Atlanta United returned to Mercedes-Benz Stadium after a quick midweek jaunt over to Austin, Texas, where a late Jamal Thiare goal secured a much needed point. The momentum wasn’t to continue on the evening vs Philadelphia Union, though, as Atlanta United lost a chippy 1-0 match. The finishing edge just wasn’t quite there against a Union squad that was always going to be tough, despite multiple Atlanta opportunities. Here are the final whistle thoughts live from Mercedes-Benz Stadium.
A rotated lineup
Ronny Deila rolled out a lineup consisting of a back three once again, with Brooks Lennon and Pedro Amador sliding back into the wingback spots after returning from injury. Jamal Thiare got the start up top over Latte Lath, and Deila also incorporated a speedy midfield in Jay Fortune and Tristan Muyumba. Finally, Matt Edwards took the place of Noah Cobb on the back line alongside Derrick Williams and Luis Abram.
Saba Lobjanidze and Latte Lath starting the match on the bench seemed to be two-fold. After the Austin match, Ronny Deila noted that Saba’s lack of starting minutes was due to the change in formation and his performances, but did concede that he had a great outing in Texas. Latte Lath was subbed off early in that match, so it seemed Deila was banking on having some fresh, speedy legs to see out Philly late in this match.
I typed all that, though, and Brooks Lennon tweaked his injury in the 20th minute and Saba was subbed on in his place. Changes all around.
Some players showed out tonight, despite the result
I’ll preface this by saying I’m typing this at halftime, and keeping my fingers crossed that I won’t have to go back and change anything. That being said, for all the negativity and irritation directed at the Five Stripes for a variety of totally valid reasons this year, it’s always been my policy to let the praise be as loud as the criticism. Alexey Miranchuk had one of his best games as an Atlanta United player tonight, while Jay Fortune, Tristan Muyumba, and Matt Edwards were all absolute menaces to Philadelphia.
Now….Brad’s flub was certainly unfortunate but kudos to Luis Abram for doing everything he could to save the subsequent shot. He had to go to ground to block the attempt but – as any person sliding on the ground would do – extended his arm out and the ball caught him in the hand.
Much more cohesion
I may get cooked in the comments here, but Atlanta United played…well. Whether by virtue of the formation or some intangible that’s been unlocked, the squad looked much more cohesive tonight. I’ll take the positives anywhere I can get them, and there was a definite improvement in the confidence the team showed on the pitch. There wasn’t the obligatory “shut off” moment that’s been expected out of the team this year, and I actually felt like this was the first time all season they played a legitimately solid 90 minutes of soccer. Unfortunately it wasn’t enough and the team didn’t capitalize on the multiple chances and opportunities it had, but this game should’ve been a 0-0 draw at minimum.
Let us know below what you thought of the match!
We are horrible, fire the manager!
Here’s my take…
WE LOSE EVERY WEEK!
WE LOSE EVERY WEEEEEEEK!
THE BIMBOS ARE NOTHING SPECIAL!
WE LOSE EVERY WEEK!
PHILLY ONLY SCORED ONE!
THEY ONLY SCORED ONE!
HOW S@%$ ARE THE BIMBOS!
THEY ONLY SCORED ONE!
The team looked a bit more dangerous than usual, despite the scoreline. At least in the first half. Unlucky error on Abram, and sadly that gets PHL a win. We weren’t without our chances, but the finishing just has to be there.
Saba is struggling, but he’s the best winger we have right now. Mira isn’t it and miggy still needs to stay central. Hell, bring Brennan in and give him a look.
I’m impressed with Fortune in the midfield with Muyumba, those 2 play well together. I’m also impressed with him as a wing/full back. I’d use him over Hernandez and Edwards, personally.
I want to see our back line pressing higher and giving our midfield less field to cover, allowing for more of those setup passes and ball movement. When our forwards are in the other half and our backline is at our goal, that’s just too much field for a 6 & 8 to cover (since miggy keeps pressing up, he may need to set back a bit more to progress the ball).
My opinion is that we don’t have any class A players. The season is pretty much over. I would try young players instead of some players that can’t play for 90′.
