Union sporting director Ernst Tanner is going shopping for a striker as the offseason begins

Tanner knows his team can't repeat the late-October stretch where Kacper Przybylko was the only viable forward who could play. And the next preseason starts in just under six weeks.

Union sporting director Ernst Tanner (left) at a news conference with Jim Curtin in October 2019.Read moreJOSE F. MORENO / Staff Photographer

by Jonathan Tannenwald

Published Dec. 7, 2021, 7:26 p.m. ET

Now that the adrenaline rush of the Union’s playoff run is starting to fade away, attention turns to the team’s offseason plans.

Later this week, we’ll find out which players have contract options for next year that have been picked up or declined, and which players who are out of contract the team will want to keep.

Then sporting director Ernst Tanner will start his winter shopping. And before Union fans post personal wish lists onto Twitter, they might want to know whether Tanner’s matches theirs — especially at one position.

“I’m going out and in this moment I’m dealing with striker, that’s clear,” he told The Inquirer on Tuesday. “We will definitely have a real good addition which fits our requirements. That’s what we are going for.”

The Union need to boost their firepower, not just for the sake of scoring more goals. Kacper Przybylko did better this year than some fans give him credit for, with 17 goals and four assists in 43 games across all competitions. He also forced the own goal that briefly gave the Union the lead in Sunday’s Eastern Conference final loss to New York City FC.

But Przybylko played in every one of those 43 games, and played at least 80 minutes in 32 of them. And for a considerable stretch in late October, the heart of the playoff race, Przybylko was the only viable striker available while Cory Burke and Sergio Santos were both out injured. As bad as it was that Burke and Santos missed Sunday’s game, the situation in October was even worse.

Let’s be clear, too, that “viable” is a key word. Matheus Davó was on the team, but saw the field just once in an 18-minute cameo against New England on Sept. 3. He wasn’t even on the game-day roster this past Sunday even though he was healthy. There is little reason to believe that the 22-year-old Brazilian will be back after coming here on loan in August and earning a prorated portion of a $253,000 annual salary.

All of this can’t happen again if the Union are to repeat this season’s feats next year.

That said, if the Union can keep the core of the team together this winter and boost the attack, they should be contenders again in 2022. Indeed, with Tanner’s scouting and the youth academy’s quality, the Union are getting close to being one of MLS’s elite teams.

Tanner is rightly proud of the fact that under his watch, the Union have totaled the most regular-season points in MLS over the last three years. They’ve also made their two deepest playoff runs and won their first trophy, last season’s Supporters’ Shield, for the regular-season points title.

It’s no stretch to say that after the sales of Brenden Aaronson and Mark McKenzie and the retirement of Ray Gaddis last winter, the Union exceeded expectations this year by finishing second in the Eastern Conference regular-season standings. They also went to the Concacaf Champions League semifinals, and reached an MLS playoffs conference final that they’d likely have won with a squad at full health.

Tanner is wary of upending his locker room’s strong culture. He noted that putting a pile of cash into one player could annoy other players, and there’s ample precedent in MLS and worldwide for that. But he also knows as well as anyone that the Union’s recent success has raised the bar.

“We were spending on players like [Jamiro] Monteiro, we were spending on [Dániel] Gazdag,” Tanner said. “We are now going, certainly, out and [will] spend on a striker. That’s what we are doing. But it needs to be reasonable and fit, due to our environment.”

Tanner also knows he needs to get moving. The start of next year’s preseason camp is fewer than six weeks away, since the regular season starts in late February to get it finished in early November for the autumn World Cup in Qatar.

Also, don’t be surprised if the MLS calendar stays like that in the future for better late-season weather.

A late-February kickoff has been on the table in league circles for a few years, and this season’s title game would have been in November had a labor dispute not postponed the regular season’s start from early March to mid-April.

In other words, the Union’s first-ever game in December could be their last for a long time no matter their record. But if the offseason goes well for Tanner’s search, there should be plenty more playoff games to come.