For the first time in the club's existence, NYCFC have a big question mark at center forward.
Since their inaugural MLS match through their playoff exit at the hands of Atlanta United in November, David Villa led the line for the club admirably, guiding NYCFC to the playoffs each of the last three seasons while leading the team in goals all four campaigns.
With Villa departing the club for an opportunity in Japan, how will NYCFC technical director Claudio Reyna go about replacing such an irreplaceable player?
"What we clearly need to replace is the goals that he scores so that's the focus of getting in a guy, but also other guys, because we feel we need to add more punch up front to create more chances," Reyna told ExtraTime Radio. "So we're looking at players that will replace his goals. It's really difficult to find a name like David Villa in the world of soccer, and obviously the amount you have to pay to bring them in. So it's important that the decision you know is about trying to just replace his goals his energy up front and that's the focus, we're working hard in the offseason."
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Villa was a constant for a side that had some roster turnover as well as a mid-season coaching change in 2018, as Patrick Vieira accepted a managerial gig in his native France with OGC Nice. Dome Torrent took over and the club failed to keep the pace that Vieira oversaw at the beginning of the season.
Reyna believes that it was a uniquely challenging scenario.
"I don't know if this has ever happened, a coach leaving midseason for what was a really good opportunity right back in Europe. It seems like that was that was something new. It was crazy," Reyna explained. "I mean, it was one (assistant) coach coming in, then another one two weeks later, then a fitness coach. Coaches develop a relationship just like players and it just doesn't happen like that. And there was a staff that stayed and a staff that came. Then hitting it into a new team and league, I think it certainly is challenging. I think there was no consistency."
Outside of questions regarding the first team, Reyna overlooks the entire club, including the academy. ETR picked the 45-year-old's brain for his thoughts on how to best develop young domestic talent.
"I think we're trying, with the efforts of second teams, to create environments that are tough," Reyna said. "A lot of times that means playing with men or playing up. That leads to what our belief is, and it's known within MLS, we play all of our players up. We do not care about results — We care about results in tournaments because that's when we want to learn how to compete. But if you look from U-12 to U-19, for any kid when it's easy at his age, we move him up in training, then in games and we keep pushing the players up. In MLS academies we need to look at it like this: We have to push the best players up and forget about losing games. That's that's a bold thing to do because it's just not done enough."
