Steven Alzate to Atlanta United appears to be on the verge of being finalized.
According to Sky Sports’ Mark McAdam and Chris Siddall, Atlanta has agreed to terms with the Hull City midfielder on a $2.5 million transfer. Per McAdam and Siddall, Alzate will fly to Atlanta on Wednesday for his physical ahead of an official announcement.
Ben Jacobs originally reported on July 21 that Alzate was “close” to joining the Five Stripes. The London-born former Colombian international was a youth player at Leyton Orient and started his professional career with the club before signing for Brighton. He was sent out on several loan spells, including to Standard Liege, where he played for Ronny Deila in 2022-23.
Alzate’s impending signing adds him to a midfield that includes Bartosz Slisz, Tristan Muyumba, Jay Fortune, and Will Reilly. We’ll have to see if a player from that group is on the way out or if things will stay put for now, but in any event, it now appears that it’s a matter of when an official announcement will be made, not if.
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[…] August 4, 2025, Atlanta FC made waves by signing Steven Alzate, a dynamic midfielder from Hull City, in a contract stretching through 2030. Alzate, possessing […]
Been watching the 2’s play and I feel Armas could be the answer to our CDM problems. Why has the club not tried him yet?
Does anyone know what position (CDM, Cam, Destroyer, etc) he played when he was with Delia? I would assume they are bringing him in to play the same spot
Looks like he’s mostly played CM with a few at CAM and a few at CDM.
https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/steven-alzate/leistungsdaten/spieler/476237/plus/0?saison=2022
Get that man a shirt with a number on it,
If the midfield needs to lose someone, I feel like Muyumba is on the chopping block. But i’m guessing having a solid midfield was always on the list. I know we can’t all be inside Deila’s head, and sometimes we wish we were, but there are multiple ways to handle this midfield.
We need a true destroyer 6, don’t really have that. We need good holding mids, not really sure we have that either (unless Alexey moves there, but guessing he won’t), we don’t have true L/R mids, but that depends on formation.
Personally, i’d rather see Alexey get that 8 spot if we keep him and restructure a better 10 option (I may not think Miggy is it anymore). We need a supporting cast in the midfield to help that 8, and not just dual 6’s who sit in front of our 2 CB formation…
Time will tell, looks like the game of chess is being played, all we can do is speculate and wait.
I’d guess they find a way to move on from Muyumba, and add an MLS vet type of guy for some depth. Reilly maybe needs to get loaned out. He’s at a stage where he needs minutes, but maybe isn’t someone we can count on to play a ton just yet (though he’s been solid in his limited appearances this season). It probably depends on Fortune’s recovery timeline.
I disagree on moving Miranchuk to CM. He either needs to finish this season on a heater, or we need to move him this winter (or both of those happen). I just don’t think he has the pace or defensive bite required to fill that role. He kind of reminds me of Pity in a way (but less dive prone and maybe more technically skilled). He’s at his best kind of setting things up just outside the box. Moving him further from that spot on the field is going to limit his effectiveness, IMO, and at the expense of defensive effort in a critical part of the field. Teams have just been running through our midfield with little resistance much of the season.
Yeah, I actually think Miranchuk’s best position is more like a second striker. I don’t know how that fits into how we want to play, but I think that you almost want him to consistently be floating around the edges(including just inside) the opponent’s box, even on defense.
Do we need any other players to go out to make room? Or are things balanced as is?
I attempted to put together a list of players in and out. I am unsure which of the international players that are out had green cards, so I don’t know whether we are balanced there.
Players Out:
Xande Silva – TAM, International?
Edwin Mosquera – U22, International?
EfraÃn Morales – Supplemental, Homegrown
Noah Cobb – Supplemental, Homegrown
Mateusz Klich – International?
Luis Abram – TAM, International?
Players In:
Enea Mihaj – TAM, International
Juan Berrocal – TAM, International
Leo Afonso – Supplemental?, International? (at least cost us an unused international slot if nothing else)
Steven Alzate – TAM, international
Afonso is Supplemental and he does not require an International slot.
I can’t imagine anyone from the midfield leaving. Only person that could possibly go on loan is Will Reilly. So I think we stay on hold for the rest of this season and evaluate in the offseason. Muyumba is probably 50/50 whether he is retained or bought out.
With Klich gone and Fortune out, Slisz/Alzate with Muyumba and Reilly will be fine for the remainder of the year.
When Fortune comes back, Reilly will be in a holding pattern until someone becomes unavailable next year.
Muyumba is probably fine to keep at $500k a year base salary.
Reilly is a player who is probably disadvantaged by the 2s switching from USL to MLS Next. He strikes me as a Jackson Conway type trajectory for the time being.
Depending on how fit Fortune is going into next season, that might compel the FO to consider some changes in the winter window.
That’s my (potentially very flawed) read on the situation, at least.
Solid summary. I rate Reilly higher than Conway, although I see his ceiling as solid MLS midfielder. Admittedly, I was never high on Conway.
The pessimist in me sees the front office moving Fortune or Reilly in the off-season because they have the greatest value. I have always been a fan of Fortune and think he has the talent to be a really strong player for years to come. Hope they hold on to him and give him every opportunity to recover and win back a substantial role next season.
I don’t think you can compare Reilly with Conway. Reilly left the Atlanta system to play college soccer, while Conway stayed in the Atlanta system the whole time. I think when it comes to development, sometimes it is good to see other systems.
I think Fortune will stick around for at least one more season, since he was meshing well with Deila. I could see them loan out Reilly to get him more playing time, assuming Atlanta does not move on from Muyumba.
Never saw enough talent there for Conway