Atlanta United at Charlotte FC: 3 questions about Charlotte with Colin Cerniglia

After a loss to Nashville SC on Friday, Atlanta United goes again on Wednesday with a second derby opponent in a row. This time, it’s Charlotte FC at Bank of America Stadium, meeting No. 10 in a series that Charlotte leads 5-4 — and a team Atlanta’s beaten already this season. That, of course, came on April 28 during the U.S. Open Cup’s Round of 16.

For more on Charlotte, I connected with Colin Cerniglia (X, Bsky) from Charlotte Footy.

The big news for Charlotte FC is the departure of Wilfried Zaha after his purchase option was not picked up, followed by the signing of Allan Saint-Maximin. What impact can the former Ligue 1 and Premier League winger have in MLS?

The Zaha departure was interesting. He almost certainly played the final two games of his Charlotte FC career knowing he wouldn’t be coming back after the international break. Those are the tea leaves from players and manager Dean Smith when they talk about conversations with Zaha and how he handled himself upon his departure. I don’t know if anyone has explicitly verified that Zaha was a lame duck. Nonetheless, he balled out on his way out. He scored one goal, played all 90 minutes of each game, and Charlotte won both games outright to give them some nice momentum heading into the break. It could have gone very differently. But Zaha seems like he is a good dude who understood the business aspect of the decision, and I hope wherever he ends up that he’s able to contribute and be the impact player he is.

I always thought Charlotte FC was at its best– offensively — when Zaha was aggressive. But he seemed to have trouble doing that consistently. Part of it is because that’s not how Dean Smith has the offense set up. But the larger issue was how he was being defended, and the fouls that were being called against him, but not for him. According to FOX Sports MLS Discipline Stats, Zaha was the 7th most fouled player through the break (with 32; the leader has 38). Teams figured out that Zaha could get in his own head, and then outwardly it would affect his play. Not so much that he was a detriment to the team, but enough that he wasn’t the consistent star Charlotte FC needed him to be.

Job No. 1: Maxi has is to be more of a consistent offensive threat than his predecessor. Maxi seems to have all the charisma and swagger Zaha has, so more offensive capabilities would be a real shot in the arm for Charlotte FC.

Job No. 2 is not to try to be Zaha. The comparisons will follow No. 10 (including wearing the same number as Zaha) around as long as he lets them, but I think Maxi would do himself — and the team — a real service by differentiating himself. 

If it all comes together, Maxi has a chance to be the best DP player in Charlotte FC’s short team history. 

Charlotte is 6-6-3 right now, so just above the middle of the table in the Eastern Conference. With Saint-Maximin in the fold, what do you think the ceiling could be for this team over the next 19 matches?

The ceiling is for Charlotte FC to control its own destiny. According to my colleague Carroll Walton at The Ledger, Charlotte played some of its toughest opponents in the first 15 games of the season. They faced MLS leader Nashville twice, fourth-place New England twice and Inter Miami once. Eight of their first 10 games against Eastern Conference opponents were teams that are currently above the playoff line. Only seven of their last 15 games against conference opponents are against teams currently above the playoff line.

Maxi gives them an offensive boost, but their defense will always be the benchmark, including the magical Kahlina in goal. 

As a small side note, I’m interested to see if Will Cleary gets more minutes on defense. He started the final first-half regular season game against New England and recorded his first career assist. Coach Smith has already begun talking about depth and the need for players to be healthy and available in the back-half schedule. I could see Cleary getting minutes to spell someone like Tim Ream, who is coming off a heavy World Cup workload and has already dealt with an injury that kept him out of play this season.

Pep Biel’s off to another strong start (7g/6a in 15 matches) — obviously no surprise that Charlotte moved to permanently sign him from Olympiacos in January. What needs to happen for Atlanta to limit the amount of damage he can inflict?

I don’t know if it’s just here, but Pep Biel might be the best player that doesn’t get the respect he deserves. When I did my second-half opponent preview series (14 unique opponents covered), I was happy to see Biel’s name come up more often than not as the player to watch. Of course, many of those previews were written before Maxi was signed. But Biel’s presence on this team is significant. Despite a lingering injury last season that kept him out a chunk of games, Charlotte went on a heater and won 9 in a row outright. A lot of reporters — including myself — thought the opposite would happen when Biel went down. So then the media and fans thought, “Hey, do we really need this guy after all?” The answer became glaringly obvious very quickly: YES. Biel never fully recovered last season and was absent for Charlotte FC’s first-round playoff loss to NYCFC. Before the injury, Biel scored 10 goals and had 12 assists. I’m fully confident that it wouldn’t have taken the team almost three games (81st minute of Game 3) to score a goal in regulation had Biel been available. But he wasn’t, the offense was lifeless, and Charlotte FC lost the series 2-1. That’s how important Biel is to Charlotte FC and their fortunes.

Without a true No. 6 — per your assessment — I think the only way Atlanta stops Biel is by finding someone who can anchor the midfield. Even then, it might be a case of just limiting the damage, knowing Biel is going to get his during the game.

I think the transition game is crucial. Without a consistent offensive attack, that’s where Charlotte FC can really hurt an opponent. Watch the opening second-half minutes of Charlotte’s game against FC Cincinnati for the purest example of this. 2 goals in roughly 2 minutes, after being down 2-0 going into half. Then they never really found any offensive rhythm the rest of the game and held on for the draw. 

It doesn’t look like Maxi’s visa situation will be handled by Wednesday, so look for Biel to be the guy to try and jump start the scoring. Charlotte will want to get on the board first and keep the mid-week home crowd in the game. It should be a decent crowd, being the first game out of break, but it’s also the middle of summer.