2024 a Pivotal Year for Michael Halliday

The 2023 season started very well for Mikey Halliday. He began the year as Orlando City’s first-choice right back and largely played well, as he got the most consistent MLS minutes of his young career. He had the job positively locked down for the first several months of the season, even slotting back into the starting XI after returning from a stint at the 2023 U-20 World Cup. Unfortunately, he suffered an injury in late June that put him on the shelf until Aug. 20, and once he had made his return, Dagur Dan Thorhallsson had firmly cemented himself as the starting right back, and Halliday wouldn’t make another start until Decision Day in a game in which the Lions had nothing to play for.

On the whole, the young fullback was a victim of circumstances outside of his control last year. Thorhallsson was able to step in and do a solid job in an unfamiliar position, and Oscar Pareja is the kind of coach who prefers to tinker as little as possible once he’s found something that’s working.

With that being said, Halliday enters this season with a lot of promise and a lot to play for. It’ll be interesting to see what Pareja decides to do with the fullback position, and nothing seems to be set in stone. While Thorhallsson ended the year as the starter, the departure of Junior Urso means that he and Felipe are the only experienced options in central midfield behind Cesar Araujo and Wilder Cartagena. His versatility is such that he’s also a legitimate backup option at winger, and Gaston Gonzalez being sent out on loan means that the Icelandic player has risen higher in that pecking order as well.

With right back being the youngster’s natural position, he has more upside than Dagur Dan when it comes to playing the position in a more traditional style, although he was able to provide two assists in just 847 minutes on the field. As a converted midfielder, Thorhallsson has an edge when it comes to being more of a facilitator from fullback, although his two goals and three assists in 1,195 regular season minutes didn’t vastly outpace Halliday.

If Halliday is able to regain his starting position and play well, it could serve as a building block for advancing his career. He’s already gotten some run with the U-20 USMNT, playing six games at the Concacaf U-20 Championship, and also seeing some time at last year’s U-20 World Cup. Playing well for Orlando and staying in the picture for the youth national team setup will attract plenty of eyeballs and could see him get a solid move somewhere down the line.

On the flip side, if Thorhallsson maintains his grip on the starting job, then Halliday’s path to playing time gets much more complicated. The departure of Luca Petrasso on loan means that Kyle Smith is likely the backup to Rafael Santos on the left, leaving Halliday to back up Dagur Dan on the right side. Young players need to be on the field in order to keep developing, and Mikey being limited to rotating in and playing cup games wouldn’t be ideal at this stage in his career, although it would be far from the end of the world.

In short, Halliday has a lot to play for this year. Consistent playing time and good performances should help spur on the development of a promising young career, while limited minutes would make it more difficult to build on the potential he’s already shown. He’ll be one of Orlando’s players to keep a close eye on.