ORLANDO, Fla. -- Lull, what lull?
That was the reaction of Orlando City SC general manager Niki Budalic to the suggestion the league is in recess right now, with no regular season games for more than two weeks.
Need a comparison? Like a duck paddling across a lake, where all the activity is below the surface, that is the picture for Budalic and the Lions front office.
“That’s a good analogy,” Budalic confirmed. “The schedule takes a lull but, behind the scenes, we continue working through it. And there’s a lot to do.”
The ‘lot to do’ in this case includes finding a new No.10 for head coach Jason Kreis, and, possibly, bolstering the team’s goal power. In terms of acquisitions, it is definitely more than one player, and the moves could happen sooner rather than later.
Defensively, Budalic believes the team can get back to the way it played in the first few weeks of the season, when it won six out of seven and conceded just five goals, but the team’s creative quotient urgently needs a boost, largely due to not replacing Trinidadian midfielder Kevin Molino, who went to Minnesota United in late January for a big chunk of allocation money.
“Going into this break, of course we want to improve, and if we have that opportunity, we will do so,” Budalic insisted. “We have been actively pursuing new players and, if the opportunity arises to procure someone who can help us immediately, but also fits our long-term plans, we will be prepared to pull the trigger.
“If we go back to the winter, we didn’t necessarily replace Kevin. It was a conscious decision to give some players the opportunity to show. A No.10 type player is definitely somebody we will be looking to add, whether it’s this window or in the winter, but preferably now.”
So, if the in house auditions for the main support role are all but over, what other moves could the team make – a new striker to help take some of the weight off Cyle Larin, perhaps?
“If there was an opportunity to do so, we would,” Budalic admitted. “But we feel like Carlos [Rivas] has grown into that role, as a striker. When Cyle isn’t available, Carlos can serve that role, and we have Giles Barnes as well, so we’re largely content with what we have, but of course like any team, especially a team that is struggling to score goals, we would consider improving that area.
“But it has to be said that our lack of goals is not down strictly to the performances of our strikers. We do need to improve as a team to increase our chances, and we need to possess the ball [better].”
This latter is now the top priority with the injuries to star designated player Kaká so far this year – the 35-year-old Brazilian has started just nine of 20 games, and totaled only 752 minutes – and the contract impasse with Matias Perez Garcia, who is now a free agent.
Rivas tops the team’s assists chart with just five, and the number of goals scored from open play has dwindled to only three in the past six outings.
“We have regular meetings where we discuss the state of the team and our biggest needs,” the GM added. “They can vary slightly from week to week, but overall, the general themes remain consistent, and we’ve been planning for this [transfer] window since the beginning of the year. We knew the areas we’d be targeting, and they haven’t really changed that much.
“The current run is not something we’re happy with. There are a lot of factors that go into it but we feel like we are addressing those. The break we have had for training has come at an opportune time. It allows us to focus on ourselves and re-establish some of the habits and norms we had when we started the season.”
Despite their recent struggles, Orlando remain firmly in the playoff picture, and Budalic insists things have largely gone as expected, albeit with more struggles against an unforgiving schedule and various injuries than they anticipated.
“We are right about exactly where we thought we would be,” he said. “Our offseason was focused on improving the defense, transitioning out some of the players from our existing roster, and adding new ones with some leadership and strengthening the back. And I think we have accomplished those things.
“The schedule hasn’t been particularly friendly. It’s an easy excuse but the reality is the past two months have been challenging. More than anything, it has disrupted the rhythm of a new team that was still building, even after the good results of the first two months. We knew we weren’t the finished article, and we still had to improve, and that was the challenge of the last two months.”
The ongoing question of Kaká and the end of his three-year contract this season is also being addressed, albeit in quiet fashion.
“He is an important part of our squad,” Budalic insisted. “If he’s valid, and fit and playing regularly, we can focus on getting him back into the rhythm and the level we know he can be. And, in the long-term, it’s going to be a collaborative discussion with our ownership, and Ricky and his family, and us, to see what makes sense for all of us. It is happening in bit pieces, off and on, between all of us, and that will continue.”
