For most clubs, losing a head coach and a sporting director in one offseason leads to massive change. Their replacements usually bring new philosophies, new methods and new players, often reshaping entire organizations according to their own, new preferences.



For New York City FC, the offseason departures of head coach Dome Torrent and sporting director Claudio Reyna didn’t lead to a major shakeup, but instead mostly brought more business as usual.



Despite finishing atop the 2019 Eastern Conference regular-season standings, NYCFC lost Torrent and Reyna in the span of two weeks in November. Torrent, who voiced his frustrations with MLS’s quirks and City’s middle-class spending throughout his tenure in New York, left the club a couple of weeks after a disappointing home playoff loss to Toronto. Reyna followed him out the door shortly thereafter, trading his expiring contract with NYCFC for a new deal with incoming 2021 expansion club Austin...