2026 Roster and Transfer Discussion Thread

[ZYanksRule]

hard to gauge since he wasn't at CB for those 10 games with martins and without a full preseason.

I will say that he isn't the cleanest on the ball and it does make me nervous that he tries to dribble a bit more than he probably should at times.

Also, he seems a bit injury prone? just the sense I got. Far cry from the iron man we had in callens.

He is dynamic though and reminds me of Callens in that way. Having two CBs with some speed will be beneficial too. For as well as Haak played at CB, he couldn't catch a winger if his life depended on it.

Maxime Chanot got a knock every single game for all those years and he was part of one of the best CB tandems in MLS history.

Raul got half a year and stepped onto a moving 18-wheeler. Give him a preseason with Martins and I think we'll see a better version of what we got last year.

 

[moogoo]

Maxime Chanot got a knock every single game for all those years and he was part of one of the best CB tandems in MLS history.

Raul got half a year and stepped onto a moving 18-wheeler. Give him a preseason with Martins and I think we'll see a better version of what we got last year.

chanot faked a head injury to waste time. he never needed a sub. like i said, bit early to gauge how good he will be. we shall see.

 

[Joe_Cos]

so nycfc is now playing the Bogert game? giving him tips for him to report, where before the rarely if ever gave any tips.

Guess Todd Dunivant hasn’t read his “Welcome to NYCFC” packet where it says he isn’t allowed to talk to the press.

But in reality it makes sense they need to change the narrative of losing a young top free agent to another team in the MLS for less money. They need to promote something positive like potential young star while they have their hat in hand asking people to shell out minimal 3K for premium seats. Brad is hoping for 5 years of sellouts so it’s a bit tough to say NYCFC is the place to be if your home grown player leave for less guaranteed $.

 

[EganSoccerWords]

Guess Todd Dunivant hasn’t read his “Welcome to NYCFC” packet where it says he isn’t allowed to talk to the press.

But in reality it makes sense they need to change the narrative of losing a young top free agent to another team in the MLS for less money. They need to promote something positive like potential young star while they have their hat in hand asking people to shell out minimal 3K for premium seats. Brad is hoping for 5 years of sellouts so it’s a bit tough to say NYCFC is the place to be if your home grown player leave for less guaranteed $.

He didn't talk to the press.

 

[EganSoccerWords]

so nycfc is now playing the Bogert game? giving him tips for him to report, where before the rarely if ever gave any tips.

Nothing new in that regard. They do try to control narratives and deflect attention when it serves them.

 

[gbservis]

Other MLS clubs have been making moves. Will Nycfc fill roster holes to start the season or limp a long with a half baked squad until the second window?

 

[Shwafta]

Other MLS clubs have been making moves. Will Nycfc fill roster holes to start the season or limp a long with a half baked squad until the second window?

"whazizname just started, it'll take some time for him to get acclimated to the role, have some patience" <- just you wait for this to be a thing.

 

[BC19]

Other MLS clubs have been making moves. Will Nycfc fill roster holes to start the season or limp a long with a half baked squad until the second window?

We aren’t allowed to participate in the offseason in December. All other MLS clubs can, just not us.

 

[KevinJRogers]

Raul got half a year and stepped onto a moving 18-wheeler. Give him a preseason with Martins and I think we'll see a better version of what we got last year.

This is where I'm at. He showed me enough to believe he'll be just fine.

 

[ZYanksRule]

"whazizname just started, it'll take some time for him to get acclimated to the role, have some patience" <- just you wait for this to be a thing.

I absolutely think that will be a thing.

I would expect we'll make some smaller moves to shore up depth, but any big moves will wait for the summer window.

I also think it's important to note that this is still a very good roster for MLS and this team as currently constructed should be a top-4 team in the East in 2026. Todd doesn't have to do a lot to turn us from Top-4 to championship contending. We really just need a DP or TAM striker. and maybe some more depth on the wings. Nico should be the starting No. 10 if we can sign a good striker.

 

[mgarbowski]

We really just need a DP or TAM striker. and maybe some more depth on the wings.

We need to add a lot of scoring. We only had 2 decent scorers last year, and one of them is injured. Nico is a good bet to become another, but Wolf had what is likely a career level year so I expect that to wash out mostly. Optimistically I see Wolf at 10-11 goals at best, and Nico at 10-14. Nobody else last year scored more than 3.

