At long last, Five Stripe fans have their second designated player rumor of the summer.
According to Fabrizio Romano, Atlanta United have approached 29-year-old Uzbekistan international Eldor Shomurodov from AS Roma. Negotiations seem to be advancing and there is a good chance the deal gets over the line. Transfermarkt has him worth about $5.5 million.
Shomurodov primarily plays as a No. 9, but has played all positions across the front three. He joined Roma from Genoa in 2021, tallying six goals and six assists in 48 appearances for the Giallorossi. He has spent the past two seasons on loan to Spezia Calcio, where he recorded 1 goal and two assists in 16 games, and Cagliari Calcio, where he grabbed three goals and three assists in 24 matches. He has 40 goals across 73 caps for the Uzbekistan national team.
Looking at his highlights, two of Shomurodov’s greatest attributes are his pace and finishing. His vision to find the space for throughballs is excellent and once he’s played in, he knows how to handle business. This could go very well with Alexey Miranchuk’s ability to play incisive passes in the final third.
Shomurodov also seems to be better with the ball at his feet than former striker Giorgos Giakoumakis. Shomurodov looks comfortable dribbling with the ball and is in the 67th percentile for successful take-ons according to FBRef.
All in all, Shomurodov seems to be more of a false nine. He can roam around the front three and is also very adept as setting up chances with incisive passes of his own.
What do you think of this potential signing? Let us know in the comments below.
Josef is on the outs in Montreal. Soon he’ll get waived. UTD picks him up, because why not. Josef leads us to a play-in spot and first round upset followed by a deep playoff run. The statue is built!
This line is simultaneously the most exciting and most depressing for me:
“His vision to find the space for throughballs is excellent and once he’s played in, he knows how to handle business.”
One thing I’ve been begging to see more of out of this team is through balls into space behind the D (preferably early). Unfortunately, Almada was the only player to consistently see the space and play these balls, and even he eventually gave up since no one else seemed to want to exploit the space that he saw.
We put out a bid.
Got rejected.
The output on that player was more impressive than this.
Price tag was higher as well, so I get it.
Are we settling so the FO doesn’t have egg on their face from saying they were close?
Just stop trying to sell us on crap.
There’s too much money and reputation to get desperate and make stupid moves.
Agreed. Also I think they are still trying to salvage this year, but I don’t think any addition is going to take us to the mls cup so why bother. If we can’t get an amazing signing we need to just wait until the winter transfer window.
Granted these are highlights but to me it seems from this that:
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overall looks like a decent pick. If we can get him the ball in a decent position I think he will respond well and see better scoring rates. I don’t think he will dominate the field but I think he would fit in well as a very good team player and help bring out more out of teammates. Could we do better? Yes but how much long can we look in this window.
Good analysis. Based on the timeline, for me this is a no brainer. We could absolutely do better, but with 36 hours left, this is more than fine to me. Vamos ATL
I want to like this for many of the reasons you mention.
He looks very composed with the ball at his feet and defenders in close quarters. IMO, that seems to be what has really been a bug in AU’s arse. We seem to do well getting to the final 3rd then something ugly…
Guessing his role on the national team is to score more, might be a bit different with his club teams.
I don’t know anything about how good Uzbekistan’s national team is, but I haven’t really heard much about them doing well in global tournaments. Quick check says they are #61 in the world right now, behind Jamaica by a couple spots. If that’s the case, he might be one of the very best players on his national team (given the quality league he plays in) and therefore be expected to carry more of the offensive load.
So, maybe, he can score a lot if that is what he is asked to do.
Good point on the role he’s asked to do. There’s a lot that effects a player scoring and unless we are familiar with the situation it’s easy, it’s easy to just look at numbers.
Looking at his highlights I feel like he’s a reverse Josef: he plays as a striker in Italty but looks much better suited to be a winger.
Back to the USSR
We’re becoming the team of break away Russian republics. Maybe Garth is targeting a vodka sponsorship from Youri Dolgoruki.
