FC Cincinnati’s 2025 season has not always been beautiful, but a steady stream of wins and points have put the Orange and Blue firmly in the driver’s seat for its second Supporter’s Shield in three years. Good things appear to be on the horizon, but there’s no reason for FCC to rest on its laurels. The club should be alert for the upcoming MLS summer transfer window with several areas of the squad in need of some buffing. I have analyzed five specific positions that Cincinnati should focus on in this respect.
A quick note about my research methods: Firstly, I looked mostly in divisions that FC Cincinnati has already purchased players from—this tells me that it already has established scouting apparatuses in these nations and could potentially find these players themselves. There are exceptions to this, but in these instances there is, at the very least, a history of MLS clubs more generally signing players from these leagues.
I also scouted for fit within FCC’s system rather than just finding the best players I possibly could—of course, I wanted talented guys, but I also wanted guys who have the potential to work in Pat Noonan’s hybrid three-at-the-back formation. With this in mind, I tried to use a healthy balance of statistics and the eye test to narrow down my list to the five players I have detailed below:
A CRUTCH FOR EVANDER
There are two very important things that must be acknowledged about FCC’s golden boy. One—he has a magic wand at the end of his right leg where his foot should be. Grant Freking recently wrote about Evander’s ability to single-handedly drag Cincinnati through games they may have otherwise struggled in. He leads the Orange and Blue in a plethora of attacking statistical categories, and recently dominated the MLS all-star game. He’s a walking goal-of-the-season machine. He is HIM.
The other important thing is that if Evander is stolen from the Queen City by a more glamorous outfit in Europe, it would be a bloody tragedy. Cincy, who have had star attacking midfielders break their hearts before, should be willing to do literally anything to keep him. But even if he stays, it would be a good idea to decrease the creative burden on the Brazilian wonder. Luca Orellano does a decent enough job, but another astute passer in attacking midfield would be a valuable get.
MLS clubs have had a tendency of finding stars in South American Leagues, and FCC could unearth the next guy up in Red Bull Bragantino’s Jhon Jhon. So good they named him twice, Jhon Jhon has been enjoying a stellar season in Brazil’s top flight as a left-sided attacking midfielder. He is a great passer, someone with that rare ability to slice open a defense with a single threaded through ball. He’s also a TERRIFIC dribbler, averaging a whopping 3.3 successful take-ons of opposition defenders per game. While he isn’t quite the long-range shooter Evander is, he is perhaps an even more willing contributor on the defensive end. He would be a magician in Cincy.
A DEFENSIVE ANCHOR
In FC Cincinnati’s back-three system, the central defender plays a key role. As Miles Robinson and Gilberto Flores use their potent athleticism to step out towards the middle third of the pitch to complete defensive actions, the middle man serves as a sort of final safety net, a reserve shield in case the initial press is broken. Therefore, it may be advisable to reduce the load on the current occupant of this role, Matt Miazga. Miazga has a steely brain and swathes of experience, but he is not the quickest—on top of this, his cruciate ligament was recently rebuilt. A younger, speedy sweeper who also possesses the mental acuity and aerial prowess of Miazga should ideally be targeted.
Sampson Dweh of Czech side Viktoria Plzen is exactly this. The 23-year-old Liberian central defender was an absolute monster in the Czech top division last year, excelling at pretty much everything as he helped his side qualify for the UEFA Champions League. Monstrous in the air (winning four aerial duels per game at a great success rate), Dweh has experience playing in the middle of a defensive three, and has excelled in this role; he can play the safe passes, but he is also able to find teammates from long distances with great success, and rarely loses the ball when he has to carry it forwards himself. He averages over five ball recoveries for his team per game, regularly using his pace and intelligence to put out fires before they happen. Think of him as superspeedy Matt Miazga with more reliable ligaments.
