NYCFC 2024 Final Grades: Midfielders

New York City FC got steady and at times stellar production from its core trio of midfielders in 2024.

The consistency of James Sands, Keaton Parks, and Santiago Rodríguez helped NYCFC improve on a down 2023 season, and the depth options available behind them – Maxi Moralez, Andrés Perea, and Justin Haak – all made differences at various points of the season.

This group featured some of the team's most consistent bright spots throughout an at times up-and-down 2024 season, but for the purpose of this end-of-season review and report card, we're going to focus on those who saw the most minutes: Santi, Sands, Parks, and Maxi, mainly.

Santi thrives in the City

Rodríguez carried the biggest expectations of any of the team's midfielders as a Designated Player who earns the third-highest salary ($1.3 million) among NYCFC players. Santi lived up to those expectations in 2024, scoring 16 goals in his 40 appearances in all competitions. He also collected six assists (10 if you go by the inflated-by-secondary-assists total on the MLS website) and ranked eighth among all MLS players with 9.3 expected assisted goals (xAG), according to FBRef.com.

He didn't just rank highly for xAG, as the 24-year-old Uruguayan was also in the leaguewide Top 10 for passes into the penalty area, progressive passes, shot- and goal-creating actions, successful take-ons, penalty kicks made, and both fouls drawn and fouls committed. Rodríguez also led the entire league in completed through balls during a season in which he always seemed to be pushing to get himself or his teammates in behind the defense.

The biggest knock on Rodríguez's season: A huge disparity in attacking output when playing at home vs when playing on the road. Santi recorded 11 goals and five assists across 19 home matches, but that production dipped to five goals and one assist in 21 away trips – and three of his away goals were scored during Leagues Cup (not to mention one of those Leagues Cup road goas was at Red Bull Arena, not exactly the most taxing away day for NYCFC).

Another potential knock on Santi's year is that he finished it not playing in the central attacking midfield role he occupied for much of the season, instead shifting out to the left wing to make room for Maxi Moralez.

Maxi still had it

Moralez earned a spot back after recovering from the major knee injury he suffered in August 2023. The 37-year-old made an instant impact in his very first game back from the injury, picking up an assist during a 17-minute cameo during a May 31 win at Yankee Stadium vs. San Jose Earthquakes that would hint at a bigger role to come for Moralez in 2024.

Maxi only started 16 of the 43 matches NYCFC played in 2024 and was on the field for just 29.4% of the team's MLS minutes according to FBRef.com, but by the end of the season, he was a must-start for Nick Cushing.

Moralez started eight of New York City's final nine matches, though his production didn't match up to his usage, as the playmaker was held without an assist across his final six appearances of 2024, the bulk of which occurred during the MLS Cup Playoffs – a period when Moralez may not have been entirely healthy, given he was held out of Game One of the Round One best-of-three series vs. FC Cincinnati due to an apparent injury.

His season totaled out to two goals scored and seven assists recorded across 26 total appearances in all 2024 competitions, though Moralez's per-90-minute numbers, especially for chance creation and progressive passing, placed him among the best in MLS last season. It's unclear if he'll return to New York City in 2025, but he proved to still have something left in the tank even after the knee reconstruction.

The Americans

Santi and Maxi held their own while playing the most advanced role in the NYCFC midfield, and each got steady support from the deeper-lying American duo of James Sands and Keaton Parks. Sands had a great year in terms of his disruptive work in the midfield, ranking third among all MLS players with 81 tackles and ranking third with 54 tackles won, according to FBref's leaderboards.

Sands and Parks together were a dominant aerial force in the midfield, with Parks in the 99th percentile of MLS midfielders in 2024 with 2.30 aerial duels won per 90 minutes and Sands not far behind, in the 98th percentile with 1.83 aerials won per-90. Sands plays the more physical style of the two, as seen in his placement among the league's 2024 leaders for fouls committed and for earning both yellow and red cards.

Sands memorably also scored that first-ever NYCFC goal to "beat" Lionel Messi's Inter Miami CF 1-1 at Yankee Soccer Stadium in what felt like a late-season turning point, though Parks provided some frustration with his lack of end product when getting onto the ball in the opposition's penalty area.

Parks got himself into plenty of promising scoring positions during the 2024 season – his 0.14 non-penalty expected goals per shot attempt (npxG/shot) was in the 91st percentile of MLS midfielders, and his 2.23 touches in the attacking penalty area per 90 minutes were the most Parks has averaged on a per-90-minute basis since the 2020 season.

The finishing and the final pass weren't there for Keaton in 2024 though, as he scored exactly two goals for a third consecutive season and picked up two assists across 40 appearances in all competitions.

That Sands and Parks were both healthy and available for almost the entirety of the 2024 season, and that they were consistently solid throughout the season all laid the foundation for much that went right for New York City in 2024.

Nick Cushing could turn to Justin Haak and Andrés Perea whenever one of Sands or Parks wasn't available or needed to be changed was a luxury. The NYCFC central midfield has long featured the same main characters, and continuing to trust Santi, Maxi, Sands, and Parks paid dividends in 2024.

The midfield wasn't perfect – hence the grade below, and hence the few complaints mentioned in the preceding paragraphs – but it was not an area of major concern for NYCFC in 2024 that screams out for improvement heading into 2025.

Bringing back this same group of midfielders in 2025 would set the new New York City FC Head Coach, whoever he or she may be, up with a solid base to work off as they look to build NYCFC's next trophy-winning side.