To me Miranchuck is a bust.
Will Reilly would be more fun to watch than Bartoz Slisz. He looked good against Cincinnati – especially in comparison to the current form. Give me something to pull for.
Well, I don’t think anybody in MLS has a team of A players. I think in this league coaching plays more of a role than other leagues.
While no scoring, the first half was much better and the passing crisper. Second half was garbage. Miranchuk disappeared, Saba was trying hero ball too much, passing was much slower and predictable – and more often than not, was a backward pass. This is a pattern that has repeated itself again and again this year, and the Manager had better find a solution, or he won’t make it pass the Leagues Cup matches.
Saba looked rough and I can only imagine is how he looks in practice that has resulted in his benching
Also, Miranchuk was better, but I feel like he was a touch slow on all his decisions. Saba’s touch was not great, but he still had some good plays. I liked the 3-3-2-2 feel, with a midfield of Muyumba as the 6 and Fortune and Miranchuk as dual 8s. That midfield in general was very good until it wasn’t. Matt Edwards has gotten better.
We’re at least close to early season Atl again in that we can dominate a game for 30-45 minutes before dropping off, maybe better in some ways that we seem more organized. To me the biggest difference is that we could play up the middle effectively, and Alexey and Almiron are starting to figure out how to not be on top of each other all the time. I feel more confident that Muyumba and/or Fortune in the middle is the way to go.
The second half the difference was so stark in the backline received the ball looking to make a pass, and every single one of their options was standing still, marked, and making a look of “don’t pass to me, I’m tired”. Especially Muyumba and Fortune. It immediately looked better again when we subbed Slisz on and had someone in the middle running again.
I legitimately think this is the way forward, but we’ve got to work on fitness, especially of our CMs. That sub rotation there needs to come quick.
…And any optimism I had for them looking better the first half is basically gone. I didn’t realize, but I guess with apparently Philly heavily rotated and played very defensive. The second they decided to play their normal game/bring in starters was the second we lost control of the game.
I’ll agree. I’ve been super critical of alexey but he showed up. Dribbling around people? Clean passes? Vision? Good first half. Then, well, the second half happened and almost everyone sucked.
What was up with Saba tonight? Not good. This was yet another chance to show why he should replace Brooks on the wing. But not with a performance like that.
I will give brooks credit for not sailing his cross way over everyone in the first half.
Brooks’ cross as sailed over everyone.
I was hopeful of Edward’s but he was garbage. He has less forward passing inclination than Lennon.
Zero idea why we quit the long balls in the second half. They didn’t adjust that much.
We have to stop talking about performances (mostly team, but individual as well) in a vacuum. The reality is that every week we don’t win is just more and more inexcusable, regardless of “unfortunate” events, hit posts, miracle saves, unlucky bounces, whatever.
I’ll say it from here on every week – whatever you want to blame things on at this point, it comes back on the coach. These are professionals and “gelling” is honestly a cop out for bad tactics, misusing players, or both. Every returning player has either seen no performance change or regressed from last season, despite having proven, effective talent added into the mix:
– Guzan: about the same or slightly worse
– Hernandez: small sample size, but about the same
– Lennon: small sample size, but probably worse
– Williams: slightly worse
– Abram: about the same
– Gregersen: not enough to see
– Cobb: not enough either season to see
– Amador: small sample size, but probably worse
– Saba: worse
– Mosquera: about the same
– Muyumba: about the same
– Fortune: about the same
– Slisz: worse
– Miranchuk: worse
– Thiare: small sample size, but about the same
Some guys may just be at their ceiling (likely about half that list). But we are 1 of 30 teams in the same salary capped nonsense and there are frankly a lot of guys with low ceilings that are already there, so the difference is what do you do with that same across-the-board mediocrity? It’s about coaching – put the players in positions they will succeed and set your strategies in a way that highlights their strengths while hiding their weaknesses. We are probably at a point where we’ve tried all the reorganizing we can, so at this point it’s got to be an issue with what they’re being told to execute. The list of returners above is long, and the results from last year with that list and with $50 mil in the bank are not even remotely as bad as this.
