Pavel Bucha in Orange and Blue
Assessing the FC Cincinnati midfielder's first season in MLS and looking towards 2025
There’s a chance that by the time you’re reading this, some of FC Cincinnati’s major offseason questions have been answered and new ones have been raised by the team’s end-of-season roster moves. Look out for something next week about those and hopefully this hasn’t aged too poorly.
All stats from FBref unless otherwise noted.
Digging deep into Obinna Nwobodo’s past and present last week led me to think extensively about Pavel Bucha’s season, too. This week, let’s close the loop on FC Cincinnati’s first choice midfielders in 2024 with a review of Pavel Bucha’s first season in Orange and Blue.
Manager Pat Noonan’s tactical structure can leave central midfielders with a huge task as they often find themselves outnumbered in the middle of the field. Despite Luciano Acosta often being listed as a midfielder, his positioning higher up the field to find the ball in transition opportunities, can leave FCC’s midfield pair isolated against three (or more) opponents. Even with another attacking midfielder in name playing alongside Acosta in place of a second striker, the duo at the base of the Orange and Blue’s midfield take on the vast majority of the midfield’s defensive responsibilities and work.
Pavel Bucha arrived in Cincinnati from Viktoria Plzeň for a reported €1.6 million transfer fee in the offseason looking to slot into midfield. In the Czech First League, Bucha previously demonstrated an ability to get the ball into the penalty area as well as to find the ball there himself. He also showed that he could press in the final third and win the ball there as well as in more conventional defensive areas. Coming into the season, I expected Bucha to give Noonan additional options going forward that Junior Moreno did not.
Bucha was thrown into the deep end from the start, thrust into the starting XI on a team with lots of new faces at the beginning of the season and basically didn’t leave the field for the rest of the season.
Availability Is The Best Ability
Any discussion about Bucha’s 2024 has to start with just how much he played. He started 33 of 34 regular season games playing 3,301 regular season minutes (3,580 minutes including playoffs) per American Soccer Analysis, which records all minutes played including stoppage time.
Given FCC’s relatively thin depth chart in the middle of the field, Bucha’s near omnipresence was a welcome feature in a team that seemingly had to change lineups elsewhere every game.
With Nwobodo, who made 29 regular season starts, playing 2,762 minutes, the two provided rare stability for Noonan in a starting lineup that facing near constant rotation elsewhere.
In Possession
With the ball, Bucha provides some deep ball progression (passes and carries into the final third of the field), playing a key role in FCC playing deliberately from back to front. He finished the season with the third most passes completed into the final third and fourth most carries into the final third on the team.
Once there, he also showed an ability to pick out dangerous passes and to find teammates. His willingness to take risks, which lead to finding teammates in dangerous positions in and around the box, is clear when comparing his pass map to Nwobodo’s.
Where Nwobodo’s progressive passes in the final third are moving the ball closer to goal, they are, for the most part, doing that horizontally, leaving defenses’ shapes in tact. Bucha showed he can find teammates in the box from a variety of positions around the box as well as break defensive lines vertically in the final third.
Because FCC’s attack was so thoroughly dominated by Acosta and Luca Orellano’s usage, Bucha played a more reserved role in actually finding teammates open to take shots or to make an attempt on goal himself. Bucha finished the season with just 1.87 expected assists according to American Soccer Analysis data.
Though Bucha wasn’t a regular option in the box as an attacker, he made his goal-scoring impact off of turnovers when FCC pressed high. His first goal against DC United in July is a prime example. He wins the ball back from the opposition just outside the box, lays it off, continues making a run towards goal, before receiving the ball back and finishing.
Finding patterns of play featuring late, attacking runs into the box during periods of possession from Bucha could further unbalance defenses and seem like a logical next step if projecting how his attacking role could further expand. And if Lucho Acosta does in fact leave the Queen City this winter, Bucha is going to have to take on more ball progression responsibility as well as chance creation. However, there will be more to say about that when Lucho’s status is publicly resolved.
Defensively Solid
When FCC didn’t have the ball, Bucha proved to be a solid defender. He ranked highly in American Soccer Analysis’ Defensive Net G+, which factors in on-ball defending actions, like tackles and interceptions, as well as an attempt to quantify off-ball defensive positions but what didn’t happen in a player’s zone of responsibility. According to that metric, Bucha and Nwobodo were both in the top-15 for midfielders and defensive midfielders in 2024.
Even given the tactical disadvantages FCC midfielders can find themselves in noted above and the fact that he was adjusting to a new league and team, Bucha proved to be a solid, if unspectacular, defender. A 2025 midfield partnership featuring Nwobodo and Bucha should be expected to provide a solid defensive foundation, especially when backed by a strong group of centerbacks.
A shift towards a more aggressive press in the attacking and middle thirds of the field in 2025 could make sense with the arrival of Kévin Denkey and freeing both Bucha and Nwobodo to go hunt the ball higher up the field could lead to more goals like he scored against San Jose and DC United.
Future Prospects
Dado Valenzuela and Malik Pinto deserve at least some mention here. Stay tuned for a deeper dive on the young players who could take a step in 2025 and beyond and become real contributors. Both players will warrant mention in that piece.