For FC Cincinnati General Manager Chris Albright, Feb. 26 is a false deadline of sorts.
To be sure, Feb. 26 is important. It's the day Major League Soccer's regular season is scheduled to start and, for FC Cincinnati, that means traveling to Austin FC's Q2 Stadium for the opener.
But as Albright has maintained since he was hired, the start of the season won't be the impetus for major personnel decisions.
"We’re here to build a sustainable product that FC Cincinnati fans can be proud of consistently for years to come," Albright said. "They’re not gonna see everything they want next week. That’s the reality of the situation that we’re in … I’m also not punting on this season.”
Less than two weeks out from the start of the 2022 MLS season, Albright on Wednesday spoke to The Enquirer about the club's ongoing process of improving multiple areas on the technical side of the organization, as well FCC's ongoing pursuit of solutions to on-field needs.
Albright had a tall stack of chores to complete upon arriving to FC Cincinnati in October. Among the tasks were evaluating the club's pricey roster as it was constituted at the time, finding a head coach and support staff, and overhauling the club's wavering culture.
Albright said he's pleased with the progress culturally, as well as with the experienced staff led by first-time head coach Pat Noonan.
More:Why long-time MLS head coach Dominic Kinnear ended up at FC Cincinnati
Albright also acknowledged the common perception of roster shortcomings, and attempted to make sense of the club's wait to make a move.
"We’re not going to be a finished product on Feb. 26. You can’t reset three wooden spoons in three months. You can’t," Albright said. "Again, I’m not gonna sit here and give some random number of transfer windows that it’s gonna take to fix either. Our fundamental job, for me, was to reset culture, find a staff, and address the roster. That’s what the immediate job at-hand was. We feel really good about the culture piece. We feel really good about the coaching staff and Pat and the experience around him.
"We understand where our needs are but we want to be really measured in those pieces that we add in those areas of need and not just try to be a finished product on Feb. 26, but set us up to have a sustainable product."
The increasingly clear message from supporters is that there's concern for multiple positions in FC Cincinnati's midfield, and especially at the defensive midfield role, otherwise known as the "No. 6" position.
Speculation around FC Cincinnati possibly making a midfield acquisition intensified last week after it briefly traded out of the No. 1 position in the MLS Allocation order with New York Red Bulls in exchange for $100,000 in general allocation money.
After the Red Bulls used the asset to select a player, Cincinnati moved back into the No. 1 spot, which gives the team holding that position priority selection from a pool a sought-after players. But FCC is so far yet to deploy that tool to acquire a player.
Albright said he's actively seeking solutions to the No. 6 position, which was long ago identified as an area of need. He also shed some light on the extent of his pursuit in that area.
"That is a position that we’re actively trying to address… and find the right person to be an anchor in the midfield for FC Cincinnati," Albright said. "Unfortunately, that doesn’t mean that that person is going to show up and be playing against Austin. That’s the nature of the business. When you get good players, those deals tend to be more difficult because there’s more competition. Have there been a bunch of options this offseason at that position? Absolutely. Have we seen any of them as the fit that’s needed for us? Not as of yet. I’m actively working on solutions that we do see as the fit."
Cincinnati's been linked to multiple midfield players from overseas.
For now, FC Cincinnati's midfield questions will have to be answered by players currently rostered by the club, and those prospects tend to evoke varying degrees of skepticism among fans.
Yuya Kubo could potentially fill the role. In 2021, Kubo grew into a serviceable defensive midfield option – and a statistical leader in the league by some measures – even though it wasn't his natural position.
Noonan has emphasized the club's desire to see Kubo join the attack, which has resulted in direct offensive contributions so far in preseason.
During his time with the Philadelphia Union, Haris Medunjanin played defensively at the bottom of the midfield diamond formation that FC Cincinnati's expected to use often. Medunjanin's familiarity with Noonan's and Albright's wants from that position would seem to make him a good fit there.
On the flip side, with Medunjanin set to turn 37 in March, he'd likely need protection and support from teammates in such a vital area of the field.
Allan Cruz could also serve as a defensive midfield option, with Albright saying Cruz played there during Tuesday's 3-2 scrimmage victory against Nashville SC.
"He did a really nice job for us the first 30 minutes against Nashville," Albright said of Cruz.
Meanwhile, the rumored possibility of playing Costa Rican international Ronald Matarrita in midfield was all but quashed by Albright, who repeatedly emphasized that FC Cincinnati values Matarrita as one of the best left backs in MLS.
In discussing the outlook for 2022, Albright repeatedly spoke on the breadth of the work he faced upon arriving to FC Cincinnati.
He made it clear that the necessary work on the club's culture and coaching staff should already have FC Cincinnati positioned for improvement.
The work of entirely reversing three consecutive last-place finishes simply can't be reduced to one offseason, though.
"We’re really addressing the foundation in so many ways. Whether that’s getting the right coaches in here, and then the coaches are addressing how we train. Addressing accountability – how we act, how we treat each other, how we communicate, how we integrate sports science, how we rely on sports science, how we rely on analytics," Albright said. "That’s really what the main goal has been here the last four months, really – foundationally changing how everybody in the building goes about their business from myself all the way down through the players."
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