D.C. United 2018 season review: Darren Mattocks

Darren Mattocks had a fantastic 2018. His ten-goal haul was his largest in his career, besting the previous high by four goals. But with the arrival of Wayne Rooney, Mattocks found himself on the bench for much of the second half of the season, and signs were pointing to his exit even before he was selected in the expansion draft by FC Cincinnati.

Mattocks’s ten goals came in just 1286 minutes, which put him at .699 goals per 90 minutes, a number that was seventh best among MLS players with more than 500 minutes played. I would have wanted to see Mattocks protected from the expansion draft and then brought back for 2019 because that sort of scoring contribution is difficult to replace, but it’s easy to understand why he would want to go somewhere to see more time on the pitch. The 28-year-old has a few more good seasons in him, though I imagine he won’t approach ten goals with expansion Cincinnati.

D.C. United has entered the off-season with a lot of work to do. Fullbacks are high on the shopping list, Yamil Asad may or may not be back, while rumors about Luciano Acosta are out there, so replacing ten goals from your backup forward makes things seem all the more daunting. Acknowledging that it’s highly unlikely but not impossible...