Last year, we gave Santiago Rodríguez a C+: The attacking midfielder returned to New York City FC to sign a Designated Player contract, and yet he simply wasn't putting up DP performances. It's unfair to pin a team's poor results on one player – there was so much wrong with that young and imbalanced squad – but Rodríguez's inconsistent performances in 2023 certainly didn't help.
What a difference a year makes. Rodríguez went from being a streaky player in 2023 whose technical abilities could be undone by his impatience and temper, to a foundational midfielder in 2024 capable of lifting the team's overall performance in big games. To be sure, the new-and-improved edition of Santi could still blow a gasket and send the attack into a tailspin, but his growing maturity meant that the rest of the squad could increasingly rely on him match after match.
Still, Rodríguez still isn't quite meeting expectations. He might have been one of the better-attacking midfielders in Major League Soccer this year, but the ambitions of this club require that he be among the very best. True, Santi put up the strongest numbers of his career in 2024, scoring 12 goals and adding six assists per FBref. But he has some work to do if he's going to catch up with league leaders such as Luciano Acosta, Evander, Emil Forsberg, and Riqui Puig.
2024 MLS | Attacking Midfielders
| GP | G | A | G+A/90 | xG | xA | xG+xA/90 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Evander | 28 | 15 | 15 | 1.10 | 9.9 | 11.3 | 0.77 |
| Luciano Acosta | 32 | 14 | 16 | 1.00 | 9.9 | 11.7 | 0.72 |
| Emil Forsberg | 19 | 9 | 4 | 0.86 | 6.5 | 3.5 | 0.67 |
| Riqui Puig | 29 | 13 | 9 | 0.78 | 8.8 | 7.4 | 0.57 |
| Santiago Rodríguez | 32 | 12 | 6 | 0.58 | 10.8 | 9.3 | 0.65 |
Still, Rodríguez is in the conversation, and had a solid 0.58 expected goal involvements per game. But that is nevertheless well behind Evander's stunning 1.10 goal involvements for Portland Timbers or Acosta's 1.0 for FC Cincinnati.
