Atlanta United didn’t get their first road win of the season at CF Montréal, but they didn’t come away empty-handed as Alexey Miranchuk scored late to make it 1-1 for his fifth goal in his last seven appearances across all competitions — while coming inches from a match-winner in stoppage time.
Saturday saw the debuts of Juan Berrocal and Steven Alzate, who came on in the 66th and 83rd minutes, respectively. While we didn’t get that long of a look at them, Berrocal came close to scoring in his first MLS match. The night also saw a couple of big chances for Latte Lath to find the scoresheet but failing to do so as his disappointing first season in the league continues.
Sydney and Henry have their three takeaways after Atlanta’s draw north of the border. Be sure to hit the like button on YouTube, and if you aren’t already, subscribe and turn on notifications to get an alert any time we post new videos. You can also listen to Three Takeaways on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or iHeart — be sure to subscribe and leave us a review!
00:00 – Intro
00:17 – First impressions of Juan Berrocal and Steven Alzate
04:45 – Tristan Muyumba struggles in first half before being replaced by Will Reilly at halftime
09:41 – Another disappointing match for Emmanuel Latte Lath
16:23 – Bonus takeaway: Time to reevaluate Alexey Miranchuk amid current vein of form?
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After watching MLS for five years now, I’m convinced good teams are built around a good coach and a system (doesn’t matter which system) with players fitting into that system. Absent Messi and a couple other players, MLS guys are just not world class enough for one or two players on a team to dominate. Scoring in MLS is from system play, not individual talent. If one player is good enough to score consistently, they’re gone from MLS by mid season and on to Europe or a better league than MLS. Atlanta can’t just keep bringing in a couple guys who are “sorta” stars, and expect the entire team to rally around them. It leads to exactly what we’re seeing – a hodgepodge of players who don’t fit, don’t play like a team, and eventually everyone gets frustrated and quits trying.
Blow this current system up. Get a coach who gets a couple seasons to rebuild around his system, and give him players who fit that system. Then go on a 2-3 year run until you have to rebuild again.
Think we might finally be letting a coach pick some players after he gets hired now, at least during the last transfer window?
Haven’t heard how much input Delia’s had, if any, on the recent acquisitions though I think maybe one of them played for him once?
If you watch the rooted in the stripes series, you’ll see the discussions around the new players (likely Berro, Mihaj and/or Alzate) and Deila being part of them.
More clean up man duty from Miranchuk…..I dont need him salvaging goals at the death, I need him dominating matches in the center of the pitch from Kickoff😒
no matter what he does you still have a miserable attitude LOL… there’s about 20 other guys on the team who aren’t doing shit but yeah let’s keep on hating the only guy who’s doing something….
Can’t speak for the others, but I have higher expectations out of whoever is our 10 than most others. They are the controller of the attack and the midfield, which in my opinion is the most important position on the field. When your 10 is sitting back playing spectator for parts of the game, it can be frustrating. He’s done well as of recent and hope to see more of that from him. But there are pieces that historically have not sat well for me and those don’t just go away because he got a garbage time header that anyone in that position would have gotten.
I get your main point you’re making about higher expectations. However, where are your expectations for others? You guys only seem to point the finger at some but not all players. You say that “anyone” would have gotten that header, so where is anyone else? Where is the $22mil signing? Where is your nostalgia hero who happens to be the highest paid player on the team?
Mira has most goal contributions, most chances created and most big chances created in the team.
I am not saying he is playing on MVP level or lighting up the league but damn yall tear him apart regardless if he’s doing well or not.
Oh, LL has been mostly a flop, Miggy isn’t living up to his potential, Muyumba is like a light switch, Slisz is killing it but that isn’t going to change games IMO, and our left side has been lost since the beginning of the season. I’ve said it before, how do most of these people who were killing it at the end of last season just go missing this season? Like everyone? Lennon is known as a top crosser in the league. Amador was lethal on the left, Saba moving defenses around, Thiare making runs, Mira controlling the ball, Muyumba controlling the ball, Guzan still being a wall in front of goal, Williams/Stian at CB with a supporting cast…all to show up in 2025 like they’ve never played before? The only thing that changed, from what I can see, is the system implemented by the Coach. And that’s where I have placed blame since.
Can’t say Latte is a flop, but Almiron hasn’t lived up to his potential…Either they are both flops or both haven’t lived up to their potential. And Latte is the younger of the two.
For what we paid, LL isn’t delivering. A $2 cheeseburger for $2 will be satisfactory. But if you paid $30 for a $2 cheeseburger you’d be pissed. That’s how I feel about LL…I’m genuinely curious how Cayman would do as a starting striker comparatively. Miggy is a different beast, mainly because we all know what he is capable of but when I see him play as a winger, I can’t help but think he’s out of place. He doesn’t play like a winger, he plays like a 10, or maybe a SS or at minimum an 8. Saba plays like a winger. This is likely why Mira gets the hate because I don’t feel like he plays like a 10, at least not a 10 in this league.
