MLS

Mitrita, Martinez, & More: Evaluating The Performances Of MLS Newcomers

Mitrita, Martinez, & More: Evaluating The Performances Of MLS Newcomers

Let’s take a look at how some of the most important new players in Major League Soccer are faring for their clubs in the early season.

Apr 5, 2019
Mitrita, Martinez, & More: Evaluating The Performances Of MLS Newcomers

In a league with fairly significant year-to-year turnover, MLS teams have to stay aggressive in the market to attain (or retain) contention. Difference-making talent arrives in the league at increasingly high volume as teams use allocation money to their advantage and players see MLS as a legitimate destination. Once clubs widely understand the value in selling that talent on for profit, more elite talent will come to replace it.

This new talent, evidently, can make or break a team. Let’s take a look at how some of the most important new players are faring for their clubs in the early season.

1. Alexandru Mitrita | NYCFC

The Romanian DP has raw talent on a team that predicates its attack on such talent, possibly to a fault. NYC are muddling through a dismal start: they drew their first three games, two of which came after blowing leads, and then went to Toronto and got decimated 4-0. They are an oddball team with mercurial tactics and a mercurial manager.

Mitrita is a head-down-and-run sort of winger, with the dribbling quality to slice through defending and open space for teammates. His issue is that he struggles to find those teammates. He can only do one thing at a time, and usually that one thing is meandering dribbles. Sometimes, he forgets that he can’t blaze a path straight to goal all the time, especially when other teams realize he isn’t giving the ball up and converge on him:



He could have hit a diagonal switch a couple of times during that sequence, or perhaps slipped the ball wide to Ismael Tajouri-Shradi (on the bottom of the screen). He did not have to sprint directly into a sea of red.

Some of NYC’s problems originate in a lack of connectedness in possession. The attackers are sprawled about, all trying to do their own thing. Mitrita is the most obvious example of that.

Through 381 minutes, Mitrita’s passing percentage sits at just 69.6 percent, per American Soccer Analysis’ database, and 72 percent expected passing. That itself is not incriminating—it’s a tiny sample size, and productive attackers like Darwin Quintero and Diego Valeri have similar figures—but Mitrita produces significantly less offensively than Quintero and Valeri, at 0.61 xG+xA per 96 minutes and 1.01 key passes/96.

Meager passing percentages for attackers, when taken in concert with the eye test and other production metrics, can indicate two things: the player makes poor decisions on the ball, and he takes a lot of risks, especially near the 18-yard box. The latter is the case for superstar creators like Valeri and Quintero, who create a lot of chances by taking these risks. Mitrita’s pass map does not indicate the same give-and-take:



This kind of production could be salvaged by a true connector, a Nicolas Lodeiro-type passer who can take all passing responsibilities off the shoulders of Mitrita, whose dribbling talent can be useful. NYC do not have that player.

2. Marco Fabian | Philadelphia Union

Things haven’t quite been perfect for Fabian early in his Union career. He missed a penalty kick against Sporting KC and then picked up a red card, earning him a two-game suspension, and in his absence the Union earned a respectable draw in Atlanta and scored an emphatic 3-0 win over shorthanded Columbus. He has been productive, and occasionally electric, in his minutes, though. 

Rookie Brenden Aaronson basically stole Fabian’s job during the red card suspension. Aaronson scored Philly’s goal in Atlanta and impressed as a No. 10, earning another start in Philly’s win in Cincinnati, this time alongside Fabian. The combination of the 18-year-old homegrown and Mexican national teamer DP has a chance to be exactly what the Union want. 

3. Pity Martinez | Atlanta United

Comparisons to Ezequiel Barco won’t go away for Pity until he starts producing. The highly-touted acquisition, coming a year after Barco signed for a record fee and then disappointed, has not yet settled for the struggling Five Stripes. Martinez has yet to pick up a goal or assist in 495 total minutes for Atlanta, including a two-leg loss to Monterrey in the Concacaf Champions League. He played for Argentina over the international break, slightly injuring his hamstring and missing Atlanta’s Week 5 swim against Columbus. 

Martinez, at 25 and having proven himself in the Argentine league, is not Barco. But Atlanta spent a lot of money, and they can’t afford another year-long adjustment period, especially as Frank de Boer struggles to put the pieces together. 

The good money is that Pity will figure it out. He’s an Argentina international, after all—he should start producing sooner rather than later, though de Boer’s ability to put him in a good position could go a long way. Right now, Pity looks tentative on the ball, as though his confidence isn’t high. Atlanta have to get him on the ball and in space.

4. Robinho | Columbus Crew

It looks like the Crew have finally found that incisive, goal-scoring winger they’ve lacked since the Justin Meram/Ethan Finlay era ended a couple of years ago. Robinho was a fairly quiet offseason transfer, but he usurped a long-slumping Meram before the Crew’s Week 3 win over FC Dallas and doesn’t appear close to relinquishing the spot.

He picked up an assist in the Puddle Bowl against Atlanta and moved the ball efficiently against Dallas and Philadelphia. In the loss against the Union (in which the Crew were missing three of their five best players due to international duty), he helped cover for Wil Trapp’s absence by increasing his presence as an outlet in possession. 

With Caleb Porter continuing most of what made the Crew successful under Gregg Berhalter, Robinho fits—he cuts in off the wing and can make good decisions in the attacking third. He balances Pedro Santos, who is decidedly less proficient at making good decisions anywhere on the field. If the Crew can coax goal-generating dynamism out of him, Robinho could help them stick at the top of the Eastern Conference.

Meram could re-enter the trade block again as a result, with the price tag continuing to fall.

5. Diego Polenta | LA Galaxy

Brought in to stabilize the Galaxy’s flailing backline, Polenta hasn’t quite done that in his first four starts. But he has been capable, and he’s rebounded from an error-prone Week 1 performance outside of conceding a needless penalty the following week. He’ll have help soon with the apparent impending arrival of Costa Rican center back Giancarlo Gonzalez.

Another new Galaxy acquisition, midfielder Joe Corona, deserves a mention in this space as well. Corona has paired well with Jonathan dos Santos in midfield behind Sebastian Lletget. With younger players like Uriel Antuna receiving playing time as well, LA are combining existing talent with new pieces. It goes to show how important Guillermo Barros Schelotto has been to this team.

6. Lucas Rodriguez | D.C. United

One final shout to DCU winger Titi Rodriguez, a skillful presence who slices around the final third as a secondary creator to Luciano Acosta. 

Rodriguez, who holds what could stand as the goal of the year in an amazing season for golazos, is also an important element of D.C.’s revamped pressing system, helping cover for Wayne Rooney’s defensive deficiencies. He is making a convincing argument for being D.C.’s third-best player. 



He’s also at least the third active MLS player nicknamed “Titi,” alongside Philly’s David Accam and NYC’s Valentin Castellanos. In spite of Accam’s recent resurgence, Rodriguez leads the current Titi power ranking.

Harrison Hamm is a sportswriter who covers American soccer and MLS for FloFC. He also covers sports for FanSided and The Comeback, and has freelanced for the Washington Post.