Do I hear a Beatles tune in the background? You may be dating your age. Oh wait, if I recognize that song then I’m dated as well🧐🤔🍺🖖
This looks like a panic buy. Mediocre goal output and that is being kind.
Looks like the same output as Saba before he came to Atlanta.
How quickly we forget how utterly mediocre Josef was in Italy but was the best striker in MLS until his knee injury. 7 goals in 58 appearances for Torino isn’t great. Miggy’s actual stats before Atlanta also weren’t all that impressive.
We weren’t going to be able to land anyone playing in a top league like Serie A with actually impressive stats anyway unless it was a Messi-type situation with a guy looking to cash out before he retires for real.
I’m not saying this guy is a guaranteed hit, just that you can’t just look at a player’s stats in the bigger leagues when evaluating how good of a signing they’ll be for an MLS team.
Buying guys in their early 20s with elite traits and hoping they develop is a very different proposition from buying guys in their late 20s and hoping they turn things around after their careers have totally stalled out.
Not saying this guy won’t be good, maybe he’ll be a monster, but it’s a pretty different scenario.
Part of the reason why I keep emphasizing the coach is that I think Tata is a big reason why Josef and Miggy (and everyone else for that matter) did so well here. Not necessarily because Tata is some miracle maker, but because he knew the qualities of these players and employed them in a specific way to make them succeed. Yes it’s also the players – having the perfect tactics in the world doesn’t work if you have slop for players – but I think having a smart insightful coach like Tata was would make the difference for players Shomurodov and Miranchuk, where they probably have some amazing qualities, but teams in Europe apparently aren’t getting the best out of them.
Absolutely. That’s where Pineda failed. He couldn’t mix or match players so the team got their best. Basically what you said is the definition of a good coach. Tom Landry of the Dallas Cowboys was once described as being able to take his players and beat yours and being able to take your players and beat his.
I’m encouraged by his goal output for his national team. I suspect he is probably one of their very best players and expected to carry a lot of the scoring load. 40 goals in 73 caps suggest he can score if asked to do so.
Seems obvious that some other deal fell through, and this is what we had left over.
It happens
If that’s the case, I’d rather we roll with Thiare and Rios through the end of the season rather than wasting a DP spot on a player who wasn’t near the top of our list.
Well, yeah, we bid for Bergwijn and got rejected. Someone else bid more and also got rejected. Tough to feel too badly about that.
The other deal was never going to happen. Embarrassing honestly if anyone in the FO thought it actually would.
Miami is recruiting fair weather fans still, I think.
No one left is a fair weather fan. Those all left years ago.
minor production in a bottom half serie b team. i hope they’ve seen something that’s not in the numbers.
Cagliari Calcio is a Serie A team….Maybe he’s gonna be more a false 9 where a 10 would be or something.
Both and. Looks like after doing well-ish in Rostov (Russia) and Genoa (mid Serie A), He went to AS Roma, didn’t do much, then got loaned out to Spezia Calcio (low Serie B) and didn’t do much, then got sent back and loaned to Cagliari Calcio (low Serie A) and did marginally better.
Too offensively gifted for Mourinho. 🙂
Spezia Calcio was Serie A while he played for them.
You are correct, they were low Serie A (relegated, and now this past year low Serie B). I’d edit my post, but I guess it’s been too long since I posted it.
Do we know what time the transfer window closes tomorrow? It won’t be easy to get a deal done with so little time left.
Roma already has replaced him and needs him gone ASAP. So this should happen quicker. Hopefully they get it hammered out today so we aren’t clock watching. But with both sides needing this to happen, I’m optimistic
well the player would have to want to come to Atlanta as well, if he doesn’t want to leave Europe that sort of defeats the purpose
Totally agree. I would imagine he would want to come here where he will start, instead of riding the bench there. But who knows. Hoping for the best!
There is a rather large Eastern European community in Atlanta. Not sure how big the Uzbek contingent is.
Looks like Roma hasn’t used him in a while. He’s been on multiple loans the past year and a half.
Yea. And they need him permanently off of their roster. This could be a good move for both squads.
I’m hoping that means we get a decent deal rather than panic overpaying