Risers and Fallers: Alexey Miranchuk reaches his best form yet

Welcome to a new column I’m starting here called Risers and Fallers, where I’ll be taking a look at the individual performances in Atlanta United’s games to give my opinions on who’s looking hot and who’s not.

After the Five Stripes once again put the “L” in Leagues Cup, falling 3-1 to visiting Necaxa on Wednesday, there is plenty to talk about, so let’s dive into it.

Risers

Alexey Miranchuk

I think you’ll be hard pressed to find someone who’s been as critical of the Russian midfielder ever since his arrival a year ago, but even I have to admit he’s finding some good form at the moment.

He scored the goal to tie against Los Diablos last night, but, more impressively, he also kick-started the attack with a lovely first-time switch of play to Luke Brennan. Immediately after releasing the pass, the 29-year-old rushes forward into the box, where he stabs home the rebound after Muymba’s attempted shot.

Miranchuk had a very slow start to 2025, recording just one goal in his first 14 matches, but has bounced back in recent home performances. Before the team’s dreaded away stretch, he had four goal contributions (1g/3a) and now has three goals in his last four games. Even more encouraging, his chance creation has significantly improved over the last few games, with 11 key passes in his last three games, including six against Necaxa.

Luke Brennan

STOP. Please see the video in the tweet embedded above before continuing.

You’re back? Great. We’ve already talked about how sublime the ball from Miranchuk is, but Brennan still had work to do to fashion that into a chance. He does two things in this play that are really good signs in wingers: He confidently took on an opposing defender in a 1v1 duel (AND WON!!!), and then he made a very good decision around the box.

We’ve seen it happen all too often this season that an attacking player gets to the opposing box and doesn’t really know what to do with the ball. Maybe they try a wild shot from distance or a desperate cross. Those usually aren’t too productive. Brennan played a very useful ball to Tristan Muyumba inside the box, which was very reminiscent of the pass he played to Emmanuel Latte Lath before Seattle’s own goal on Saturday.

In a system like the one Ronny Deila is trying to run, where the emphasis is on overloads from the wings before playing cutbacks into the box, a winger who can spot these kinds of passes is very useful, and I think it’s one of the reasons he has started recent games over Saba Lobjanidze (also the fact that Saba just hasn’t looked great).

The results might not be there, but watching Brennan nutmeg a guy and go through on goal is fun, so hopefully we get more of these moments before he’s eventually traded like all the other productive homegrowns have been.

Enea Mihaj

In his second game with the Five Stripes, Enea Mihaj came absolutely clutch. After Derrick Williams played a hospital ball, Necaxa were through on goal, but the Albanian international thwarted what would have been an easy 1v1 against Brad Guzan with a perfect tackle. Unfortunately, his effort didn’t end up mattering a whole lot because Los Diablos scored on the ensuing corner kick, but his hustle and determination to get back was refreshing.

Stian Gregersen and Derrick Williams, the current starting center back pairing, are very slow, especially after running almost 90 minutes. You usually don’t see that kind of inspirational boost of speed from either of them. It’s a large part of the reason that this team has conceded multiple goals this season from balls played into space behind the high back line that pacey attackers can get to with relative ease.

Another encouraging thing about him is that he can play some very useful line-splitting passes from the back. He had a good lobbed ball to find Thiare against Seattle, and he had a few more in this game. It seems that he was brought in to be the ball-playing center back while Juan Berrocal is the more traditional center back. We’ll have to see how they work together, but I think the Mihaj-Berrocal center back pairing should be a noticeable improvement over the current setup.

Fallers

Emmanuel Latte Lath

It’s really starting to feel like $22 million went down the drain in the winter.

The Ivorian striker got off to a really hot start at the beginning of the year, but went over three months without scoring. It seemed like his penalty goal against Toronto FC might reignite his scoring, but he’s only scored one goal in the four games since.

One aspect of his game that is very puzzling to me is his habit of checking back like he’s a target forward whose main function is to use his physicality to hold up play and bring teammates into play. That’s simply not what he was brought in to do. He was signed for his speed and his ability to run in behind and finish, so he should be lurking off the shoulder of the last defender, poised and ready to spring forward when the balls come.

And the balls have come. Latte Lath has had multiple opportunities where he just has to chase the ball down and finish, but he either lacks the confidence to finish or just can’t do it very well. That is very concerning for an MLS record-breaking striker.

This seems to have finally frustrated Ronny Deila because he benched Latte Lath against Necaxa and opted to start Jamal Thiaré instead. Even though he came off the bench with fresh legs to play the last 30 minutes, he didn’t look as energetic as Thiaré did in the first half. He didn’t press nearly as much and he wasted a golden opportunity after Miguel Almirón played a perfect through ball to put him through on goal.

To put it plainly, he has to do much better.

Miguel Almirón

Miggy, Miggy, Miggy, can’t you see? We need you to score some goals, please.

First of all, I have to give Miguel Almirón some credit for his improved presence in the attacking third. Some of his combination play with Ronald Hernández and Miranchuk has been great, and it’s helped the team put the ball in dangerous positions inside the box.

But just putting the ball inside the box isn’t enough. If that were the case, Brooks Lennon’s hundreds of crosses would make him an MVP frontrunner. No, it turns out you actually have to finish your chances for any of your attacking work to matter.

Almirón had several chances in this game: outside of the box, inside of the box and even through on goal. No matter how many opportunities he had, the 31-year-old Paraguayan just couldn’t get on the scoreboard. With just 3g/4a this season coming from one of the highest-paid players in the league, he needs to be a lot more clinical when he has looks at goal.

Pedro Amador

It’s been a very weird trend over the past few seasons, but many players have seen a sharp decline the season after joining the club. Pedro Amador is one of the most recent victims of this phenomenon.

Last year, the Portuguese left back quickly became a fan favorite for his committed defending and pinpoint crosses that helped him rack up eight assists in 14 games. He seemed poised to continue that form in 2025 and potentially emerge as one of the best left backs in the league.

However, his recent performances have been disappointing. After 19 games across all competitions, Amador has yet to record a goal contribution as his crosses haven’t been as sharp in 2025. He’s been decent in defense, but he’s been especially shocking in build up. He attempts a lot of long ground passes to teammates who are under direct pressure, which can often lead to dangerous turnovers.

He also has a really bad habit of passing the ball back toward the middle of his own box when he’s under a lot of pressure, which is INCREDIBLY dangerous.

Against Necaxa, Amador was almost a non-factor. His few contributions going forward involved occasional service to Luke Brennan and some mostly useless crosses. Defensively, he got dribbled past at least four times and struggled in his duels. It’s no surprise then that most of Necaxa’s attacks came from Atlanta’s left side.

I wonder if that reported $1.2 million offer for him is still on the table. I’d take it in a hearbeat.