We can no longer talk about “improvement/progress.” We squeaked into playoffs last year at 40 points. To hit that, we need 29 points from 20 games remaining. But I’m afraid it will be harder than that – 40 is the lowest threshold to reach 9th place in the 3 years we’ve had 15 teams in the east. I don’t know how to adjust my math for the years before 15 teams, but 9th place generally had more than total too.
I definitely hear you but I will say, with so much supposed talent, I do have some interest in talking performances solely from the perspective of trying to figure out where are problems are from a personnel standpoint. I say that from the perspective of someone who thinks there are many problems.
So while I take no solace whatsoever in the result, Fortune/Muyumba were miles better than Klich and the team actually hd moments where they functioned somewhat.
Which is just to say, Im going to lose it if we see Klich in the near future. Not when Fortune and his development is one of the few bright spots I’ve seen.
Also, Matt Edwards is coming along nicely. It still burns my ass that the club three him in the deep end the way they did to start the year.
I’m sure we are all correct in some way about where problems lie. They should absolutely be playing better. But I think that’s why I see the deeper lying issue to be the coaching/tactics. How is that so many good players can look like they’ve never played a day in their life?
Chemistry is nice, but it shouldn’t be something you can’t get over as long as you are playing in the spot you’re told to be – you’re playing with each other literally daily for hours. My kid’s youth rec teams practice 1 hour twice a week and play 10 games and by the end of the season they look like they know what they’re doing together in the basic way I’m embarrassed to say we still aren’t. I’m not even worried about creativity, it’s like basic passes and shit. Somewhere toward the end, Almiron threw the ball in to uh, idk, someone and Almiron juked him into passing it out of bounds. Like, how do you eff up a throw in give and go at this level?
Maybe. I question what we would be able to accomplish with a different manager.
We have Almiron, a ball hungry playmaker complemented by Miranchuk, a ball hungry player complemented by Saba, a ball hungry playmaker that cant even get on the field thrown in with Latte Lath, a ball hungry goal scorer.
I cant figure out if the main reason we are going 5 at the back is due to Stian’s absence or an imbalance with our wingers and not feeling comfortable with Saba/Miranchuk/Almiron across the top.
Also, Im starting to think we have significantly underinvested in defense and central defensive midfield.
Look at Cincinnati’s defenders. Alvas Powell and Nick Hagglund as strong depth pieces mixed in with Miles Robinson, Matt Miazga, Deandre Yedlin.
Williams and Abram are on par with their depth and we are having to start them both regularly.
Miranchuck is absolutely awful. Horrible control. No heart. God awful service. How you can say he had a good game is laughable. Must go
Agree Miranchuck offers very little, is an absolutely over rated player producing very little. A ballsy , physical presence, make things out of nothing happen, tenacious midfield leader he absolutely is not. To me it appears there are lots of things wrong with this team and it is bizarre. I do not think the issues are only on the players but ultimately the players are the ones on the field that need to make things happen. Miranchuck is underwhelming yet he is getting starts and playing time.
Saying Miranchuk had one of his best performances and two of our other mids were “menaces” in a game we were shut out at home…. says about everything.
For the first half, it seemed like the instructions were to take no more that two touches and pass the ball. That was largely successful in moving the ball into their final third. I don’t know if we adjusted or they did, or both, but starting the second half we reverted to standing on the ball for too long and back passing. And the result, though unlucky, was predictable because we let our foot off the gas. Miranchuk was invisible for much of the game. Edward’s had some good defensive recoveries, and I grade him on a sliding scale because he’s so young, but he was a net negative on the offensive side of the ball—constant back passing and some bad giveaways.
Well said. Miranchuk’s role was reduced to “connect the back line to the wing” with short passes, and he did that fine. He hit a couple of dangerous long balls. Beyond that, he didn’t do anything, and at this point we can’t expect him to do anything.
Credit to Deila for putting him in a role on Saturday that suited his skills better. But if that’s all he has to offer, he shouldn’t be a DP. Time to move on.
You can seriously just copy and paste the same article from every week. Just change the opponent and the score. I don’t think anyone would notice.
And even if we noticed, certainly no one would care