Orlando City
2024 Orlando City Season in Review: Luis Muriel
The Colombian forward started slowly, but showed a lot of promise as he grew into the season.
Orlando City announced the signing of Luis Muriel back on Feb. 15. The Colombian international arrived from Serie A side Atalanta on a three-year deal and slotted in as the team’s third Designated Player alongside Facundo Torres and Martin Ojeda. The club began looking for another striker when it appeared that Duncan McGuire would be on the move to England, and when he stayed, Muriel found himself in a crowded striker depth chart with he, McGuire, Ramiro Enrique, and Jack Lynn all competing for minutes.
The logjam at forward, combined with a late arrival to camp and missing preseason with the team, meant that Muriel took a little time to get going. As a result, he had a fairly worrying start to the season. He settled in after a few months though, and began turning in some much-improved performances off the bench.
Let’s take a look at how Muriel performed during the 2024 season.
Statistical Breakdown
Muriel appeared in 33 regular-season games for the Lions, starting 14 of those and playing a total of 1,582 minutes. He scored five goals and added seven assists, attempting 55 shots and put 17 of them on target. The veteran forward completed 81.3% of his passes, including 37 key passes, two successful crosses, and 22 long balls, while also amassing 43 dribbles. Defensively, he totaled 25 tackles, three interceptions, and seven clearances. He committed 30 fouls, suffered 23, and received two yellow cards.
He also played in three Concacaf Champions Cup matches for Orlando, starting the home match against Cavalry FC and both matches against Tigres, logging 223 minutes. He didn’t score in the competition but provided an assist, attempting four shots and putting two on target. He passed with 82.4% accuracy and played one key pass. On defense, he contributed three clearances. The Colombian forward committed two fouls, drew three on his opponents, and he was not booked.
Muriel made two Leagues Cup appearances — both as a substitute — appearing for 39 minutes in total. He did not provide a goal contribution, although he scored his penalty attempt against Cruz Azul in the postgame shootout after the teams drew. He attempted two off-target shots, passing with 88.9% accuracy, and he did not record any defensive statistics in the competition.
Finally, he appeared as a substitute in all five of OCSC’s postseason games, and logged 89 minutes in the process. While he didn’t record an official goal contribution, he scored on both of his penalty shootout attempts against Kristijan Kahlina in the opening series against Charlotte FC. Muriel attempted six postseason shots, putting one on target, and passing with 79.5% accuracy, including three key passes. He didn’t register any defensive stats. Muriel did not commit a foul and drew five on his opponents and was not booked.
Best Game
There were a couple of candidates for Muriel’s best performance, but I went with Orlando’s 3-2 road win against the Philadelphia Union. The Colombian started that match at striker and played 85 minutes as part of a 3-5-2 alongside Duncan McGuire. The formation was one that was necessitated due to injury as both Rafael Santos and Dagur Dan Thorhallsson were unavailable. The unfamiliar formation didn’t seem to bother Muriel as he opened his Orlando City account in style, cutting onto his left foot in the 41st minute and unleashed a rocket into the top corner.
He followed that up with the eventual game-winner just seconds after halftime. He managed to find a pocket of space in the Union’s back line and Nico Lodeiro’s pass was perfectly weighted to put him in on goal. Muriel used one touch to get the ball out from his feet and his second touch to slide the ball beyond a helpless Oliver Semmle.
His involvement went beyond the two goals though. In addition, he played two key passes, completed a game-high five dribbles, drew two fouls, took three shots (two on target, one off target), completed three long balls, and passed with 85.2% accuracy. On defense, he contributed one tackle and committed one foul, but was not booked.
In the Player Grades piece penned by yours truly, I graded Muriel as an 8.5 out of 10, as he narrowly edged out a superb Nico Lodeiro, who was given an 8.
2024 Final Grade
Our staff here at The Mane Land awarded Muriel a composite grade of 6 out of 10 for his first season wearing purple. It was a difficult start to the season for him, much as it was for most of the team, but he showed some improvement as the season went on and did some good things while being asked to come off the bench.
2025 Outlook
Muriel is under contract through the end of the 2026 season and is on some pretty big money, so barring something very unforeseen he’ll be back next year. He’s a particularly interesting case. His talent and ability is obvious whenever he steps on the field, but we didn’t see a ton of him leading the line in a full-strength team. His vision, passing range, and dribbling ability are among the best on the team, and he probably should have had at least six more assists but was held back by his teammates’ finishing.
There’s no denying that he had a pretty dreadful start to the year, but he quietly morphed into having a pretty fantastic end to the season. The duality of that shows in his final grade for 2024. The main issue is that by the time he started to heat up, Enrique and McGuire were bagging goals, and Oscar Pareja almost always goes with whoever the hot hand is. Going forward, I’d like for the coaching staff to find a way to get him on the field, whether that’s as part of a two-forward system, or he’s slotting in as a no.10, as we often saw him do off the substitutes’ bench. A full off-season will hopefully do him good and help justify the big contract that OCSC gave him.