The Five Stripes don’t stop (giving everyone heart attacks with their performances).
After going down 3-1, Head Coach Ronny Deila’s tactical adjustments helped the team complete a 4-3 comeback win over New York City FC to start a critical three-game home stretch.
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It looked like Ronny Deila would have his full first-choice lineup for the first time this season. Pedro Amador and Brooks Lennon were both announced as starting fullbacks while Mateusz Klich was penciled into center midfield next to Bartosz Slisz. The entire attack of Saba Lobjanidze and Miguel Almiron on the wings with Alexey Miranchuk at the No. 10 and Emmanuel Latte Lath at striker was good to go. However, Amador was spotted leaving warm ups early and shortly after there was confirmation that young left back Dominik Chong Qui would take his place in the starting XI. It was the 17-year-old’s MLS and Atlanta United first team debut.
The alarm bells were ringing for Atlanta early as the team looked uncomfortable on the ball in several moments, especially building out from the back. Then, Derrick Williams gave the ball away at the back with a poor touch, leading to Hannes Wolf’s opening goal after 14 minutes, putting the visitors ahead 1-0 early.
For a team aiming for nine points from its next three, things were not looking great. New York City FC looked much more comfortable on the field than Atlanta and even dominated possession in the first 45. But the Five Stripes continued pushing for the tying goal and found it thanks to a combination play that included the entire front four and ended with a Miranchuk finish into the bottom corner.
The …. fans in Mercedes-Benz Stadium were likely hoping that the team would improve in the second half after a stern halftime speech from Deila, but that was certainly not the case. New York City was awarded a penalty after another Williams mistake followed by Lennon committing a foul inside the box to give away a penalty kick, which Alonso Martinez converted to put the visitors up 2-1 in the 48th minute.
Just three minutes later, a lazy touch by Chong Qui resulted in a turnover inside the box that led to yet another NYCFC goal.
It was at this moment that Deila made some much-needed tactical adjustments. Xande Silva and Matt Edwards came in to replace Klich and Chong Qui, moving Miranchuk to the No. 8 role, Almiron to the No. 10 and Saba to the right side (something I wrote about this week that you should definitely go check out).
Immediately the team looked so much better: Saba became ten times the threat he was on the left side, Atlanta was actually able to progress the ball and create better chances, and – oh, yeah – THE GOALS CAME!!!
The first came from the club’s second-leading goalscorer in 2025… own goal. A Saba cross was poked by Keaton Parks into his own net to pull one back. Saba also caused an own goal in the last match against FC Cincinnati.
Then, in a moment that all Atlanta United fans have been waiting for, Miguel Almiron scored his first goal back with the Five Stripes after heading home a Xande Silva cross to the back post to tie the game at 3-3 with 15 minutes remaining.
And the cherry-on-top came from Latte Lath as he stole the ball from under an NYCFC defender’s nose and chipped it in to put Atlanta in the lead late into the match. That was the Ivorians fifth goal for the club in six games.
What a recovery! Things were looking very dire, but some savvy tactical adjustments and a surge of morale helped the Five Stripes secure an important three points at home.
Atlanta United plays the second of its three-match homestand on Saturday, April 5, when it faces Lucho Acosta and FC Dallas at Mercedes-Benz Stadium. Kickoff is set for 7:30 pm.
What did you think of the match? Let us know in the comments below!
this owen goal dude could be dp level by mid year at the rate he’s scoring.
Glass half full – 3 points. Positive tactical adjustments, the fight and mentality to crawl back from a 2 goal deficit for a win, and Goals from (or forced by)
Saba, Lath, Almiron, Miranchuk S.L.A.M.
Glass half empty – defense with a 17 year old debut putting us down 1-3 in the first 53 minutes. Amador injury?
Overall improvement, but we still need work, especially defensively. It was an exciting match. Interested to see the development and what Deila does next. Stick with the plan, or tinker with positions to what seemed to work much better in the last 30 minutes. 🙏
Something to add to the half empty side: half the goals felt clunky: Miranchuk’s goal wasn’t intended to go to him, it was a slightly heavy touch from LL. Almiron’s goal, LL and Almiron were bunched up trying to head the same ball. I wouldn’t go so far as to say they weren’t well worked, but I’d prefer it to feel like our team knows where each other is more.
They were clunky, but i’d rather have someone there with a broom to clean up the mess than have no one there at all just watching the floor get messier.
Yeah, and we are getting more balls into dangerous spaces than we did last year. Defenses and keepers aren’t where most teams spend money. Just get the ball in the box enough times and you’ll get some goals. I think we will improve on the spacing over the course of the season.
Shall we all place bets on how we line-up against Dallas? My bet is that Miggy is out wide still…
AKA the SSDD Line-up
Probably but it’s an interesting dilemma. If you play Miggy as a 10 and Miranchuk as an 8, our midfield would be an open door, unless we change to a 3-4-3 with a couple of strong midfielders or a 4-4-2 which limits our attacking options. We would need a super defensive midfielder to play with Miranchuk if we stay on the 4-3-3 formation. I guess it also would depend on how the opposition is set up on the midfield. We’ll see.
Just tossing out some possible lineups to see what might work with Miggy as a 10/Miranchuk as an 8. I imagine Abram would actually be the choice over Cobb for the 3 man backlines, but I refuse.