Im going to challenge the idea that its unfathomable for us to have regressed.
Across the back line, we can see how impactful Gregersen’s injury has been. Also, fans were clamoring to buy out Abram and upgrade our CB depth, as well as add another fullback.
And guess what happened. A lack of depth at fullback caused us to throw Matt Edwards into the fire early (which alone cost us 3-5 points although he had started to settle in before his injury).
Then Gregersen gets hurt, leaving us with Williams who is starting to decline and Abram who has since been bought out.
While we are starting to see improvements defensively, we still are scrambling to find 2 fullbacks with a pulse.
On top of that, we thought we had upgraded the midfield with Klich, but that ended up being a complete bust.
So yeah, we added ELL and Almiron, but a lack of quality investment into the defense and an adequate holding mid means the spine of the team regressed, especially once midseason injuries hit.
But let’s put it this way. Williams + Stian as our CB’s with Abram and Cobb as options were what we had at the end of last year and they did great (IMO). We had some goal issues, but we could make it up with a decent attack, and that includes Rios who was either hot or ice cold.
The only thing that truly changed was the coach and staff.
Well, we had Saba on the right. Lennon and Amador both healthy and both who played well with the winger on their side. We just assumed Almiron would be plug and play and it hasnt worked.
Also, we needed a bit of luck (relying on other results to get into the playin, a penalty shootout win in the first round, and some bangers to turn the tide in the Miami series. Also, we matched up against Miami pretty well before they got Bright to limit their exposure defensively in transition.
I agree we should be much farther down the road in terms of the learning curve with mee players, but at the same time, the FOs failure to cycle some key depth pieces and the disaster Klich signing really stunted the growth of the team.
But I also think that “it all boils down to the coach” is a massive oversimplification.
But look at our style of play and go back to the beginning of the season. You as a spectator could predict exactly where the next pass was going to come from. You could also literally watch when the team was going to switch off. There wasn’t any dynamic play. Look at the end of last year, we definitely looked dangerous…in transition, on the ball, runs off the ball, etc. That wasn’t the case for most of the year and I don’t think it’s an individual issue, it’s a cohesive team issue and that resides on the coach.
We saw some glimpses of dynamic play against CF Montreal…what changed and why now? Obviously we’re not in the locker room, we’re not in the team meetings, but the on field product definitely looked more dangerous than before, we just couldn’t get on the end of good luck like you said. But luck only gets you so far, have to use skill to change the rest of the game.
THIS ☝
Full transparency, I didn’t watch the game because I was at my 20 year HS reunion, but the results are loud enough for me. At this point, it’s just clear that the 11 we put on the field right now aren’t going to win games… pretty obvious if you’re having to “rescue” a draw from a team currently competing for the wooden spoon.
Atlas was a different game with a different team under different circumstances. Fine. But Deila seriously looked at the first positive result in months and tossed the parts he has control over into the trash. The strugglers got the nod to start as usual. ELL who seems to have forgotten what the goal looks like played the full 90 while Togashi, probably still pumped from his midweek goal, twiddled his thumbs on the bench. Yeah, we had several good opportunities and good looks but goodness me, how much good has that done us this year? Do we anticipate a change to MLS rules that will award points for “good tries”?
Finally… AM. I feel like I have so much pent up frustration with him for a year’s worth of poor performance that a handful of goals in as many games hasn’t quite turned the corner for me yet. Maybe if he performs well for as long as he didn’t, he’ll have been worth the price tag. I think right now, we’re so downtrodden that we get excited when a player who is SUPPOSED to be good has a string of performances where he meets (not exceeds) expectations.
Alexei is your best DP right now and he doesn’t play center back not sure why he is drawing your ire
I think some people just can’t be satisfied. Damned if you do, damned if you don’t.
He’s not drawing my ire, he’s suffering from a bad reputation that he created for himself with fans and pundits over the course of an entire year. I guess some of us are just tired of settling for and celebrating (expensive) mediocrity.
This team needs a complete overhaul. I would start with the back line (as they are doing) and then move to the midfield (sparring Miranchuk and Almiron). The midfield needs a full complement of talent. Muyumba and Reilly simply are not good enough (The readers are right about the critique of Reilly. Not good enough). There are some pieces to build around but I do believe we have to shed a lot of dead weight and youthful projects if we are to improve. The coach is being asked to perform a miracle and it isn’t going to happen with this crop of players. The question is whether he is responsible for the selection?