Eastern playoff teams averaged 31 goals excluding their top 2 scorers. We had just 22. Those playoff teams averaged 61 goals total. We had 50. We were shut out as many times as we were in 2023 (10). Only 6 MLS teams suffered more.

I have no confidence Ojeda or Fernandez take a great leap. Can Reid step up already? No idea. But with Martinez out, we somehow need to add a first striker, a second striker, and minimum 2 moderately effective wingers.

this team as currently constructed should be a top-4 team in the East in 2026.

As currently constructed we finished 5th in points and 8th in Goal Differential in the East, and we lost our best scorer. No way is it reasonable to expect top 4 absent significant additions.

 

[ezbeezy214]

I absolutely think that will be a thing.

I would expect we'll make some smaller moves to shore up depth, but any big moves will wait for the summer window.

I also think it's important to note that this is still a very good roster for MLS and this team as currently constructed should be a top-4 team in the East in 2026. Todd doesn't have to do a lot to turn us from Top-4 to championship contending. We really just need a DP or TAM striker. and maybe some more depth on the wings. Nico should be the starting No. 10 if we can sign a good striker.

The starting lineup with no injuries may be a settled in playoff team however we already have a few decent injuries and the depth is very questionable. Starting caliber wing and a polished ST should change that pretty quickly. Parks Perea Jones and Martinez will be questions marks for early season form.

 

[ZYanksRule]

We need to add a lot of scoring. We only had 2 decent scorers last year, and one of them is injured. Nico is a good bet to become another, but Wolf had what is likely a career level year so I expect that to wash out mostly. Optimistically I see Wolf at 10-11 goals at best, and Nico at 10-14. Nobody else last year scored more than 3.

Eastern playoff teams averaged 31 goals excluding their top 2 scorers. We had just 22. Those playoff teams averaged 61 goals total. We had 50. We were shut out as many times as we were in 2023 (10). Only 6 MLS teams suffered more.

I have no confidence Ojeda or Fernandez take a great leap. Can Reid step up already? No idea. But with Martinez out, we somehow need to add a first striker, a second striker, and minimum 2 moderately effective wingers.

As currently constructed we finished 5th in points and 8th in Goal Differential in the East, and we lost our best scorer. No way is it reasonable to expect top 4 absent significant additions.

From the date Nico debuted on July 25, we had 21 points. Only Miami, Charlotte, and LAFC had more in the entire league. We were damn good once the reinforcements arrived. Obviously losing Alonso hurts, but if we sign another striker who can help the load we are absolutely a top team in MLS. And I believe someone would step up to fill the scoring load if we don't sign anyone, enough that I stand by top-4 in the East.

 

[ezbeezy214]

From the date Nico debuted on July 25, we had 21 points. Only Miami, Charlotte, and LAFC had more in the entire league. We were damn good once the reinforcements arrived. Obviously losing Alonso hurts, but if we sign another striker who can help the load we are absolutely a top team in MLS. And I believe someone would step up to fill the scoring load if we don't sign anyone, enough that I stand by top-4 in the East.

We need to improve from that run of form still and losing the guys that played everyday, Haak and Moralez (so far) is a good place to aim to raise the ceiling.

 

[ZYanksRule]

We need to improve from that run of form still and losing the guys that played everyday, Haak and Moralez (so far) is a good place to aim to raise the ceiling.

Yeah I'm assuming we bring back Maxi at some point this month.

The Haak loss is a bummer but I don't think it meaningfully changes our standard because of the depth we have in D-mid and central defense.

We won 7 of 11 regular-season games during that run of form, though. If we keep that standard over a full season we're contending for the Supporters' Shield.

 

[ezbeezy214]

Yeah I'm assuming we bring back Maxi at some point this month.

The Haak loss is a bummer but I don't think it meaningfully changes our standard because of the depth we have in D-mid and central defense.

We won 7 of 11 regular-season games during that run of form, though. If we keep that standard over a full season we're contending for the Supporters' Shield.

Finding someone that can take what Nico brought with more dynamism alongside him should be of utmost importance. I also think there should be a challenger for Wolf mins as well. Would help if Nico has to play more false 9 mins as well. Unfortunately the midfield depth is hollowed out atm but at full form yes. It is upper limit MLS level.

