Three Takeaways From FC Dallas’ End of Season Press Conference
FC Dallas held their annual end-of-season press conference with Dan Hunt, Andre Zanotta, and Eric Quill giving their thoughts on the 2025 season, discussing the upcoming 2026 season, and fielding questions from the press.
Let’s look at a few big takeaways from the press conference.
1) “No More Tinkering”
That is a direct quote from head coach Eric Quill, reflecting on 2025 and looking forward to 2026. Obviously, over the course of 2025, Quill spent a good chunk of his first season in charge nailing down what kind of shape and tactical setup would work best. He also, interestingly, took the fall for things not working with Lucho while heavily praising Lucho and saying he brought more good than bad to the team, despite how things worked out.
But the idea of no more tinkering or experimenting leads to an obvious conclusion: Dallas is primarily going to stick with the 3-5-2 look that they ended the season with. Quill did mention in another response that they wouldn’t necessarily be locked into the 3-5-2 permanently, but strongly hinted it would be a sort of “default” shape for the team moving forward.
Much has been made of Quill primarily wanting to play a 4-2-3-1, as he did with North Texas and New Mexico United, but he has proven to be flexible in his thinking and seems to feel this setup is what will work best for his team moving forward. What will now be very notable to watch is how the team handles the transfer window this winter and even next summer as they look to build upon the back half of 2025 and strengthen the team. There are certainly still significant question marks at a few spots.
2) Transfer Window Plans
Perhaps the most illuminating and direct response of the entire press conference came, surprisingly enough, from the usually cagey Andre Zanotta. The final question of the press conference, from yours truly, was directed at Andre and Quill, asking them to elaborate on how they felt about the stable of center backs. Earlier in the press conference, Zanotta and Quill mentioned looking to improve the midfield and attack in the upcoming windows, but didn’t make any mention of the backline. In their response to my question, Zanotta directly stated that they had no plans to add any centerbacks in the upcoming window, and Quill talked about being happy with how his defenders played after the shift in formation in the back half of the season.
This is maybe the most direct we’ve ever heard Zanotta talk about transfer window plans. He typically keeps things pretty close to the chest, so hearing him directly talk about no plans for centerbacks was fascinating. They named six players capable of playing in the spot: Osaze Urhoghide, Sebastien Ibeagha, Lalas Abubakar, Alvaro Augusto, Nolan Norris, and Shaq Moore. Quill then talked about wanting his outside centerbacks (another hint at the plans to stick with the 3-5-2) to be “attacking”, which seems to be a hint at his vision for 2026 in terms of personnel. I’d be surprised if we do not see a trio of Nolan Norris on the left, Osaze Urhoghide in the middle, and Shaq Moore on the right when the team lines up to start 2026.
This means that the focus in the window will be elsewhere. In his other responses, Zanotta was his usual cagey self, only making general mention of players they have lined up and that they’re scouting all over the world for new players, but it certainly seems like the focus will be higher up the pitch going into 2026.
3) Excitement About The Schedule Changes
Dan Hunt had a couple of long responses to good questions about stadium construction and upcoming schedule changes. I’ll focus on the latter here because he actually provided some commentary regarding the changes that I haven’t seen mentioned anywhere else. He talked about him and his brother, Clark, being in favor of the changes for some time and their “traditional” view of them, but he seemed most excited about what it would mean for player acquisition. To say Hunt is bullish on the changes would be a major understatement; he thinks this will have a seismic impact on the quality of players MLS clubs can bring in. This isn’t really a new opinion, but it was interesting to hear it coming straight from someone who has probably been campaigning for this change in internal MLS discussions for some time.
But more interesting was Hunt talking about players coming over on loan from European countries
He mentioned that, as of now, it is “almost impossible” to bring in players on loan from Europe due to scheduling differences. But in his view, with the schedule changes, major European countries will see MLS as a great destination to send talented youngsters on loan for one or two seasons to gain high-level experience before bringing them back to Europe. Hunt sees this as being almost as seismic as the impact on permanent player signings and really thinks it will, within a few seasons, see a major influx of highly talented young players spending parts of their career in MLS on loan. This is something I haven’t seen mentioned by anyone else or in any other publications. Still, it is a very interesting idea and may also be a hint at what Dallas plans to pursue in the transfer market after the schedule change in 2027.
What were your takeaways from FCD’s season-ending press conference?
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