MLS: 3 biggest losers from transfer deadline day
2. FC Cincinnati
Although FC Cincinnati deserves a bit of a break for being an expansion team, the club still should have made some moves to help the squad become more competitive in 2019. Cincinnati has been dreadful over the last couple months of play, during which they managed to score one goal over a seven-game period.
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A major reason for this scoring drought has been due to the team’s plethora of defensive midfielders. The team lacks any true attacking-minded playmakers that can push play forward. US International Kenny Saief has been one of the few Cincinnati players to present ideas in attack this season. But with Saief itching to make a return to Europe, and his loan deal set to expire this summer, the writing is on the wall that FC Cincinnati will most likely lose out on one of its key attacking pieces.
Cincinnati had plenty of options to make a move, though, as they are sitting on a pile of quality assets at the defensive midfielder position. Plenty of teams across MLS are in need of a player that can provide rotational depth in the center of the pitch or a late-game substitute that can come in and help lock down a win. For Cincinnati, trading away one of these midfielders could have yielded a young attacking player who might not have been getting enough minutes with their current team, similar to the trade that Colorado made for NYCFC’s Jonathan Lewis.
Or, Cincinnati could have traded a player or two to compile allocation money that could have been used to cover the transfer fee for an international DP-caliber attacking midfielder for use in the summer transfer window. Regardless, Cincinnati blew an opportunity to help their team to become more competitive this year, and as a result, it will be an uphill battle to score goals over the next couple of months until the next transfer window begins.