Things looked good for Atlanta United in the first half after Tristan Muyumba’s headed goal off a Bartosz Slisz pass made it 1-0 in the 19th minute — the first time they led in a match since May 28 against Orlando City. Naturally, things fell apart in the second half as they let in three “soft” (Ronny Deila’s words) goals in a 3-1 loss to Charlotte FC…including one seconds after the second half began.
That’s not to say there wasn’t good that came out of this match: Slisz put in another strong shift, Luke Brennan showed extremely well in his first MLS start, and Efrain Morales impressed once more before exiting at halftime. But the negative outweighed the positives as Atlanta now finds itself 13 points out of a playoff spot with 11 matches to go.
Henry, Tyler, and Jackson have their three takeaways from the match after Charlotte put a nail in the coffin of Atlanta’s faint playoff hopes.
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Fwiw, and that’s probably not much but…
1. I was very clear this was a bad coaching hire from the get go. At the time sounded like some folks were drinking the koolaid. So…sorry but don’t find those same voices credible now
2. Firing him now is a bad move for the org. Not because he doesn’t suck…again, he was an extremely bad hire for many reasons, including, as I said before, his disposition. It should have been obvious to anyone with two sets of eyes that the trajectory of his landing here after his last two stints reeked of a serious underperformance.
Terrible hiring choice along with many other terrible personnel choices by Atlanta United.
The broader studies show no benefits to firing managers midseason. And long term one concern is the lesson for the young guys on the team…which shouldn’t be how to be flibbertigibbets.
The only exception would be if we’ve find the right long term now or if we had a RV and not all of RD’s assistants on the bench. Otherwise it’s just drama and bloodlus and more sh#$show.
The fact is we won’t find a great coach after immediately after this because…keeping in mind that it’s a small world, these top managers are pretty savvy and believe me when I tell you no elite managers want the job. No amount of oh, amazing stadium, Atlanta is a great franchise nonsense is going to con a top tier manager or even a strong next tier. That should be obvious after the last hire…you don’t think they were out there throwing money at names?
Best case is we find the right young manager and take the chance to let him grow into it. But some fans won’t like that because it’s a long term approach. The damage to this org is extensive and…frankly…pun intended…started when the org sided with locker room cancer over FdB. It’s just been a continuation of the same nonsense ever since.
Unless there is malfeasance the proper course of action is find a solid young coach, fire RD after the last game, figure out a way to get out from AM and MA contracts and find solid replacements to fit the new guy’s system and plan to give that a minimum of three years.
My concern is timing and Garth’s absence. I dont see them changing managers while he is out. Also, the last coaching search took excessively long. Waiting until the conclusion of the season leaves a tighter window. Plenty of time for most clubs, but for some reason not us.
You do realize that Pineda was a young manager hire and they gave him a long leash to grow. But Boca failed to build the roster. Also we need to see if Henderson and Deila is on the same page regarding roster construction and game management. If Henderson believes that Deila ain’t it he should have someone lined up to hire so we don’t go into another transfer window without a HC and sign random players that doesn’t fit the new coach’s philosophy
Please publish which players can be let go after this season and which ones the club is on the hook for longer. Never imagined things would be this bad. Miranchuk and Ronny can leave now thank you very much n
They did back in June. Looking forward to Lennon and Abram falling off the roster (assuming the FO isn’t completely stupid and picks up their options).
https://scarvesandspikes.com/2025/06/13/opinion-atlanta-uniteds-roster-could-significantly-improve-over-the-next-two-windows/
Thank you for the link, just the info I was looking for.
I don’t see the hate in Lennon…he’s one of the most accurate crossers in the league. Look at how dangerous he can be when he’s given freedom (miami game) as well as how many assists he’s had.
His problem is how the coach wants to utilize him and we haven’t seen that with Deila. Deila said at the beginning of the season he hates back passes and wants to end them. What has Lennon done all season? Back passes. He isn’t being utilized, he isn’t being coached, he isn’t being directed properly. Because look at Amador…he came into our team and absolutely destroyed it with his crosses and contributions. He’s had almost none (it could be none) so far. Deila, for what it seems, doesn’t know how to utilize his LB/RB’s.
Lennon had decent chemistry with Saba last season, but he doesn’t mesh well Almiron this season. Almiron ignores anybody who makes overlapping runs to the outside, whether it was Lennon or anybody else who played RB. Almiron always cuts back inside no matter how congested it is in the middle of the field. Also Lennon’s crosses have not been good this season, don’t know if he has some sort of injury or if he has regressed due to the shoulder injury. Either way, this team is bad and we need pieces that mesh well together.
I agree, but that’s again akin to the coach, not the players. I still don’t think Miggy is a winger, I don’t care what he did at newcastle, he’s not the guy there. And for Lennon to connect with someone, they need to be a natural right winger which Saba is (yet Deila wants to use him on the left at times?).
So because this is an 11-person game, the pieces have to all work together but we want to rank individual performances. A QB in football doesn’t have good stats if he doesn’t have good receivers. So a RB doesn’t get to link up play or get crosses in or pull overloads if he can’t sync up with the midfield and the winger and you see this on the left with Amador too.