Is Alexey Miranchuk secretly Atlanta United’s Nagbe replacement?

No, that’s not a clickbait title. Okay, maybe a little clickbaity. Anyway, I’m about to tell you that I see Alexey Miranchuk as more of an eight – maybe even a six. Sound outrageous? Just read on for a bit and keep an open mind.

First, let me address the question of why I would even consider moving a $13 million designated player away from his primary position. Well, because quite frankly he’s underperforming. Severely underperforming. From much of the dialogue around Atlanta’s attacking players coming from the club’s front office staff, the entire attack was meant to revolve around Miranchuk’s skillset as a through ball artist to play pacey forwards in behind. I think President and CEO Garth Lagerwey said it best in this quote where he used the other kind of football as a metaphor:

“We got our quarterback in Alexey Miranchuk … but we know we need to get some wide receivers, we need to get some left tackles, we need to get some defensive ends, some of these high-priced guys that come in and can really, really help the team, impact the team, and win games for us,” he said.

Fast forward to the present. Atlanta United has brought back club legend Miguel Almiron from Newcastle and once again smashed the MLS transfer record to sign striker Emmanuel Latte Lath from Middlesbrough: two players who are incredibly fast and – together with Saba Lobjanidze – form a very dangerous attacking trio on paper. It was all coming together for Atlanta United to really, truly be back… until they started playing.

The team is now five games into the 2025 season with a 1-2-2 record and a mere six goals – certainly not the rate Atlanta paid nearly $50 million for. However, something very alarming is that Miranchuk – the player who is supposed to be the most creative on the field – has zero goal contributions. ZERO. Every other member of the front four has some sort of goal contribution, but Miranchuk has nothing through five games.

In an article I recently wrote, I analyzed some of the tactical issues that were contributing to the scoring struggles, and in that article, I included a brief section about Atlanta figuring out its No. 10 spot. In Miguel Almiron, the team has a player who could fill that role and be much more creative than Miranchuk has been. I think, for the sake of the team’s attack, he needs to take that role.

So now the question is what to do with Miranchuk? Do you bench him? Maybe… or maybe you find a different place on the field for him. Well, you could have him switch with Miggy and go to the right wing, but he definitely doesn’t have the pace to attack space in the final third. Besides, I think after seeing that Cincinnati game I want to see more of Saba Lobjanidze on the right, where he has looked way more dangerous than he has in four previous games on the left.

But you know where he could fit well? Playing as a deep-lying playmaker at the No. 6.

Proof of Concept

This idea didn’t come to me in a dream, by the way. We actually saw Miranchuk at the No. 6 after Atlanta was forced to replace midfielder Tristan Muyumba following a knee injury in the first half against FC Cincinnati. Interestingly, rather than making the like-for-like switch with midfielder Mateusz Klich, Ronny Deila opted to sub on striker Cayman Togashi, shifting to a 4-4-2 with Miranchuk and Will Reilly in a double pivot.

It wasn’t perfect, but we did get some interesting long balls.

And some dynamic switches of play.

And he had a couple of good actions in defense. Here he is tracking an opposing midfielder before intelligently intercepting a pass.

Mind you, this is a guy who has NEVER in his professional career played as a defensive or central midfielder. The long-range passing can certainly be a valuable asset to this team in moments where it wants to try to break forward quickly. His ability to switch the play can also be useful in Deila’s system where switches of play are a point of emphasis.

Interesting Stats

Funny enough, the underlying numbers actually suggest that Miranchuk might be doing better than most believe (I know, I was shocked too).

He ranks 8th among MLS attacking midfielders in goals added among players who have played at least 300 minutes with 1.04. If you’re not familiar with goals added, it’s a metric that looks at how each of a player’s touches impacts their team’s chances of scoring or conceding a goal. It does this by separating each touch into six categories: shooting, receiving, passing, dribbling, interrupting and fouling.

