Nicolás Fernández

Fix the attack, and the ranking follows naturally.

Second topic, Nicolás Fernández.

Should he be traded, benched, or given one more year to prove himself? Straight answer.

One more year, but only if the coaching staff implements a system that forces him to shoot.

You know, you would imagine they would move on from that.

Nico Fernandez Mercau, you know, all the interest for him in the summer.

It feels like it's gonna be harder to hold onto him if this team is, you know, not a playoff team.

Like, I do think that-

Um, you know, this is a team that within their structure and how they wanna use the ball, they don't take risks.

And when Maxi Morales was the number 10, uh, that kinda made sense because he's so good at organizing the pieces and finding these tiny little gaps that then allow Nico Fernández Mercau to suddenly be one of the top goal scorers in the league.

When Maxi got hurt, uh, the natural thing was to drop Nico into the number 10 role.

Nico's a completely different type of number 10.

And NYCFC are gonna miss the playoffs.

[laughs] That is brutal.

Nico Fernández Mercau had 13 goals in 16 games to start the season.

He's got two in the last 11.

With Chicago sliding and Nashville cementing the top spot, where does NYC FC actually stand in the hierarchy right now? [drum roll]

We also check in on last week's matchup against LA Galaxy, where Nicolas Fernandez had four shots and Thiago Martins completed 90 passes, yet we still only walked away with a draw.

Let's get into it.

[upbeat music] Craig, let's start with the immediate pain.

That's exactly what worried us after the Nashville game and even the draw with LA Galaxy.

We keep creating chances.

Nicolas Fernandez had four shots against LA, but we aren't finishing or holding onto the ball.

Against the Red Bulls, it felt like we were passive.

That's an interesting thing that might work in NYCFC's favor just because Brady's been out there all year for the Fire.

Um, in terms of NYCFC's lineup, I mean, I think it's just sort of how do you fit your attacking front four together? I think you know that guys like Ojeda, Nico Fernández Mercau are locked on, but then it's the other two spots of are you starting Luigi? Are you starting Alonso Martínez potentially at striker? Are you playing Benny Traoré as a left winger? Are you benching him in favor of Hannes Wolf, which I think we've seen Pascal Jansen do, uh, a couple times leading into the international break.

I, I think that's where I'm looking at in terms of lineup intrigue the most.

I expect, uh...

The Alonso stuff, I'd imagine he'd still need a little bit more time, but still, I'm speculating.

I, I do not know.

Uh, and that question gets tougher with Luigi because Luigi won player of the month last month, right? I mean, he's, he's, uh, he's definitely earned, I think, his starting spot, and has looked like, you know, NYCFC's second most dangerous attacker for many of his games behind, um, Nico Fernández Mercau.

So, um, eh, and well, Augustin Ojeda's been great too.

And I think Lee is being pretty uncompromising in who he's willing to sign.

And I think you noted even at the time, we know that they were hard after n- uh, Nico Fernández Mercau, and you watched him, um, on the weekend, and you can see what a fucking absolute baller he is.

Yep.

And you can, and you can also see in your mind what that would look like on the field with this-