Fire roster taking shape as Bamba signs

Having announced the signing of Côte d’Ivoire international Jonathan Bamba to a Designated Player deal, the team’s plans for how it will play in 2025 are becoming clearer. Although the Bamba signing is all but certainly not the last move for Director of Football Gregg Berhalter in his first transfer window with the team, he and his staff have reworked both the back line and the attack.

With just over a month to go before the team takes to the pitch against the Columbus Crew in both team’s season opener, here’s a look at the team’s current depth chart and roster.

Attack looks largely filled out

The addition of Jonathan Bamba as the first DP signing since Berhalter took the reins of the Fire’s front office adds a dynamic presence to the Fire’s attack. While bringing on Philip Zinckernagel, who can play throughout the attacking trio behind the striker, raised the team’s floor, Bamba raises the ceiling.

Between the two, the Fire now have capable, even dynamic wingers on both sides of a talented striker, something the team has not often enjoyed over the past several seasons. Having multiple players in the attack capable of either creating space for other attackers or exploiting space and finishing chances, the Fire project to be a much more difficult team to defend against in 2025.

Strengthening the team in the wings also presents a golden opportunity for Brian Brian Gutiérrez increasingly looking like the team’s starting no. 10 central attacking midfielder, to show that he can pull the strings on an attack that looks like it will be significantly more potent than it was last season.

With players like Maren Haile-Selassie and Omari Glasgow also on the roster, the team, when healthy, also has potential game changers on the bench, another luxury that the team hasn’t enjoyed in several seasons.

Along with goalkeeper, where Chris Brady is set to return as a starter and with Jeff Gal looking like the team’s backup, that gives the Fire two areas of the pitch where the roster appears to be mostly settled.

Center-backs, midfield still thin

Although the Fire have brought on two center-backs in Jack Elliott and Sam Rogers, the team is still one short of the number they had last year after the departures of Rafael Czichos, Wyatt Omsberg and Tobias Salquist this offseason.

That leaves the Fire with just three dedicated center-backs, including the returning Carlos Terán. With Terán proving to be injury-prone and Rogers largely untested at this level, the position looks like a likely one for reinforcement.

That’s also the case for the central defensive midfield. Kellyn Acosta is a top-level starter in MLS and is looking for a bounce-back year in 2025, and at the moment, Federico Navarro looks like the team’s other starting option in the area. Although Navarro has shown flashes of brilliance, injuries and other factors seemed to have stalled his progress and had largely fallen out of favor with the Fire’s two previous head coaches as a starting option.

That seems set to change under Berhalter, although it remains unclear whether the Fire head coach sees the versatile Mauricio Pineda more as a central midfielder, where he played on Sunday in the team’s first preseason game against Fortaleza FC, or a center-back, where it appeared that Frank Klopas favored him last year.

Still, those are the only three MLS-proven starters the Fire have in that position, making it the other likely spot for reinforcement.

Departures, arrivals still likely this window

With the addition of Bamba, the team retains one prized roster slot open, which the team can choose to utilize on either a third Designated Player or a fourth U22 Initiative player alongside Navarro, Gutiérrez, and Barroso.

Although no MLS roster can afford to be deep at every position, given that limits of 20 players on the senior roster and 10 on the supplemental roster, reinforcement in central defensive areas of the pitch is likely in the near future, lest the team be just one injury away from running out of bench options at key positions.

At the same time, the Fire have a surfeit of players capable of playing on the wings or in a central attacking midfield role: On top of the players shown in the depth chart above, Bamba, Zinckernagel, Gutiérrez and Maren Haile-Selassie can all play in any of those three positions, in addition to new, mostly untested options like Omari Glasgow and Dylan Borso.

As it stands, Chris Mueller looks to be a bench option, and even if he has a bounce-back season after a disappointing 2024, he is on a pricey contract and the Fire do not have a lot of cap maneuvering room.

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That suggests more changes are in the offing as the team works to be roster compliant ahead of the regular season opener on February 22nd, although the team can continue to add players through late April.