Dax McCarty played for Atlanta United in 2024 before his retirement from professional soccer, so the MLS Season Pass analyst has a perspective not many other people have.
Of course, Atlanta’s struggles through eight matches in 2025 has been a major talking point among league circles. And for good reason, considering how much money has been spent on the roster.
“Talent only gets you so far. A talented collection of players sometimes doesn’t make the best team. And I see a team that’s just disjointed right now. I see a team that doesn’t do any one thing particularly great or at a particularly high level,” McCarty told us on the Scarves and Spikes podcast on Wednesday.
Part of that problem is the team figuring out how they want to play.
“My colleague Bradley Wright-Phillips talked about it a little bit and we agreed there’s a little bit of an identity crisis going on with this team, because what kind of team do you want to be?” McCarty said. “Do you want to be a team that is really dangerous and good in transition, or do you want to be a team that’s that’s really good on the ball in possession, where you break teams down through chance creation and through a lot of passing? I think it takes a really long time to get there.”
While the pieces of the puzzle haven’t fit yet, McCarty feels that the “key” is how Ronny Deila utilizes Miguel Almiron.
“He’s been played on the right as a right winger and he hasn’t looked great. He’s played on the left as a left winger in this last game and he scored a great goal, but it was called offside which was a little unlucky from Atlanta United perspective,” he said. “The only time I’ve seen things actually really look the best was when Deila’s hand was forced and he was forced to move (Alexey) Miranchuk back as a number eight and put Miguel Almiron in the middle, and just let wingers and really fast players run off him.”
Problems aside, McCarty feels there’s light at the end of the tunnel.
“The sky is not falling. I think they’re going to be okay. They just have to get these attacking players on the same page right now,” he said.
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This quote has aged…poorly
Maybe not falling yet, but the sky’s are super dark and no clear forecast in sight!
VAR review video is posted for the NE offsides ruling. In my opinion, they’re stretching on their reasoning. It looks like a deliberate play to clear the ball, and hence no offsides.
https://youtu.be/k_Bp-e2eL_g?si=RorVS20qvvX0n-WU
I am now completely convinced we would’ve won that game if it wasn’t for the horrible officiating. If that goal counts, it’s 1-0 and momentum doesn’t shift to cause a soft penalty. Or even if the penalty still happens, it’s only the shift back to 1-1 tie and not a 0-1 losing. And then later, that uncalled handball. That would’ve also completely shifted the state of the game, and we likely get at least 1 point out of the game if not 3.
And he’s not wrong. But augoat in response to Allen summed it up very well. It could be depth, it could be making sure we aren’t running our team past redline all the time. It’s a difficult thing to manage and has to be done right or we fail even more than we have. But we have to get it right and figure that out sooner than later.
Okay – everyone seems to realize that Miggy at the 10 and Miranchuk at the 8, with Saba on the right and Silva on the left makes the most sense – so why won’t Deila make the change?
It may be that the rest of the roster is kind of dictating how he’s deploying these guys. I think we have a lot of midfielders that are best supporting in attack. Even with Miranchuk higher in the formation at the 10, we kind of lack that defensive bite in the midfield. Moving Miranchuk back exacerbates that problem to a degree (I think he’s done okay defensively in those situations he’s slotted in at the 8, but he’s not a stopper by any means). If he’s deeper at the 8, I really think we need a destroyer 6. We don’t have one.
The other issue I see is at wing. Mira moves back, Miggy goes central, Silva starts. That’s just fine. But then we lack quality wing depth. Deila has done some creative things to mitigate this in shifting formations (which isn’t a bad thing at times). But maybe he doesn’t want to be forced into having to shift things around to deal with that? Mosquera kind of helps, but he’s a trick or treat player, and if someone is out he can’t start games, IMO.
I do think we need to settle on a formation and setup so we can build towards some cohesion. I think we do have a solid collection of talent but it’s not working on a consistent basis.
This is where the conversation turns to moving Mira to LW and having Muyumba and Fortune in the mid behind Miggy at CAM.
I just don’t see Silva as the starter. Heck Miranchuk might not be the answer, but it obviously isnt working.
I think with this game is going to be super interesting after the “kerfuffle” during practice. I hope they bring that passion to the pitch and we can get results, regardless of formation or who plays where.
What “kerfluffle” are you referring to?
Allegedly Slisz and Muyumba got into it a bit during training. I think all was good by the time they left the field. Sometimes these things are good.
I think a 3-5-2 or a 3-4-2-1 might fix some of those problems you mention, which seemed to be where Deila was thinking at least to start the second half of NE. Playing with essentially 4 CMs/CAMs gives you more flexibility combine Almiron/Miranchuk/Muyumba/Slisz/Klich/Fortune/Reilly in interesting ways that hopefully helps distribute the defensive needs among them. Also you can attempt to combine your FB/W depth, both of which are a bit suspect, into 2 spots instead of 4. And, you can add another CB to make up for the poorer defensive capabilities all around.
It’s not perfect by any means (not enough width, CB depth is also poor, can the 4 man midfield, particularly Almiron and Miranchuk, figure out how to work together and not bunch up) but perhaps it would work? It seemed to work for that moment before NE dropped into a shell.
I think more than anything I think Deila needs to get the front 4 more structure. Almost like some preplanned plays.
I’m not at all opposed to 3ATB. Deila may have been forced into it due to the bench players available, but I agree it provided some spark before NER got in a low block and pulled everyone home. I’m guessing the lack of CB depth is probably the controlling factor there, but that’s just speculation as it was above. We have a good collection of talent on paper. I think all of our starters and even some reserves are at least above average MLS players for their positions with a few guys that can be legit difference makers.
You might be on to something with playing more structured in the attack. It may be that too many guys have too much freedom too early on. Kind of trying to run before we can walk. Saba and especially Miggy seem to be granted a lot of latitude to drift inside or move around at times. I don’t think that’s bad, but I’m not sure everyone knows what the others are doing and it’s jamming us up at times. It’s been a disappointing start, but I do think we can find something that works and turn a corner. Just hope it’s sooner than later.