Pascal Jansen afforded New York City FC no excuses for their defeat to the Houston Dynamo and called on his side to "switch our mindset" ahead of the trip to Nashville SC.

NYCFC were outclassed on Wednesday as they lost 3-0 at home to Houston in the pouring rain at Yankee Stadium.

If some coaches would use the weather as a defence for their side's display, Jansen is not among them.

He acknowledged NYCFC should have played "a lot quicker, a lot faster, a lot more aggressively", complaining they "didn't create anything at all".

Rather than the weather, he said: "That's because of us."

Nashville are up next, and Jansen added: "We had a poor game. We knew Houston is a good team. Now we have to switch our mindset.

"We know Nashville is coming up this weekend, and we'll try to win that match.

"In games like this, where there's not much attacking play, the pressure is always going to be there. I think you have to prepare yourself for these kinds of matches, and you have to face them in the best way possible."

Nashville should provide a similar test, entering this encounter unbeaten in nine in all competitions after showing their resolve in a 2-2 draw with the Columbus Crew.

"Credit to the group," said Hany Mukhtar. "We fought. I think it shows the mentality of this group.

"If we're not on top of a team, we still fight, and it's very difficult to break us down."

Those comments could reasonably concern Jansen unless NYCFC show much more endeavour in their attacking play.

PLAYERS TO WATCH

Nashville SC – Sam Surridge

Surridge's early goal against Columbus took him to nine for the season already, quickly closing on last year's career-best tally of 12 league goals.

Yet the former Nottingham Forest forward could have improved that return even further. His goals have come from chances worth 10.6 expected goals, already surpassing the 10.2 xG he recorded in 2024.

If Surridge can recover last season's form in front of goal and outperform his xG, he could be mixing it with the league's leading marksmen.

New York City FC – Alonso Martinez

Martinez is in a similar position to Surridge. In 2024, he scored 16 times from 10.2 xG, yet this year, he has just nine from 11.5 xG.

That 11.5 xG leads the league, yet only Brandon Vazquez has underperformed his xG by a wider margin.

With NYCFC struggling for fluency in attack right now, they need their main man to be taking his chances when they come.

MATCH PREDICTION: NASHVILLE WIN

Even if NYCFC had beaten Houston in midweek, the form would have provided little cause for optimism ahead of this fixture.

Nashville are unbeaten in seven in MLS and are particularly dominant at home, collecting the most home points of any team in MLS this season (20).

And in this fixture, no away team have ever won. Indeed, Nashville have won three from three at home to NYCFC.

OPTA MATCH PREDICTION

Nashville – 43.3%

Draw – 26.7%

NYCFC – 29.9%