Bring in a new keeper (give Hibbert a real chance). Strength the back line. Give Miranchuk and Almiron some support in the midfield. Provide the Latte Lath with some much needs balls.
This is a bad team plain and simple. Trying to find the gold at the bottom of the pyramid is interesting but not productive. Agree that the team needs new blood. The number of less than talented players is innumerable so I will not single out 1 or two.
If it were up to me I would turnover 90 % of roster.
This philosophy of “developing” academy prospect does come at a cost and we are seeing it. Seems to me you have to make a hard choice. Play to win or adopt a development mentality.
Fortune – MLS back up role
Brennan – USL level
Reilly – USL level
Cobb – USL level
Chong – MLS next pro level
Edwards – USL level
Gordian – MLSNext pro level
Torres – MLSnext pro level
No true prospect since Wiley who could change a game (maybe Fortune)
Would retain
Alison
Reversing
Guzman
Lath
Lennon (back up)
Lobjanidze
Mohak
Miiranvhuk
Alias
Togashi
Would rebuild from that core group. Send academy players to MLSnext pro and be patient.
That’s if you want results. Can’t have it both ways.
I can’t make out a lot who a lot of the core group are supposed to be because of autocorrect. Any chance you could at least recomment with who Alison, Reversing, Mohak, and Alias are?
To be clear, am I understanding correctly that you’re not saying throw out the academy players, just keep them at the lower level (aufc2) longer? Because I think they generally are and injuries/poor results has forced many of them up, some prematurely. Like Chong Qui saw the field early this season because everyone above him was injured. Same with Reilly later. And Brennan I think is seeing field time mostly because all the depth above him got sold off to try and shore up things else where.
Sorry for auto correct
Core group
Almiron
Berrocal
Guzman
Lath
Lennon (back up)
Lobjanidze
Mihaj
Miranchuk (star potential)
Slisz
Togashi
Yes the academy products could have a future (maybe) but they aren’t ready and playing them now is hurting the team. They don’t have the talent to compete. Send them to the 2s and be patient. Too many of them on the first team cutting their teeth. Let’s be realistic, maybe one of them can make it as a back up down the road (Fortune) while the others are not MLS calibre .
When Tata was manager he had the right approach…. Limit academy players to 1 if at all. He knew that they weren’t good enough and didn’t even bother to try. As a result… MLS champions.
Too much emphasis on developing bad products. Let’s face it, the MLS at its highest level is a foreign league and we are trying to compete using academy kids as starters and back ups?
Don’t mean to be harsh but reality is reality. They aren’t good enough and they are killing this team. I’m just not sure who is making that call….
What I’m trying to say is that academy kids have always filled these last few slots, the difference between now and 2018 is that in 2018 your top 18 wasn’t so poor/injured that you had to go to academy kids. The academy kids playing right now is the emergency parachute, not your plan a or even your plan b.
Our senior, non academy slots includes/included:
Gregersen (injured)
Williams (injured)
Abram (poor)
Lennon (poor/injured when Edwards was playing a lot)
Amador (injured)
Klich (poor/injured/waived)
Muyumba (poor/injured)
Silva(injured/sold)
Mosquera(sold)
Cohen (poor/injured)
This is the reason you saw a lot of Edwards, Morales, Reilly, Brennan. Because those are the spots on the field that the top 18 senior players haven’t been good enough for whatever reason to hold their spots. If those players in list above hadn’t been injured or sucked, these academy players wouldn’t be seeing the field for more than spot substitutes.
Compared with the 20 Senior roster players from 2018 (today we only use 18 because the amount of money that can go to Senior players is still basically fixed, so in theory in exchange for 2 players (those slots are not being taken by homegrowns), the rest of your 18 can be slightly better by spending more money on each. IN THEORY).
2018 Senior Roster:
Almiron
Barco
Escobar
Garza
LGP
Gressel
Guzan
Jose Hernandez
Kann
Kratz
Big Red
Josef
McCann
Nagbe
Parkhurst
Remedi
Brandon Vazquez
Villalba
Romario Williams
Sal Zizzo
These players didn’t get injured all that often (other than Garza). The times they did, we saw Homegrowns like Robinson, Bello, Carleton get playing time.
Re the core group though, I can mostly agree with that. I’d add Thiare, Alzate, Amador (as a backup), remove Lennon (he’s too expensive to be a backup), maybe Guzan (nothing against him, just think he’s too average now that it’s time to find the next stalwart in goal). You’ll find that’s most of the roster though, maybe 50%. The other 50% has either already been moved on from, will have their contract expire at the end of the year, is a homegrown/supplemental spot and literally can’t be replaced with anyone better, or is Gregersen/Muyumba/Cohen.