However, Miranchuk’s goals added from passes (0.07) is very low compared to elite No. 10s around the league such as Seattle’s Albert Rusnak (0.54), Colorado’s Djordje Mihailovic (0.50) and Dallas’ Lucho Acosta (0.44). So which categories are holding him up? There are three: receiving (0.65), shooting (0.34) and interrupting (0.25). What does this mean? Well, in a broad sense, it means that a lot of the value that Miranchuk is currently providing to the team has more to do with his positioning/runs to receive the ball, his above-average ability to take shots with high expected goal values (and have them on target or hit the frame of the goal) and his defensive actions.

Yes, I just said that the attacking midfielder is statistically providing more value with his defensive actions than his passing. Why? Because he mostly tries (often unsuccessfully) to find Atlanta’s front three with his progressive passes. It’s not necessarily that his passes are bad, just that he isn’t as effective at getting them the ball in positions where they can be most dangerous.

Alright, now let’s look at a few more specific stats that reinforce the idea of him thriving at the eight or the six after five games:

• Accurate long balls: 9 (85th percentile)
• Chances created: 9 (86th percentile)
• Tackles won: 5 (89th percentile)
• Tackles won %: 83.3% (82th percentile)
• Blocks: 5 (92nd percentile)
• Recoveries: 26 (95th percentile)

So Miranchuk has some of the statistical markers that imply he could be successful in that deeper role and his physicality can certainly help on defense.

Now let’s look at the numbers for Miranchuk’s most likely replacement at the No. 10 should he be moved to a deeper role.

Miguel Almiron with Atlanta United in 2025 after four games

Goals Added Overall: 1.37 (4th among MLS wingers)

Goals Added from Passes: 0.27 (4th among MLS wingers)

Goals Added from Shots: 0.27 (10th among MLS wingers)

Goals Added from Dribbling: 0.24 (3rd among MLS wingers)

Chances created: 5 (62nd percentile)

Dribble Success: 64.7% (85th percentile)

Expected Assists: 0.74 (70th percentile)

Bear in mind that Almiron has played one game less than Miranchuk and he has this level of production from a mostly wide position, not to mention the primary assist and secondary assist he has provided so far. Almiron is no stranger to the No. 10 position, having played that role during Atlanta’s 2017 and 2018 seasons. His performance in that 2018 championship year had him leading the league in goals added with 15.00 overall and 1.38 goals added from passes.

Just for fun, here are some of his per 90 stats from that year compared to now:

So he’s just a touch behind those numbers right now from a different position and the eye test certainly shows he has the potential to get back to them or close to them.

New look Atlanta United?

If Miranchuk were pushed back into that deep role, here is how I would envision Atlanta United’s starting XI:

With Almiron shifting into the No. 10, Saba can switch over to the right side where he seems to be more effective. Xande Silva takes over on the left as the only viable left winger given Edwin Mosquera’s injury. In midfield, Bartosz Slisz remains the more defensive midfielder alongside Miranchuk, who will be responsible for helping move the ball forward.

In possession, I would expect the team to set up wide with the wingers as potential targets for Miranchuk to find with long switches. With Almiron in front of him finding spaces from which he can receive the ball, Miranchuk can also find him in primary assist zones. From there, the Paraguayan can do the rest.

Out of possession, the team will probably look very similar to how it normally sets up:

The team presses in a 4-4-2 with Almiron, now the attacking midfielder, pushing up as a second striker to press alongside Latte Lath. The wingers, Silva and Saba, drop back to form the midfield four and press the opposing fullbacks when the time is right. If the team is successful in forcing a turnover, Almiron can easily shift into the role of playmaker from which he can find the rest of Atlanta’s attacking pieces.

Maybe this helps unlock Atlanta’s struggling attack, maybe it doesn’t. In any case, the Five Stripes may have to try changing something if things don’t turn around soon. If Deila liked what he saw from Miranchuk in that deeper position, he may ask him to hold it down there for the foreseeable future to see if these shifts help the team really start cooking.