession starts in the final third. Mission Accomplished, right?
Unfortunately for SKC and Vermes, that’s only part of the battle. In soccer, there’s always going to be give and take. Teams that control the ball high up the field tend to have more trouble fashioning chances, taking more touches for each quality opportunity. Teams that give up the ball and sit deeper have more room to run, and can generally get higher quality chances with less possession needed. Of course, individual teams can impact this; maybe one team is more clinical with their passes, or another team has better rest defense. That’s where another measure comes into play - efficiency.
A simple measure more offensive efficiency is the number of passes in the final third divided by total xG, giving you final third passes per xG generated. Higher numbers are more inefficient, requiring more of the ball to create chances. Lower numbers are more ruthless. This can be flipped for a defensive measure as well.
Sporting KC had the worst offensive efficiency in MLS last season, with 112.7 passes required per xG created. The next closest was Columbus with 99.2, still significantly less. The average MLS team sits around 75. On the other end, Sporting KC was the worst again. Opponents needed just 51.5 passes to create 1 xG. In other words, it took SKC twice as many touches in the opponents third to generate the same offense. That’s unsustainable for any team, no matter how much they dominate possession.
Without significantly improving the roster, it’s hard to see Sporting KC making big changes. The good news is that the roster is one of the easiest to overturn in the league.
The Roster:
The big picture view is that this roster is lousy, but also almost entirely gone. Sporting KC returns just 10 outfield players and 2 goalkeepers, which means they are essentially starting from an expansion roster. 8 of those players played over 2000 minutes in 2025, so are essentially the core going forward.
The big thing is that the roster has total flexibility, like an expansion team (just without the bonus GAM). They can go down the 3 DP pathway to open up a DP and two U22s, or keep the current model and have 4 U22 Initiative slots to fill in any major holes with quality players. They can recruit aggressively from MLS free agency without using any GAM, and have plenty of salary cap room to play with. So what should David Lee do?
Smart Moves:
Sporting KC has a right side problem. They are not good on the right in the attack, and they are even worse on defense. It’s a total failure from start to finish, the worst part of an otherwise lousy team.
At fullback Khiry Shelton was a disaster, and Andrew Brody was never fit enough to make a difference. Neither are back. Instead, an option for a cash transfer (aka Cashfer) could be Tayvon Gray. I’m an NYCFC homer to certain extent, but Gray has been excellent this season. He’s one of the best individual defenders in the league, and is capable of providing service as well. He’s not much on the overlap, but that’s not really SKC’s biggest concern right now.
The right wing position is a cause for concern as well. The position rotated between Erik Thommy and Shapi Suleymanov. Thommy is not returning; he was on a pretty big contract for a player that struggled to make an impact, especially after he switched to playing wing more frequently in 2025. Shapi does have his good moments, but mostly bad. There is potential for more out of him with the right support. He’s the presumptive starter as one of the few players still under contract, and might look good with more defensive strength behind him. He might not be, though, and if he doesn’t improve he can be cut loose after 2026.
Wide attackers are a great way to use the available U22 Initiative spots. I try not to play the “global scouting game” - there are just too many players and no way of knowing who’s available - but I’ll dip into my bag a bit and suggest Morocco U-20 standout Gessime Yassine. He currently plays for Ligue 2 team USL Dunkerque, which might mean a reasonable fee. He’s a very good attacking player but also is an absolute demon on defense, something that could help with the sieve that is the right side. He burst onto the scene with a tough and disciplined outing against Paris St Germain in the Coupe de France, and only helped himself with his performance in the U20 World Cup. I think he’s absolutely possible to get, and a fit with both team style and needs.
The second glaring problem with the team is at striker. This is kind of a controversial one; Dejan Joveljic was brought in from the LA Galaxy for a lot of money, and he did score 18 goals for Sporting KC. That does matter, and SKC would be in a lot worse of a place without those goals. At the same time, he had the lowest net G+ above average for any player in the league. That means that the things that reliably produce value in soccer he just wasn’t doing, aside from scoring goals. I think a player that only scores goals and doesn’t do anything else is viable on a good team, but on a bad team, he’s a weight that drags everything down.
Since Joveljic was such a big investment, and he’s still on the roster for at least two more years, he can’t be jettisoned completely. Bringing in a similarly priced forward is redundant and limits the ability for the squad to build. A U22 initiative signing could be a good move here, but I think there’s value to be found among the lower leagues. When I look at player performance and try to project it to MLS, one big thing I look for is success in more than one context. For example. Tani Oluwaseyi performed exceptionally well in MLS Next Pro, then USL Championship, before becoming a star at Minnesota and earning a move to La Liga with Villareal.
Taylor Calheira, the striker for FC Tulsa, has followed a similar pathway. He was the best striker in MLS Next Pro by net G+ in 2024 with NYCFC II. He then moved to FC Tulsa after a year, and leads USL Championship in Net G+ among all players. Although he’s in a down patch at the moment, he’s shown a variety of skills and has the physicality and technique to be an elite player. I think Sporting KC could acquire him without spending a huge amount, and he would be an affordable depth piece that could earn his way into something more.
One more thing:
The answer to the above question is Jake Davis.
JAKE DAVIS.
If there’s a problem with offensive efficiency, it might be worth looking into why a 22 year old midfielder who has had little past history in running an attack is touching so much of the ball in the final third. It just doesn’t make sense.
Bold Moves:
There’s another thing about Sporting KC - while the team was dangerously close to winning the spoon, the SKC reserves actually did; coming in last place in MLS Next Pro with a pathetic 17 points. While the reserve team is not going to be the thing that turns a club from bottom of the barrel to a contender, having a reliable source of young talent that is constantly fighting into the first team provides a strong floor for roster building. No one does this better than the Philadelphia Union, who are constantly moving players up the ladder.
Of course without the Union academy system, it’s not easy to develop a good reserve team. Instead, Sporting KC should use some of their resources to build out the pipeline.
If I were David Lee, I would invest heavily in the draft this year. I think picks will be cheaper this season for a few reasons - first, last year’s draft was heavy on talent due to the draft being open to sophomores for the first time. Also, a number of players returned to college for a year after being drafted last year. That means many teams will already have a number of incoming players and not be interested in adding more in a “down” draft. I think it’s totally reasonable for Sporting KC to package deals to get multiple picks. There’s usually 5 or 6 MLS difference makers per draft, and a few other guys who can be regular contributors. Most of them are available well after they ought to be. A smart GM could absolutely find an edge in the draft.
Use those picks to assemble as much elite college talent as possible and get them to Sporting KC II. Use that roster as an incubator for talent. Identify the top performers and bring them in on short term agreements, get them matches in the gameday environment. Build continuity from top to bottom.
No team is using their reserves like this, but SKC has the opportunity to start it from scratch.
Looking Ahead:
Sporting KC is in as bad shape as any team heading out of 2025, but with the amount of turnover they have there’s a huge opportunity. For David Lee, that opportunity has to be the most attractive part of the job. He gets to put his own personal stamp on the roster, building from the absolute bottom and working his way up. Will he be able to do it? That’s going to be one of the most interesting storylines heading into 2026.