NYCFC Players Wanted Thread

Blessing's on a max of 103k in 2019 too.

Plenty of players other than Ofori who are less efficient usages of cap space than Latif Blessing in this league.

Yep. What I was pointing out is that Blessing is the best retrofitting job of this year's MLS. Of course it helps to have Atuesta and Kaye (another completely overlooked player) and the rest of the XI. But to have the foresight to get him in the Expansion Draft and play him "out of position" to maximize his potential, that's amazing. The guy is only 22. They literally stole him from under SKC's nose. The natural downside of success is that now they've had to re-sign him at TAM level, so they only got 2 years of him playing like a beast and getting paid like a low-level sub. So there's a limited window there. Still... How can WE do something like that? Maybe Isi at LB?
 
How can WE do something like that? Maybe Isi at LB?

Dome has said in previous press conferences that they have practiced with Isi at the LWB position. I'm not sure what Isi's defensive awareness is, but it can't be any worse than Mata's right? And going forward, Isi is definitely more dangerous and is an excellent crosser with his left foot. If Isi were healthy right now, I would love to see it on a trial basis against CInci just to see how it works.

I would guess we haven't seen it this season cause Isi got hurt and has been out for so long and perhaps behind the scenes, he simply told Dome that he's not that comfortable on defense.

There's gotta be a solid LWB out there we can sign, no? Can we bring up an academy player? His level of effort will blow away Mata's. We have a championship academy team. Kinda feel like we should be bringing more of them into the first team.
 
Dome has said in previous press conferences that they have practiced with Isi at the LWB position. I'm not sure what Isi's defensive awareness is, but it can't be any worse than Mata's right? And going forward, Isi is definitely more dangerous and is an excellent crosser with his left foot. If Isi were healthy right now, I would love to see it on a trial basis against CInci just to see how it works.

I would guess we haven't seen it this season cause Isi got hurt and has been out for so long and perhaps behind the scenes, he simply told Dome that he's not that comfortable on defense.

There's gotta be a solid LWB out there we can sign, no? Can we bring up an academy player? His level of effort will blow away Mata's. We have a championship academy team. Kinda feel like we should be bringing more of them into the first team.

I've been on that Isi train for a while. Let's see what happens when he heals. Also, a great way to get our best XI on the pitch at the same time.
 
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I've been on that Isi train for a while. Let's see what happens when he heals. Also, a great way to get our best XI on the pitch at the same time.

I have a feeling we aren't going to see Isi again this season. We should find out in the next week or two whether he's going to need surgery. If he does, definitely season ending. If he doesn't, he still seems like a long way from recovering from his ankle injury. If anything, we'd see him very late in the season/playoffs and he'll be rusty, for sure, as anyone would be. We really missed out on a key contributor to our attacking force. So far, GMS hasn't shown he can fill Isi's shoes.
 
Can you imagine any of our players putting in that cross, first touch on the bounce, at near full-gallop though? My god what a ball.

think that's our biggest problem... our wing backs can't cross to save their lives. Rocha had good crosses the one time he played LWB but it was in USOC play, not against a good MLS side.. so not sure he could do the same if he played there regularly. Otherwise, we just don't have good crossers. You'd think as a professional they have their head up and are looking to put the ball on a dime on someone's foot or head, but no.. their head is down and they're just trying to slam the ball across and it either goes sky high out of bounds of over everyone's head or worm burns into a defender.

Another problem we have is also waiting too long to cross instead of early curling crosses behind the back line and allowing our attackers to run onto it. It's one of the most dangerous crosses there is.. there's no defender out there who wants to be running back toward their goal having to defend a driven cross.. one miskick and it's an own goal.

I think GMS could give good crosses, but Dome has been putting him on the right side and wanting him to cut inside to shoot. He's not able to go to his right to beat the defender as well as going to his left (his dominant side). He was much more effective as a natural winger on the left side vs. houston.
 
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think that's our biggest problem... our wing backs can't cross to save their lives. Rocha had good crosses the one time he played LWB but it was in USOC play, not against a good MLS side.. so not sure he could do the same if he played there regularly. Otherwise, we just don't have good crossers. You'd think as a professional they have their head up and are looking to put the ball on a dime on someone's foot or head, but no.. their head is down and they're just trying to slam the ball across and it either goes sky high out of bounds of over everyone's head or worm burns into a defender.

Another problem we have is also waiting too long to cross instead of early curling crosses behind the back line and allowing our attackers to run onto it. It's one of the most dangerous crosses there is.. there's no defender out there who wants to be running back toward their goal having to defend a driven cross.. one miskick and it's an own goal.

I think GMS could give good crosses, but Dome has been putting him on the right side and wanting him to cut inside to shoot. He's not able to go to his right to beat the defender as well as going to his left (his dominant side). He was much more effective as a natural winger on the left side vs. houston.
I agree completely.

I think GMS out left was one of the few times we've had dangerous early crosses played in. I wonder whether that's a function of playing wingbacks and inside forwards vs true wingers most of the time. It's possible our wingbacks often don't get into crossing positions when the box is still vacant. It could also be because we aren't able to draw defenses over with short passing and dump it wide. Or not as effectively as we did before.
 
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What’s a good number that people would be ok with if the club purchased Parks?
 
I wonder how Benfica fans feel about him? Not sure they're paying too much attention, but he is a great #8 for this system.
I got the sense before the season started this year that they are very high on him and are hoping to keep him around long term. I'm hopeful that we can get him back on loan for one more season and then Benfica will take him back.

Also, wanted to clarify on the above, that I just got that feeling from general internet browsing, I have no sources on that at all.
 
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