A Hopeful Beginning

In the early summer of 2015, NYCFC was a team that was struggling mightily during its inaugural season. The team entered June in the midst of an eleven match winless streak that saw them only take eight points from their first 13 matches of the year, but still, hope lingered.

The impending arrival of Frank Lampard and Andrea Pirlo was seen as a possible turning point in the young team’s history and the front office had promised more moves to come. Along with the two European designated players came loanee Angelino from Manchester City, centerback Jefferson Mena from Colombia and much to everyone’s surprise, 33-year old right back Andoni Iraola, formerly of Athletic Bilbao.

The latter, as part of a generally strong back line for Bilbao, was a top-performing right back in La Liga at the time of his transfer. For anyone who watched NYCFC last season could tell you, any back line help, especially one seemingly as quality as Iraola for lower than DP money, was more than welcome. Many saw the additions of two outside backs and a tall, young central defender as the potential stabilization of the defensive problems that had plagued the team during its early issues.

Angelino was a serviceable loanee during his time with the team, really more of a winger ,but a potent presence nonetheless. Mena struggled, but that was perhaps a symptom of the larger back line problem, he’s still young, talented and has time now to develop with his teammates. Many expected Iraola to be the best of the bunch, an everyday man to stall any attacks up the left wing to push forward and begin attacks up the right for NYCFC.

A Disappointing Season

However, something didn’t go according to plan. Iraola certainly wasn’t lacking for effort, he hustled while on the field and never to my memory took a play off, but he was caught out of position constantly. The attack seemed to flounder with him pushing forward and when the ball was turned over, many teams found success rapidly counterattacking down the left wing, so much so that it became a consistent game plan against NYCFC.

Iraola was so ineffective at times that he found himself sitting behind young New Jersey product R.J. Allen. To add to his woes, Iraola also dealt with several injury crises in his short season.

His issues were such that after playing in all of his first nine matches (starting in eight), he did not play a single match the rest of the year and was on the bench only once as an unused sub, summing up his season as eight starts and nined appearances in 16 matches. Though numbers don’t always tell the whole tale, particularly for defenders, the numbers put up by the team while Iraola was on the field weren’t encouraging.

The team allowed goals in every match he appeared in and held the opposition to one goal only twice. Overall, 23 goals were allowed with Iraola on the field over 9 appearances, good for an average of 2.55 goals allowed per match. Compare this to when Iraola was off the field, the team allowed 35 goals in 25 matches without him, good for an average of 1.4 goals allowed per match.

It is difficult to pin how much of that is due to his play, but it is too big of a discrepancy to be coincidence, the defense was simply worse with Iraola on the field. We can speculate that part of this was due to injury, or part of this was due to Allen’s surprisingly strong performances, but no matter the cause, the end result was disappointment for fans and club in the Spaniard.

A New Chance

With most roster moves already announced in terms of players leaving, unless there is an unexpected desire from somewhere, Iraola will be on the squad next season. The back line is the clearest need for the team and it will almost certainly be addressed in some form or another beyond the recent acquisition of Ethan White. The loss of Angelino, Jeb Brovsky and Javier Calle leave only three fullbacks on the roster in Iraola, Allen, and Chris Wingert, so the position will almost certainly be a transfer or draft target.

One has to imagine that despite his poor performances, Iraola currently holds the inside track to the starting job to begin next season due to his time with the team and veteran status. It is likely that NYCFC acquires a starting caliber left back and some depth, but with the limited spending power available in MLS, the organization may likely choose to stay put at right back and make the most of Iraola and Allen.

It has been suggested that the back line suffered last season due to communication issues and watching the matches certainly revealed some truth to this. Perhaps an offseason of bonding and practicing with teammates will help Iraola position himself better and perhaps his recovery time will allow him to play unencumbered by injury.

NYCFC surely hopes he recovers his strong La Liga form and become the starting right back they hoped he’d be. If not, Allen will certainly get his chance and he’ll likely get time anyway as his performances have been strong.

A Question for the Future

Assuming Iraola performs up to his historical snuff, he’ll become a steady fixture at right back and a stabilizing force for a back four that desperately needs it. New manager Patrick Vieira certainly hopes this will be the case, as he won’t want a repeat of last years problems haunting him. Chemistry is a force that any team is after and it remains to be seen whether it will develop with the back line here and just how many of the problems it will fix if it’s found.

However, Iraola was not brought in under Vieira’s reign and while the City Football Group may want to get the most out of their purchase, it can be assumed that an underperforming Iraola will be benched to give Allen a chance as Vieira searches for his answer. In this case a new question arises of what exactly must be done with Iraola. Would NYCFC seek to sell him in the summer and recoup some capital? Would they insist on playing him to get their money’s worth?

The most likely course seems to be to hold onto him until his contract runs out. Iraola doesn’t come off as a primadonna and it is difficult to imagine him gracelessly throwing a tantrum if he were benched due to performance. Probably NYCFC would keep him as a rather serviceable backup and part-timer to Allen while they search for a more permanent solution.

Regardless, for the time being, Iraola is here to stay and likely to play. The most fans and club can do is hope that he finds his groove, finds his rhythm with his teammates and becomes the solidifying veteran presence that inspires the back line to new heights. If he can’t, the responsibility turns to Allen, but the surest truth is this;For the time being, NYCFC is a better team with Iraola than without him, whether that be as a starter or on the bench.