AN UPGRADE ON THE RIGHT
Deandre Yedlin is, frankly, the weak link in the FCC starting XI. In many a game this season, the difference in offensive and defensive impact between the storied veteran and Lukas Engel on the opposite flank has been stark. And the stats aren’t kind to DeAndre, either—he is not a great ball progressor, finding himself in the bottom third of MLS fullbacks for both passes and dribbles into the opposition half and final third. He completes under 40 percent of his dribbles, and commits almost a foul and a half per game. His defensive chops have not entirely failed him yet, but it would be advisable for Cincy to secure the services of a younger, two-way fullback to give themselves more attacking options and efficiency out of possession.
An under-the-radar option that would be available for cheap is Jae-won Hwang, a 22-year-old wing-back showing out for Daegu in the Korean top league. He is a player with a notable motor. He is able to get up the pitch with enough frequency to create around a chance and a half per game for his opponents, while also getting back to successfully recover the ball over three times per game. He is a super efficient passer and dribbler, and is no slouch in the air, either. A recent call-up to the South Korean national team, Hwang would be both a safe and affordable get.
A DENKEY DEPUTY
Kevin Denkey is a ridiculous finisher. There’s this statistic in soccer called Expected Goals (xG), that measures how many goals a player would be expected to score given the quality of chances that they’re getting. Not many players are able to consistently outperform their xG. Kevin Denkey has done it in each of the last four seasons, including this one. He finishes the easy chances, too; he just also scores the difficult ones. There’s just one problem for the Orange and Blue: none of their other forwards can score these tough shots. In fact, no one else can score the easy ones either. Kei Kamara and Sergio Santos Gomes have a whopping one (ONE!) goal between them. Gerardo Valenzuela has five, but he’s less of a forward and more of an attacking midfielder. Some backup would be nice.
With other positions in slightly more need, getting a guy on the cheap here could be a smart way of strengthening the squad without taking too much of a financial hit. Buying low on former England international Danny Ings may not seem exciting on paper—he’s 33 years old, and was just released after a torrid season with West Ham in the English Premier League. But FC Cincy could do a lot worse than throwing their its into the ring here. Ings would probably demand a lower wage than other potential free agent targets, and while he’s struggled to find the finishing touch over the course of the last two seasons, this is a player who was a really respected goalscorer for most of his career in the world’s most competitive league with 72 goals in 240 all-time appearances. Taking a short-term, buy-low, not enormously expensive gamble here on an experienced goalscorer would be a low-risk, high-reward play.
A MIDFIELD DESTROYER
This season, FC Cincinnati’s two sitting midfielders behind Evander and Luca Orellano have consistently been pretty good without being great. Pavel Bucha and Obinna Nwobodo are decent passers and ball carriers and very solid glue guys. Brian Anunga has chipped in when necessary. But the midfield lacks an absolute dog, a guy who can hold the line, break up play, and shield the backline. While Bucha and Nwobodo put in effort, a lot of FCC’s defensive pressure in the middle third comes from Miles Robinson and Gilberto Flores stepping up from defense to get stuck in, leading to potential vulnerabilities. The Orange and Blue need a space eater.
FCC has shown that its are not afraid of stealing gems from the Portland Timbers in the past (Evander!), and it should repeat the trick here. 22-year-old Argentine midfielder David Ayala is a guy who puts every inch of his five-foot-seven frame into getting the ball out of the possession of the opposition and into the possession of his own side. Few players in MLS average more than his 4.59 successful tackles and interceptions per game, and fewer still can top his 1.58 tackles per game in the defensive third in particular. He’s no slouch on the ball, either, knowing exactly when to ping one of his scarily accurate long balls to a teammate and when to drive forward into open space. A slam-dunk of a ball-winner.
While it would be unrealistic to expect FCC to address each and every one of these weaknesses over the course of the coming month, Pat Noonan, general manager Chris Albright, and technical director Hunter Freeman should, at the very least, keep their eyes peeled for players in these molds. FC Cincy is a team with undeniable flaws—plugging these gaps would go a long way towards rendering the Orange and Blue not just a winning team, but a dominant one.
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