In the latest of a transfer news blitz over the past 24 hours, Atlanta United is reportedly waiving midfielder Mateusz Klich, per the Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s Doug Roberson.
Klich joined the Five Stripes ahead of the 2025 season via a trade with D.C. United, with Atlanta giving up the 23rd pick in the 2025 SuperDraft. The 35 year old midfielder has made 16 appearances this season, 9 of them being starts, and has recorded one assist. D.C. United held on to a majority of Klich’s budget charge and his Designated Player roster spot, but Klich still took up a senior roster spot and international spot on Atlanta’s roster. By placing him on waivers, Atlanta now opens both for potential incoming signings in the forthcoming transfer window. This was not the second of the team’s two allotted buyouts (the first one being used on Derrick Etienne Jr. prior to the start of the season), meaning one contract buyout is still available to be used.
This morning, Ben Jacobs of GIVEMESPORT reported that Atlanta United were “close” to aquiring Hull City midfielder Steven Alzate in a deal that would require both roster spots to be available. Timing suggests the moves are related, but Atlanta are undoubtedly looking to continue to be active as another overhaul looks to have begun at the hands of Chief Soccer Officer and Sporting Director Chris Henderson, who on 92.9 The Game Saturday said that the club has “a lot of work to do” regarding Atlanta’s roster.
Center back Efrain Morales is also reportedly on the move according to Tom Bogert of GIVEMESPORT on Sunday, showing the aggressiveness with which the team is looking to change things up after an underwhelming 2025 thus far.
Stay tuned for more moves from the Five Stripes as the secondary transfer window officially opens on July 24th, and ends August 21st.
This one surprises me because we got the better end of that deal with DC and while people will want to attack his individual performance on a team who’s overall performance is gutter material anyways, this is another gritty player who loves to get under the skin of the opponent (I hated playing against him when he was at DC, same with Dax when he was at Nashville). That’s what they bring to the squad and I’d say he did. But again, Deila controls how they play and again, I don’t think he was utilizing them the way they play.
But opening an Intl spot and a senior roster spot for putting together other transactions seems to be the play here and piecing this together. Guessing since Deila was confirmed as “safe” he may have some more input with Chris on signings and picking people that fit his style of play so here we are.
It was only good business if Klich was able to deliver more value than the limited amount we were paying him. And the reality was that outside of 2 assists and a couple decent moments of shithousery, the team was largely incapable of functioning with him on the pitch.
I think DC was paying for 80-90% of his 3M salary, but what we were paying for was still very much non-zero.
Nothing personal against him. The way we were asking him to play, he had to be extremely tidy in tight spaces and willing (and able) to take the occasional risk to play out of pressure. He just wasn’t capable of doing those things. And because he also seemed to have lost his legs a bit (or just isnt the destroyer type) we often didnt have much defensive bite with him on the pitch either (not that we’ve turned the corner defensively without him, to be fair).
If we do continue with Slizs as a capable-with-the-ball-at-his-feet destroyer and Muyumba as a comfortable with the ball at his feet with sneaky good defensive anticipation from time to time, it feels like we are wanting to incorporate the occasional press into certain passages of play.
Which leads me to my next point that I havent found a better place to put:
I cant help but wonder if Latte Lath is a bad fit for a team that wants to try and attack in transition. These attacks require someone to be explosive physically, but also outlets for combination play through the middle.
I just dont feel like ELL has the touch/creative flair needed in transition moments.
I think highly of him as a player and as a goal scoring threat in a more conventional possession oriented offense. But I can’t help but wonder if Miranchuk and Almiron would be more effective with an old school Josef Martinez type that could stretch the field but also drop in and combine.
Just a random (admittedly misplaced) thought.
[…] REPORT: Atlanta United set to waive midfielder Mateusz Klich […]
One down, at least one more to go.
Kinda surprised.
Sad that this is the highlight of the season so far.
Because I had no idea what waivers are, I looked it up. To the best of my understanding, simplified for what’s relevant here:
Players can be waived almost any time in the season up to roster freeze date (I assume sometime after 2nd transfer window)Some (most?) players require League approval before waivingWaiving places players on a list where they can be picked up by other teamsIf no one picks up the player by a certain time, for some/most players (same qualifications as above) their budget charges will still count against the original team’s salary cap. However, the roster slots are always cleared.The team can use a buyout on a waived player to also regain the cap space.
I know a lot of people here were wanting Klich gone. I guess the purge of players are starting to roll
He brings an element of “nastiness” to the midfield, as Jurgen Klinsmann used to call it, but that’s about it.
All a winning team needs sometimes is that edge, that opportunity to capitalize on, and you can say that’s what he brought. It’s not a bad thing. He created a red card for Orlando and we took that game. In all actuality, we need more of that grit.