As soon as Maxi Moralez left the pitch at BMO Stadium in the 60th minute, things started to fall apart for New York City FC.
His removal was met with some open confusion from AppleTV announcers Keith Costigan and Maurice Edu, who pointed out that even Moralez seemed surprised to be removed by Head Coach Pascal Jansen. Moralez himself looked at least a little surprised while walking off the pitch and seemed to ask the bench about his removal.
The reactions of the announcers and NYCFC's No 10 proved prophetic, as for the remainder of the match vs. LAFC, possession became scarce and all the momentum swung away from New York City and toward the home team. A similar dynamic played out when Moralez was removed from the season-opener against Inter Miami CF, a game in which he was even more influential, playing the over-the-top pass to Alonso Martínez that got Miami defender Tomás Avilés sent off while also earning an assist for his set-piece layoff to Mitja Ilenič.
You can see the effect removing Moralez from the field has had on NYCFC by looking at the g+ Game Flow charts for each of the team's two games. These measure shifts in momentum that occur throughout a match, with the bars indicating when a team has periods of valuable, chance-creating possession. I added circles to show the parts of both matches when Maxi Moralez was no longer on the field for NYCFC, and yes, each game seemed to slip out of New York City's grasp when their diminutive attacking midfielder left the action.
Despite turning 38 and ending last season banged up, Moralez remains as important to the team's attack as ever, even reclaiming the No 10 jersey when Santiago Rodríguez left for Botafogo. Yet this New York City FC season can't hinge on Moralez defying aging and producing assists and goals while starting week after week as the team's central attacking midfielder, and the problems the team has had without Moralez on the field should underscore the urgent need to add another elite playmaker to this NYCFC squad.
Early attacking issues
Proof of the need for a new No 10, or maybe more specifically a true Santiago Rodríguez replacement, has already emerged from the first two matches of 2025. NYCFC has struggled to create chances in open play and has too often settled for low-quality hopeful shots from distance, with too many players unable to penetrate defensive lines and set themselves or their teammates up for good scoring chances.
Through the first two matchdays, New York City ranks dead last in MLS (tied with New England Revolution, a team yet to score a goal in 2025) for the average distance from goal of all their attempted shots. NYCFC players are on average taking their shots 21 yards from goal, a significant difference from the 13-yard average shooting distance for teams gathered at the top of this leaderboard.
That's been correlated with a lack of great scoring chances, as NYCFC sits alone in 27th in MLS with 1.4 non-penalty expected goals (npxG) and has been collectively credited with just 12 key passes (ones that lead directly to a shot), which has them in a three-way tie for 24th among the league's 30 teams. All those stats and rankings come courtesy of FBRef.com's MLS stats page. The two goals scored in Miami weren't exactly well-worked team efforts, coming straight from a set play and straight from a shockingly inaccurate Jordi Alba back pass.
The major caveat, of course, is that this is just two games worth of data points. It's early in the Pascal Jansen Era and the new coach has been searching for the right combination of attacking players, starting both Agustín Ojeda and Mounsef Bakrar on the left-wing, but no arrangement so far has translated to cohesive attacking play from NYCFC.
Ill-fitting in-house solutions
In these pages, we spent some time this offseason debating over what position NYCFC Sporting Director David Lee should prioritize in the transfer market. Was filling the James Sands absence at the base of the team's midfield the priority, or is it finding another quality left-back to compete with and back up Kevin O'Toole?
John Baney
As of now, the team doesn't seem to have the right in-house options at the No 10 spot. In Los Angeles, Andrés Perea came on for Moralez and was asked to play as the most advanced midfielder, ahead of Justin Haak and Keaton Parks at the base of Pascal Jansen's 4-2-3-1.
Perea was absent for most of this preseason working his way back from an offseason surgery, and has been eased back into things as a second-half substitute since the final Coachella Valley Invitational game. Even as he gets more minutes under his belt, that advanced central midfield role isn't where Perea thrives. Yes, Nick Cushing played him there occasionally and even as a wide midfielder, but Perea is a box-to-box midfielder who is at his best crashing the back post on late runs into the box, not when he's expected to help set the tempo and pick out dangerous forward passes for teammates.
He feels more like-for-like for Keaton Parks, not a replacement for Moralez. Other on-the-roster options for filling that No 10 role could include sliding right-winger Hannes Wolf into the middle and asking him to harken back to his Bundesliga days, or they could include turning to a teenager like Máximo Carrizo.
Wolf has seemed locked in on the right, though he's had problems of his own, with just one goal contribution (an assist) across his last 19 consecutive appearances. Carrizo meanwhile has yet to make his MLS debut and would be thrown into the deep end if thrust straight in as the First Team's No 10. Jonathan Shore got that treatment against Inter Miami, given the entire second half alongside Keaton Parks, so it's certainly possible Jansen gives Carrizo a chance – but the real solution at the No 10 spot feels like it has to come from outside the organization.
What's needed from the next No 10
None of this is meant to imply that Maxi Moralez can't play a part in 2025, it's just that the team looks lost in attack without one of Moralez or Santi Rodríguez out there. Rodríguez was excellent at creating shots for teammates and at taking defenders on with his direct dribbling toward goal. Santi in 2024 produced 5.35 shot-creating actions per 90 minutes, in the 91st percentile among MLS attacking midfielders and wingers. He also was credited with 2.74 successful take-ons per 90, which placed him in the 95th percentile in 2024.
Moralez has so far this season been creating shots for teammates but not at that Santi level, and he doesn't offer the direct goal threat of Rodríguez. Having neither of those players on the field has been too costly through two games, so David Lee will need to target an attacking midfielder who can replicate the chance creation and individual threat lost when he cashed that $15 million check from Botafogo to send Santi to Brazil.
Lee and Jansen both have been outspoken and upfront about the need to add to the roster, and there are plenty of spots available on the roster to fill with impact talent, be it a Designated Player, a U22 Initiative signing, or even a TAM player. The quiet attacking start to the 2025 season should have the NYCFC sporting staff putting all their focus on a specific type of player as the new-signing priority, and that should be a new No 10 – Maxi Moralez is a legend but he can't be expected to carry the attacking load once again in 2025.
