As far as the Head Coach sees it, there’s no reason why NYCFC can’t aspire to reach greater heights than ever before in 2017.
Patrick Vieira feels as though he is entering a new season with a much stronger squad than he had at this point last year and believes competition for places could be key to a successful year.
Following a busy offseason, NYCFC have signed 13 players to contracts to date and Vieira is delighted to have so many options on his new-look young, dynamic roster.
Vieira told reporters: “I believe that this year the team is much stronger than last year – the roster is much better than it was.
“As a coach I have players who can play in different positions and I think we have better players overall. Last year, we didn’t have so many choices with the players that we had.
“This year we will have more competitiveness between the players and that will help to get the best out of every single one of them.
“I think that’s why I like about this group – it’s young and we have two or three really good players in each position – that means if you’re going to play, you have to play really well.
“I don’t want players to feel comfortable and to feel they’re going to play every week – no, you have to work hard for your spot.”
NYCFC have one more dress rehearsal ahead of the big MLS kick-off on March 6.
Sporting Kansas City lie in wait for Vieira’s men on Saturday afternoon in the final preseason game and the Frenchman has revealed that the likes of Alexander Callens, Yangel Herrera and Alex Ring could come into the reckoning for vital minutes.
Patrick continued: “Obviously it’s a bit difficult with some players arriving a little bit late.
“Physically, they are not at the same level – players have played some games and the last ones who’ve arrived were not ready to play the game on Wednesday, so they will play on Saturday.
“When you look at all of the players who arrived late, physically it was difficult to give them a 90 minute game so I needed to mix the teams for these games.
“What was really important for me is how hard the players have been working in the last few weeks. Having players coming in at different times made it difficult to have my starting XI – we still have one more game to play on Saturday and I’m going to have a look at some of the players who arrived late.
“It may take a few more games before I know my starting XI.”
One of the breakout stars of this preseason has undoubtedly been 16-year old James Sands.
The New Yorker has defied his age, stepping up to play senior soccer for the first time and not looking a bit out of place.
Whether or not Sands will sign as a professional or not remains to be seen, but Patrick only had good things to say about the talented youngster.
“We talk about it every single day with Claudio and the rest of the staff,” Vieira said.
“We are really pleased to have a young, talented player in our football club – we really need to think carefully about how we can help him to develop – what is the best next step for him.
“We know he will be very busy next year with the U-17 World Cup, he will be spending a lot of time with the National Team. We have to look at how much time he will spend with us and how much time he will spend there and then we are going to try to make the right decision on how he is going to develop himself.
“He’s been playing a lot of football and what we really wanted is to give him this experience of training with the first-team.
“Maybe in the summer he will need to have a break because from Monday he’ll go to the National Team – it will be a lot of football for him and he will get to a time when we need to look after the boy as well. We’re going to have a good plan for him.”