4-2-3-1/4-3-3 (what we saw)
LL
Silva – Almiron – Saba
Miranchuk – Slisz/Fortune
Amador – Williams – Gregersen – Lennon
3-5-2
LL – Saba
Amador – Almiron – Lennon
Miranchuk – Slisz/Fortune
Williams – Gregersen – Cobb
3-4-3
Silva – LL – Saba
Amador – Almiron – Miranchuk – Lennon
Williams – Gregersen – Cobb
I think I like that 3-5-2 the best given the roster we have. As you already said, it really seems like what we need though is a true destroyer 6.
I can’t see a 3-4-3 working with our group in any way.
Muyumba is the best ball winner and tackler on this team. His passing and turnovers are suspect at times, but if he can work to consistently find miranchuck as an outlet, he might actually be the best option to pair with alexy imo.
Though i wish it would make sense with klich, I’d have to see it in action for the majority of a match, to have an opinion.
Agree that the 3-5-2 is probably the way to get our best XI on the field in optimum positions. It is also a relatively minor tweak from our normal 4-3-3, pushing Saba up higher and using Greg as the bottom of a midfield triangle.
The problem is rest defense. It doesn’t move smoothly from a 4-4-2 or 4-2-4 mid block into buildup. And shifting to a 3-4-3 block is probably too narrow without some very good and fast outside CBs. Maybe Cobb can fulfill that role, but opposition is sending runners to overload Williams pretty much the whole game.
Deila called out in his post-match how much he liked how the game changed when he subbed in Jay and Xande so i’m hopeful he’s seeing the light here. I’m not fully sold on Jay yet, but do feel like maybe Klich could step in and be that 6. Jury is still out on him though.
As discussed elsewhere Klich doesn’t have the pace to offset Miranchuk in defense. Even with a third CB it’s a substantial liability. Jay worked surprisingly well with Alexei, so I’d be curious to see what they can do as a pair from the start.
The most amazing thing about LL’s goal was that he hit that dead sprint closing in on the 90th minute of the game. Incredible. I can’t wait to see this team‘s progress by midseason.
Saba continues to prove he was a great acquisition- the man never stops running – and Latte Lath is everything that was advertised. Chong Qui has a bright future – but it is still in the future, and the 17 year old looked uncomfortable and lost at times. Alexei to the 8 is clearly the right choice – his defense is suspect, but it allows much more dominant attack. That assist by Silva was choice! Slisz had a less than stellar match.
Great takeaways. I’ll add that Fortune needs to be getting more time. He is developing into a really exciting midfielder. He had a sublime pass down the left late in the 2nd half and his ability to carry the ball into space to beat the first line was really solid last night.
Definitely not a universal take, but in my opinion Lennon kills way to many attacking opportunities, especially with Almiron on the right. When Saba is right, he seems to play better. I think that is because Saba stays wide and has more predictable positioning than Almiron. Lennon is to simplistic with his offensive play, so having the predictability of Saba’s positioning helps him be a bit more confidently advancing the ball himself.
One other note, someone needs to tell Stian to settle the ball when he has time. He gave the ball right back to NYCFC countless times in the first half with these aimless clearances, when he could have just as easily settled it or played a softer header to his midfield.
ball control in general just seemed off with a lot of the Atlanta players throughout the match. I don’t know if the ball they used was different or the turf was reconditioned or something, but nobody seemed to know where the ball was going or how it was going to bounce.
He’s keeping things simple and not trying to dribble too much. He only dribbled when space was available, otherwise he passed the ball quickly. Maybe that’s Delia’s influence?
I’d say the problem is that his passes are generally too simple too. Not all the time, but sometimes, he wouldn’t try a pass slightly more complicated than a route 1 or back pass, even though it still wasn’t too hard and would’ve allowed the play to continue to develop. Also I appreciated his dangerous crosses, but they seemed to always be the same one and ignored where his teammates actually were.
Lennon needs a winger he can connect with. Not saying Miggy isn’t it, but Miggy moves around so much it’s hard to stay connected.
But let’s be real here, when Lennon gets into the attack he pressures the defense to shift their play and we create a lot of chances. If anything we need to figure out how we get him further up the field more. Remember when he came over in the Miami game in 23 as a right back but into the box on the left, took that pass and buried it? Gave Miami fits trying to defend it. We should see more of this type of play. Predictable play gets you in trouble.
Williams should be better but he’s good for a howler or two each match.
Things went from “doom and gloom” to “WE ARE GONNA WIN EVERYTHING!!!” in my mind fairly quickly tonight. Hope the momentum keeps going! Alexey at an #8 might allow more goals against us, but also seems like it would give us more as well!
I’m okay with winning 4-3 if the alternative is losing 2-1.
Ive seen enough of Williams, he’s like Niang for the Hawks…no body control
Tough crowd in here
He had a bad game, they all do at times. He’s still a solid CB.
Henry is always a step ahead tactically. Look at the article he wrote last week and BOOM: We use it in a game and it leads to us winning! Someone get this man a job on the coaching staff
Somewhat agree, BUT Miranchuk looked good as an 8 maybe ‘cause NYC kinda pulled back with a two goal lead. We had a lot more room in the midfield and less pressure. Hopefully I’m wrong and this is the way forward. In any event, our defense needs a lot of work; need a very good CB and FB’s. Very strange but exciting game. The crowd really got into after we got it 3-2. This is the kind of excitement we need.
The low pressure of NYC is how it should be for all games because we are on the front foot and pinning teams back. Not because we are 2 goals down and the opponents are parking the bus…
I think that’s more a function of Miggy playing the 10 and the attention that’s draws. Without that defenses collapse on Miranchuck because they know we want to play through him.
I do love the quote from you: “Our second leading goal scorer in 2025, own goal. Hahaha
Was crazy that Saba got basically identical OGs he caused two matches in a row