Just over a week ago, FC Cincinnati officially announced their newest Designated Player and attacking midfielder to the squad. Evander, a 2024 MLS MVP Finalist and one of the most dominant individual players in the league.
A week later, with limited training time and plenty of travel between two matches, Evander has already started to leave an impression on FC Cincinnati. With a goal and an assist in the Concacaf Champions Cup victory over FC Motagua, he put his name on the scoresheet for the first time.
But it's still very early in his time with FCC, so there is a natural settling in time that needs to be weathered. In the meantime, it is the goal of the FC Cincinnati coaching and support staff to find how to get the most out of him and put him (and his new teammates) in a position to succeed.
There is a natural inclination to find similarities to what or how Evander does things and compare them to how Luciano Acosta did things. There are some similarities; they're both very talented players who play attacking midfielder, and FCC saw plenty of success with Acosta. But they aren't the same player and have different skill sets like any two great players do.
So how does FC Cincinnati Head Coach Pat Noonan expect to deploy Evander? In some ways, it could be similar, but in others, there could be new ideas that are different from what we have seen before.
"The qualities that he brings as a player allow us to do different things," Noonan said at a press conference prior to the match with New York Red Bulls. "So whatever our structure is, it'll revolve around 'how do we get (Evander) on the ball and allow us to attack the goal.' Because he's got the vision and he's got the creativity to open up the game. It's a nice piece to be able to work around, and we'll continue to make him a focal point."
"(The ball) can go through a number of players. I think you saw that the other day, you're trying to bring out the qualities of players in different areas of the field. So if it only goes through Evander, that becomes predictable, so we need to find different ways to move him â to move our team â to get him on the ball in certain areas.
"Then how does that influence the guys behind him? How does it influence the guys ahead of them, or the wide guys in those movements? We're going to look at different ways to move the ball up the field and not be predictable."
"Evander, he's going to have a different type of impact, because he does what not many can do, and that's the final pass, the final dribble, the final shot, set pieces. So I'm excited about the different ways that we can attack with him as a part of our team."
At the time of the press conference ahead of the MLS Home Opener against the New York Red Bulls, Noonan, along with all FC Cincinnati supporters, had been given a brief in-match view at Evander in the Concacaf Champions Cup match. While Noonan had seen Evander in training, the appearance was the first time he had seen his new midfielder in-game action. So, there was now a body of work the Head Coach could point to and decide what to do next.
"He is, I think, going to be a big piece for our team, just how he reads the game, how he is able to get on the ball and in dangerous areas. But also just the way he moved the ball. It was efficient. It had a purpose. It was simple in a lot of ways and it got us attacking goal," Noonan said of Evander's play against FC Motagua. "So, it didn't take him too long to have an impact. And hopefully we can continue to find ways, and I say it all the time but, we need to put him in a position to succeed. He's going to, in time, better understand his teammates, better understand what we're asking, but in the short term, simple messages put him in a position to have an impact."
Evander himself has expressed a similar mindset to the short-term solutions to integrating into the squad. But what has made things particularly easy is both his experience in MLS, but also the coaching staff's familiarity with him prior to his arrival.
"The conversations have been pretty easy. Coach Noonan knew me from Portland, so all the communications we've had, it was really easy," Evander explained. "The system is different from the one we used in Portland. Here we play with three in the back, and there's the mindset to press and try to win the ball high on the pitch and go for the goal."
"The intensity is (also) different the way we play here from when I was in Portland. So I think that there are small details that make me feel more comfortable getting into the team. Also the mentality of the team, to go at every game that we play and go all strength to it, soâĤit was really easy to get a connection."
There will be plenty of opportunities for Evander to continue to grow into the squad and get match experience over the next few weeks. With Concacaf Champions Cup occurring simultaneously with MLS play, there are plenty of opportunities for matches.
FC Cincinnati takes on FC Motagua at TQL Stadium on Wednesday, February 26, for the second leg of the Concacaf Champion Cup Round One matchup. FCC enter the second leg up 4-1. For their next MLS match, The Orange and Blue head to the City of Brotherly Love to take on the Philadelphia Union at Subaru Park on Saturday, March 1.