Atlanta United is still winless away from Mercedes-Benz Stadium, but at least drew CF Montréal 1-1 on Saturday. That’s now nine matches in a row in league play without a win. The good news, I suppose, is that at least it wasn’t a loss.
Let’s get to the player ratings – first mine, then an average of everyone that voted. As a reminder, here’s the ratings scale:
- 10 – world-class performance
- 9 – elite performance
- 6 – average
- 5 – slightly below average
- 3 – well below average
- 1 – poor in every level
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Man of the Match
Alexey Miranchuk
Staff rating: 7 | Community rating: 7.48
I would have loved to see Miranchuk more involved throughout the match, but he eventually found the back of the net once more to continue his strong run of form. One of these days, hopefully, it’s a match winner that he scores.
Brad Guzan
Staff rating: 5.5 | Community rating: 5.2
I don’t entirely blame Brad Guzan for the goal Montreal scored. Maybe he should have gotten to it a little faster, but ultimately, he wasn’t tested a great deal on this night.
Ronald Hernandez
Staff rating: 5.5 | Community rating: 5.72
No one is going to rate Hernandez as a Best XI outside back, but a player who’s gotten some blowback from fans has done rather well. He had a nice cross to Miguel Almiron in the 16th minute that should have been put away.
Brooks Lennon
Staff rating: 4.75 | Community rating: 3.88
Another tough night at the office for Brooks Lennon, who was caught ball-watching and didn’t account for Dante Sealy’s run on Montreal’s goal. That said, he had a really good look at goal in the second half off a perfect Saba Lobjanidze pass.
Stian Gregersen
Staff rating: 6 | Community rating: 6.4
Gregersen didn’t see out the match as he exited with about 15 minutes to go. It will be interesting to see what his involvement will be when Juan Berrocal gets 90 minutes fit.
Enea Mihaj
Staff rating: 6.25 | Community rating: 6.48
Mihaj did a strong job limiting Prince Owusu’s role in the attack, making a pair of defensive stops in the second half to keep Montreal from doubling its margin.
Bartosz Slisz
Staff rating: 6.5 | Community rating: 6.24
Slisz continues to be a steady performer for Atlanta United, ending the night with a 92% pass success rate and with a pair of chances created. He also had a nice pass to Ronald Hernandez that led to a laf-opportunity for Saba to find the scoresheet.
Tristan Muyumba
Staff rating: 4.5 | Community rating: 2.88
Atlanta’s worst player on the night. Misplaced passes, few contributions to the attack, and allowed Caden Clark to get behind him and set up Sealy’s goal. To be fair, it wasn’t all bad as he had a nice backheel to Latte Lath that nearly led to the first goal.
Saba Lobjanidze
Staff rating: 5.5 | Community rating: 5.96
Saba’s work rate and determination continue to be on display, but it’s still not translating to goals and assists in the manner anyone would like. FotMob credited him with four chances created on the night, including the entry pass to Lennon in the 56th minute.
Miguel Almiron
Staff rating: 6 | Community rating: 5.24
Almiron had another decent game, forcing Thomas Gillier into a diving save on a well-placed header in the 16th minute. That said, for a DP, he needs better than “decent” performances.
Emmanuel Latte Lath
Staff rating: 4 | Community rating: 3.88
Considering the amount of money Atlanta United paid to bring him to MLS, Latte Lath has to do better with the chances he was given on Saturday — mainly on Efra Morales’s poor giveaway in the 30th minute that went wide of an open goal.
Substitutes
Will Reilly (46′)
Staff rating: 5.5 | Community rating: 5.8
The midfield just looks so much better with Will Reilly in it. He had a bounce-back performance after a poor showing against Atlas in Leagues Cup just days ago.
Juan Berrocal (66′)
Staff rating: 6 | Community rating: 6
Liked what I saw from Juan Berrocal on his debut. He announced his presence with quite a screen of Prince Owusu before putting a header just over the bar less than 10 minutes later.
Derrick Williams (75′)
Staff rating: 4.5 | Community rating: 4.12
Forgettable 15 minutes plus stoppage time for Williams. His performances continue to be massively worrying for this club.
Luke Brennan (75′)
Staff rating: 6 | Community rating: 6
Good on Luke for finally (!) getting his first MLS assist. Let’s be honest: it wasn’t the cleanest one, but it still counts.
Steven Alzate (83′)
Alzate’s involvement was limited in his MLS debut. He’ll likely play a much bigger role against Colorado.
Yeah, I agree with the comments here/staff rating on Lennon, and I’ve been one of his greatest detractors here. He wasn’t great, but he was a lot better than he has been. Decent offensive moves, and actually blocked some crosses for once.
Wow. For anyone to suggest that goal was Lennon’s fault is ridiculous. He had his man marked, and somehow the ball got past about six of our players leaving Lennon to stop two players – alone. He at least mad the first guy pass and not go 1v1 against Guz. Give the guy a break.
I agree with the staff ratings, not as much with the community ratings. For example, the MTL goal is solely on the back line & muyumba. Lennon came in to cover Caden which left the back side runner to be free. Rock & hard place for him. Plus, he did more of what he should be doing by creating overloads and getting into spaces he isn’t expecting to be in. He did that against Miami and a few other teams over the last couple seasons and it caused havoc on the opposing team. Need more of that.
And Latte, dude, it’s getting painful to watch him with the ball at his feet. It’s like all he ever did growing up was shoot, never dribble. Still looks like a fresh baby deer walking for the first time.
Agreed on Lennon… For all the grief we’ve given him defensively speaking this year, he had basically no choice but to try and close down the immediate shot threat that was Muyumba’s responsibility to track through the channel. Everyone else already had a duty to perform, but he was marking air.
ELL… I just don’t know. I want to call it Yips but he has scored a couple recently and is getting at least one gift a game that he’s squandering… Doesn’t feel like Yips at this point. Gotta be a combo of misplaying his strengths and bad fit at this point, right?
I do appreciate Latte’s effort in assisting on defense, but at this point, he sits too far down in our half. I would rather see him stand around near the opponent backline the whole match so we can use his speed more effectively. I just wonder if that is more Latte’s doing or if the coaching staff is having him stand that deep in our zone…
I remember a coach saying to Josef years ago that the striker/forward is the first defender and that stuck with me because it’s true, you’re the first person/group of players the ball has to get past. Usually it’s pretty easy, but you still have to play as a defender in that instance and win the ball back.
But sitting deep to where you’re not a threat on the attack/counterattack is too much. At the point you’re man marking, you still have more numbers than they do because they won’t be bringing their entire line up into the attack. They’re too vulnerable at that point unless the game is on the line. So we should still look dangerous in that counter but even then, our play is still too damn predictable to be a threat. Become the threat Josef was where defenses struggled to manage him and you start seeing points come your way.