 

[gbservis]

Yeah I'm assuming we bring back Maxi at some point this month.

The Haak loss is a bummer but I don't think it meaningfully changes our standard because of the depth we have in D-mid and central defense.

We won 7 of 11 regular-season games during that run of form, though. If we keep that standard over a full season we're contending for the Supporters' Shield.

Our tactics during the stretch of success were heavily built on Haak's ability to step into the midfield. You can't cite the success while simultaneously saying the loss of the uniquely skilled player that enabled a good deal of our tactics is not meaningful. Raul at CB with KOT at LB is a completely different configuration. Pascal has a strong knack for designing tactics to get the most out of each players skill set so we might be fine but this isn't a simple drop in the back up CB and keep on rolling situation.

 

[FootyLovin]

Can Reid step up already? No idea.

I'm bullish. Looking at his numbers and looking back on his (admittedly very small amount of) minutes from this year, I think he could be a really good contributor. To be clear, I see that as a first off the bench option, not a starter. But I could see him coming into that space for 5-7 goals.

 

[mgarbowski]

We won 7 of 11 regular-season games during that run of form, though. If we keep that standard over a full season we're contending for the Supporters' Shield.

We definitely were better and Nico was a factor. Most impressive especially winning 4 of 5 Away games during that run. It's cause for optimism, but I also have concerns.

In Nico's 10 full games,* the team scored 1.6 goals per game. That comes to 54.4 over 34 games, which is just 4.4 more than the 50 we scored in 2025 altogether. It would only rank 8th in the East Conference. It is fewer goals per game compared to every NYCFC season from 2016 through 2022.
Five of the seven wins were by 1 goal. In the entire season we had 11 single GD wins, tied for second most in the league. Are we likely to do that again?
In the 10 Nico games ex-Dallas the club had just a +1 goal differential.
Still keeping the Dallas game out of it: in the first 23 games we allowed 1.13 goals per game; in the final 10 it ballooned to 1.50 goals allowed per game. Collapse the Miami 4-0 fiasco to a hypothetically normal 2-0 loss and we allowed 1.33 goals per game, still meaningfully worse than 1.13. Include both the Dallas and Miami games and the team was 7-4-0 but just +2 GD when Nico played.

So I have questions about how much better were we really over that final stretch of games after Nico arrived. Even with a new 15 goal scorer replacing Martinez, this is not IMO a Top 4 team. Tell me Martinez is back soon in addition and I have a different opinion, assuming we find a way to play them together. But we need new better wingers (or for Ojeda or Fernandez to surprise me). I don't believe it is just a "would be nice" thing. You have to have solid scorers to come off the bench. We did not have that last year.

* I cannot credit Nico for the 4 goals in his first game against Dallas when he played just 29 minutes and was only on the field for 1 of them. I'll credit the win since we did get the game winner while he was on.

 

[mgarbowski]

Two more thoughts:

1. Cincinnatti was easily the team that overachieved the most with 22.5 more Points than xPoints, and 16 1-goal wins. Six teams in the league had 60 or more points and all but Cincy had a GD of 20 or higher. Cincinnati was just +12. On top of that Cincy's GD-xGD was an absurd +21.8 without a Messi-type to inflate the conversion rate. But NYCFC was up there with 11 1-goal wins, +7.5 on Pts-xPts, and a 9th place combined table finish with the 13th best GD. We made it to the final 8 in the playoffs even though 15 teams scored more goals.

2. To the extent we deserved that solid overachievement, it was due to defense. We just lost Haak and we have to be prepared that the window on Freese might close after 2026. Some people are still looking to 2027 because of the stadium opening. No, this is a win now in 2026 team. ZYanksRule is right that we're close, but because he's right and because Freese is primed to go to Europe after the World Cup it would be a crime for the club to go half measures in 2026. It does not make sense to hope for a jump from Fifth Place to Fourth. Fourth place buys you one lottery ticket but the teams who win 60+ points and have +20 GD have ten tickets each. It's folly to add 1 striker and run it back with our current wingers. We can't assume to overachieve again on all of xGD, GD, GF and 1-goal wins, and we really can't expect to do it in 2027 if Freese leaves. We need significantly more proven offense.