New York City Interim Head Coach Nick Cushing says the squad have their sights set on nothing less than a win from Sunday’s Decision Day game at Atlanta United.
The Boys in Blue complete the MLS regular season campaign with a trip to Georgia, looking to cement third place in the Eastern Conference with a fourth successive victory.
With a playoff place and home advantage in the first round already secured and Atlanta unable to qualify, there is little on the line at Mercedez-Benz Stadium regarding post-season permutations.
As a result, Cushing has the chance to rotate the squad and will decide whether to freshen things up or maintain a consistent starting XI in the coming days.
However, the Head Coach insists that whichever team and formation he picks, he expects the highest level of performance, urging his players to take their chance to shine ahead of the playoffs.
“The opportunity to change the system is there because we've secured,” he said. “Of course, we want third place.
“We’ll use the extra day we have tomorrow to make sure we really get a clear decision-making process on whether we put fresh guys in or whether we go with the same XI because we have a fully healthy squad.
“It’s completely 50-50 in that sense – you can look at it one way and say: ‘We’re in, we’ve secured a home game so we can only be three or four… so we can get the likes of Héber, Alfredo [Morales], Keaton [Parks], Anton [Tinnerholm] back in, we can give some players who haven’t had much football some minutes and rest players who have played a lot of football…’
“We can look at it that way but we can also look at it the other way – that momentum is really important. If you look at last year, going into the playoffs, we were on a really good run and although we didn’t win the last regular season game, it was a really positive performance.
“It really gave us a springboard going into the Atlanta game at home so as a coach, you’re always going to bounce between form and freshness.
“We also have Alfredo Morales, Keaton Parks back so going back to three in the midfield for us with Maxi [Moralez], Keaton and Nico [Acevedo]… Maxi, Alfredo, Nico… Alfredo, Nico, Keaton Parks…
“For Alfredo, it’s his first game, so he's probably got 70 [minutes] in him. Keaton and Anton could play 90 minutes – they're fit to play the full 90; it's just how fresh they are after 50, 60, 70... It will be dictated by how intense the game is – if the game is really open and we run a lot, I'm sure that they will last 90 If we can keep control of the game and we can we can control the game without possession, how we like the game to go.
“I think we're really getting to the place where they could push a full game now. It’s really important for us to make sure that we get the balance right and I think going into big games, three in the midfield will be will be really key for us.
“If we decide to play some players who haven’t played so many minutes or there’s an opportunity to get guys pitch time, it’s an opportunity for them to stake a claim in getting in our team and being really important for us going into the playoffs.
“It's the same for if we go with the same XI that has put in three really good performances now – it’s their shirt to lose. It's the nature of having competition.
“We're really disappointed when we lose a lot of players to injury. The flip side is that the team picks itself then because you only have a short roster.
“The difference now is everyone's healthy, everyone's hungry, everybody's really motivated to play these big games and no more than this game around the corner. It's a really important game for us.”
While Atlanta are unable to progress, Cushing also warned against any complacency with the Five Stripes looking to finish the season with a win on home turf.
“In front of their home crowd, they will want to finish strongly,” he added. “I think the disappointment of not making playoffs will be a huge motivator for Atlanta and by no means do we expect the game to be easy or those guys to just go through a process of getting the game done.
“I expect Josef Martínez to play – he hasn't played so much and when he comes on he scores goals – so I expect him to play and start the game.
“I think that the whole of Atlanta's team and crowd will be hugely motivated to finish on a positive result.”
