His ability to play both offense and defense is why Royer continues to excel in the spot for Armas. His engine is a great one on a team with many engines. He runs and runs hard on both sides of the ball, which sometimes helps cover up his lack of technical skills.

In almost the exact same vein is Alex Muyl, who is also successful from an underlying metrics perspective. He lacks some creativity but when it comes to applying high pressure and turning balls won in the attacking half into goal chances, there might not be a better player in the league.

His expected assists per 96 minutes finished tied for first with Romain Alessandrini, and Muyl fuels his expected numbers through high leverage attempts which he often feeds to Bradley Wright-Phillips quickly after forced turnovers.

The problem with Muyl is often the same thing as with Royer. He lacks a good touch on the ball, and he’s not especially creative. Outside of “trying really hard” he doesn’t have really have a single trait above average. But because of the system both the Red Bulls and Muyl can thrive on their chaotic playstyle.

Omir Fernandez is another young and up and comer from the Red Bulls’ academy ranks who could challenge Muyl for minutes. If he can show his ability in the press there is a chance he challenges for minutes this year.

Ben Mines, another homegrown player, will provide depth and a spark from time to time. But his place in the weekly 18 isn’t here yet. It’s possible by the end of the year he could make a case for being more involved.

Lastly there is Florian Valot, who is returning from. His high intensity play showed use both on the wings, working with Muyl, and also in the central midfield. I’m sure he’ll feature as one of the first off the bench for Armas and could even find himself in the starting lineup ocassionally.

Central Midfielders

The central midfield will include Kaku, the creative and dynamic playmaker who tried to make a move to Liga MX and Club América. But he will be back, at least for one more season. There is also the unsung Sean Davis, who continues to be a solid central midfielder doing all the little things to make the Red Bull’s tactics work. Don’t be deceived by the lack of Sean Davis mentions in this article. I’m a huge fan of what he does.

Backing up Kaku will be Andreas Ivan, who has shown himself to be more of an advanced midfielder or even a false nine. Still, I don’t think he’ll be much more than a fill-in type.

The real question is who fills the Tyler Adams’ role. It could be the experienced Marc Rzatkowski who played a vital role last year as the third central midfield and did a pretty solid job. But the word is it could end up being the young Venezuelan Cristian Cásseres Jr.

Cásseres had a really good showing for both his U17 and U20 international squad this last two years. Additionally, his performances at Red Bulls II last year were what helped push his team to the USL conference finals. The other potential piece, along with Cásseres, will be the home grown Jean-Christophe Koffi, who was signed in September last year and has a lot of buzz around him.

Forward

I would love to say something witty about Bradley Wright-Phillips and big games but it’s already kind of been memed out. He’s a weird case of being both dominant and well known, yet undervalued for what he does.

BWP is going to continue to be awesome, at least in the short term. The last few months of the season he was still in the top-10 in accumulated xG and just outside the top 10 (11th) in xG per 96. It would be surprising for this to be the year Bradley Wright-Phillips fails to live up to what he’s consistently done over the last four years for NYRB.

But time is slowly creeping forward and the addition of Mathias Jørgensen obviously indicates the organization is trying to start to prepare for it. Over the last few years the Red Bulls haven’t had a lot of Plan B options which have worked out when BWP can’t go. The addition of Jørgensen is obviously a means to try and build something for the future.

Brian White last year was both interesting and useful in attacking sense in his limited run out. He clearly has yet to distinctly become the second option behind number 99. Last year there were moments suited towards Anatole Abang’s skillset, but between being on loan and running into various off field issues, he’s not been available to take advantage of the opportunities which have come.

Tactics/Style

Frantic, chaotic and all-together uncomfortable is the style applied by the organization of the Red Bulls. While it does tend to be something of a 4-2-3-1/4-3-3/4-5-1, those positions often shift around. The left wing may push forward and towards the middle, becoming more of a second striker.

The fullbacks can push forward on opposite sides to provide more width, or even provide more traffic centrally. The approach is flexible and it’s purely about making the opponent do the thing least want to, while winning the ball high up the field to create high leverage opportunities from those turnovers.

It manifests itself in a lot of ways, and under Chris Armas it’s evolved from what it was under Jesse Marsch. They’ve tried to be more dynamic and even add a few other tools to their tool belt. But at the core, it’s fast paced with high pressure.

2019 Expectations

There is no reason why the Red Bulls shouldn’t make a run at the CONCACAF Champions League final, the US Open Cup, MLS Supporters Shield and the MLS Cup. However their best and most realistic silverware is the Supporters’ Shield. Right now they’re easily one of the best and deepest teams in the league, which makes that trophy the most attainable.

They still may also make a play for either CCL or MLS Cup. But it will be more difficult and the results on a micro-level leave a lot more to chance. No team should realistically expect to win a trophy, but there is a reasonable expectation they should be in the hunt and have a very good shot at winning one and even multiple trophies in 2019.