Welcome to the 2023 edition of Hudson River Blue’s Final Grades, in which we analyze and grade New York City FC‘s performances. Next up: Santiago Rodríguez.
Back in June when we issued Santiago Rodríguez his midterm grade, we wrote that he “needs to apply himself.” We gave the midfielder a C+.
That was a gentle way of encouraging NYCFC’s newest Designated Player to step up and elevate the team’s level of play. Since then, it became abundantly clear that this NYCFC squad was the weakest to take the field since the team’s inaugural year. The six players signed in the summer transfer window (a club record) made the team competitive in the final months of the season. It seems fair to conclude that both individual performances and the team’s overall results would have been stronger had sporting director David Lee taken care of business in the primary transfer window.
But that doesn’t completely let Santi off the hook. The fact remains that the 23-year-old attacking midfielder didn’t operate at the level of an elite DP. When you look at the numbers of Luciano Acosta of FC Cincinnati, Carles Gil of the New England Revolution, and Lucas Zelarayán of the Columbus Crew, you see that Santi trails far behind per FBRef.
MLS Attacking Midfielders (by percentile)
Name | Team | Pass Completion | Progressive Passes | Progressive Carries | Shot-Creating Actions | Assists | xAG |
Santiago Rodríguez | NYCFC | 77% | 79% | 50% | 80% | 52% | 67% |
Carles Gil | New England | 75% | 99% | 89% | 99% | 84% | 91% |
Luciano Acosta | Cincinnati | 32% | 83% | 75% | 99% | 92% | 95% |
Lucas Zelarayán | Columbus | 58% | 98% | 80% | 96% | 88% | 86% |
