Last season, the Colorado Rapids were punished for having very little in the way of good depth, and it showed when they got injured to hell as the season went along and got destroyed by a healthy Sporting Kansas City team in the playoffs.

Fortunately, under new manager Oscar Pareja the team has already begun to add plenty of midfield options, to the point where there's actually so many good players we can argue about who should start. (This is not a problem, folks!) We're going to take a look today at all the midfield options and who will likely be starting in the new 4-3-3 system -- which I have a sneaking suspicion is actually going to far more resemble a 4-2-3-1 with the 'wingers' playing up.

Keep in mind that the central position in the midfield is likely going to be taken almost immediately by our mysterious 'true #10' type that we've been hearing about so we're going to assume he's on the team already for the purposes of this.

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Recently, there has been a lot of intense discussion surrounding Macoumba Kandji and his sudden trade to Houston Dynamo. Once again, the Rapids organization has been questioned, and talks about loyalty from the front office have been criticized. Fans have a right to be upset, but one must objectively consider the fact that with a new coaching staff, there will most likely be wholesale changes within a team.

Kandji became the second Colorado Rapids striker to leave within the past week. Colorado recently released Irish striker Caleb Folan after an unsuccessful transfer to Panionios GSS of the Greek Super League. The Rapids traded Kandji to Houston in exchange for a 2014 conditional draft pick. While Kandji will definitely be missed, he was quite possibly surplus to requirements at Dick's Sporting Goods Park for the 2012 MLS campaign.

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The Colorado Rapids under Gary Smith ran a very anti-youth system. The kids on the team were shoved into the reserve league and onto the bench as long as possible until the team felt they were ready to contribute. On the whole it worked out well as Omar Cummings, Kosuke Kimura and others spent time learning the ropes, came in and contributed right away.

The Rapids are in an interesting situation though with the new regime, with the first ever two homegrown players in franchise history on the roster in Davy Armstrong and Steven Emory. They both played quite well for the reserve team last season and Armstrong even got a shot at some first team football during the CONCACAF Champions League match against Metapan, but nothing past that. If Smith was still the Rapids manager it would probably be unlikely that we'd see either of them this year either.

This is a new regime and it's being led by Oscar Pareja, a guy who has traditionally loved to work with youth. This certainly means that guys like Tony Cascio and Eddie Ababio will be receiving some time, with Andre Akpan and Ross LaBauex probably recieving even more time than they were last season. Those guys were all highly touted Superdraft picks, though. Armstrong and Emory are guys that nobody but the Rapids have really seen before.

Do you think that Davy and Steven will finally live up to their billings and get some playing time on the first team, or even some bench presence, in 2012?

The rebuild in the midfield currently is going absolutely swimmingly for the Colorado Rapids. The signing of Columbian Jamie Castrillon is through as planned, and the Rapids have added three new strong attackers to their ranks after picking up Tony Cascio and Kohei Yamada in the MLS Superdraft and Supplemental draft. After losing Danny Earls and Miguel Comminges by not picking up their options they bolstered the defense with Hunter Freeman, but there's still some needs in the back. The one position besides goalkeeper that the Rapids would seem to be fine at is striker.

As of right now the Rapids are quite deep in striker depth, with five of them boasting the ability to start for the club on at least a somewhat regular basis. (Conor Casey, Omar Cummings, Andre Akpan, Caleb Folan, Macoumba Kandji.) Quincy Amarikwa is the odd man out of that, but even he's good for a goal every year or two and isn't a completely terrible guy to have as a really deep player off the bench. If there's a position that the Rapids are set at, it's striker. Even so, new regimes tend to introduce new philosophies and new players. Oscar Pareja was quite used to playing a 4-5-1 formation at FC Dallas so I've still a sneaking suspicion that we're going to see some of that in Colorado this season. (That 4-5-1 was of the 4-2-3-1 variety, offhand.)

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Gary Smith played an incredibly rigid 4-5-1 formation for the start of his Colorado Rapids career, before eventually shifting to a still rigid 4-4-2 late in 2010 because of a need for extra offense in the defense-minded team. Both of the formations were dedicated mostly to holding the ball as much as possible, staying in their shape and focusing on incredibly short and frequent passes throughout the midfield and defense before finally putting a ball through to one of the strikers for the majority of their shots and goals.

With the new regime in place, it's likely that we're going to see a system far more focused on offense all around the pitch, not just a defensive team with decent fullbacks and two good strikers. That means that it's pretty unlikely that we'll see anything rigid out of the team formation-wise in 2012. Here's three formations that I think we might see in 2012, which one do you want the Rapids to try out?

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Earlier we talked about the handful of players roosting near the bottom of the Colorado Rapids depth chart that should probably not survive the guiding hands of the new regime. Today we're going to be on a much lighter note. Under the guidance of Oscar Pareja, the Rapids are almost certainly going to become a team much more focused on offensive play.

This will not only stop all of the 'boring football' complaints from around America when they think of Colorado, but it should also give a spark to some of the players who just couldn't thrive in Gary Smith's system. Here are four players who you might want to watch in 2012 for some improvement to their game under the new system.

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We're in a new era of Colorado Rapids football, guys. It's an exciting era, with a proven depth builder in Oscar Pareja as our new manager. It shouldn't be expected that the Rapids will buy 20 new players over the offseason transfer window but we can at least hope that some of the lower levels of our torrid depth will be carved off.

That's good news for this team - Hunter Freeman was a fantastic depth signing and a great start to rebuilding the reserves - but bad news for these for hopefully soon 'former' Rapids.

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Since the Colorado Rapids hired long time (very long time!) FC Dallas favorite Oscar Pareja as head coach, I decided to ask Daniel Robertson of our superb FC Dallas blog Big D Soccer for a couple of words on our new gaffer. Thanks to Daniel for providing!

Oscar leaves Frisco as probably the most beloved member of the organization. His passion for the game and the team is absolutely infectious and his affect on the players is clear. Players love Oscar Pareja. He will instantly become a favorite of the fans.

On the field, he is a coach that likes to play a possession oriented game based on making the ball do the work. This past season, the Oscar Pareja led FC Dallas U18s defeated Barcelona…yes that Barcelona…3-1. He built the FCD academy into the top academy in the country as evaluated by US Soccer and has groomed many youngsters into FC Dallas homegrowns that are set to make a big impact on the team this year and in the future.

From an outsider’s view, with a decent familiarity with the Colorado Rapids, I think the most interesting aspect of Oscar Pareja’s early tenure at Colorado will be to see what kind of support he gets from an ownership that has never really looked to South America for players. Oscar will be a success at Colorado if he is given the time to groom the team the way he wants them to play and is given the resources to bring in the players he wants. His connections in Colombia and South America are top notch and I hope the ownership gives him the opportunity to break the mold of building the Rapids through trades and the draft. We will all be watching very closely in Dallas and rooting for Oscar except for three games this season.