Well, it’s almost like Atlanta United are copying and pasting at this point. It was another game against Miami, another bad performance from Atlanta, and another 2-1 loss. However, as bad as it is right now, and trust me, IT’S BAD. There are some positives that maybe, kind of, can be taken away from this game.
Let’s start with the bad. At the time of writing this Atlanta United sit in 12th place in the Eastern Conference, being leapfrogged by their opponents on the day, Inter Miami, and a few others. So, this means you can say goodbye to the “they’re still in a playoff spot,” comments. If it wasn’t already obvious, not being in a playoff spot should clearly show there’s a problem in Atlanta. They have failed to register a win in their last 6 games. While all of these are pretty bad problems in themselves, I think the scariest problem of them all is the lack of effort and care for certain spurts in games. Now don’t get me wrong, there was a lot of really good shows of effort today by the team. The first one that comes to mind is the Jon Gallagher block on Brek Shea. However, there isn’t any consistency with the effort. The only time there seems to be effort is when it’s blatantly obvious that they need to put some effort in. The only time I can remember today that a player was full out sprinting not in an obvious time, was one time that Matheus Rossetto sprinted from midfield to press the defense. He proceeded to be passed around because no one followed him and then he started slowly jogging back. There are way too many times on both offense and defense where players are either jogging, walking, or just straight up standing still. This is not how you win soccer games.
Now for the good (before probably more bad.) The team barring the absurdly early conceding of a goal for the second game in a row, and then conceding another, looked better than they have in a while in the first half. They looked like they cared and seemed to be responding to a 5-game winless streak. Gallagher scored a spectacular goal to tie it up at 1, but then Brek Shea scored what ended up being the winner just minutes later. It had to be him didn’t it. Sorry, I got off track there, continuing with the good. The team in general just looked more active than they have for a while. The midfield was more involved, and through Gallagher, Atlanta had someone actually making runs in behind. It looked like it was possible the team were on a road back to better play. And another (kind of) positive of the day was that the team arguably should’ve came away with a tie when they played an MLS game for the first time in their history without a designated player on the field. Josef Martinez has been out for a while with an ACL injury, while Barco apparently is day-to-day with a hamstring injury. While this isn’t all because of Josef Martinez’s absence, it can’t help that he’s not on the field, and it definitely can’t hurt when he’s back on the field. This team seems to be lacking any players that bring the best out of the others around them. Josef Martinez is one of those players. He is a gritty player who only has eyes on winning. That mentality spreads throughout the team when he’s on the field.
Now, while the first half looked promising, all of the hope vanished in the second half. Miami played a little more defensive with a lead and Atlanta United went back to dull and uninventive soccer. They never really looked like scoring. The team seem to be in that place where they are always outnumbered. They’re outnumbered by defenders when attacking, they’re outnumbered in the midfield, and they’re outnumbered by attackers when defending. That normally means the team isn’t working hard enough. Like I said earlier there are plenty of times on both offense and defense where players just don’t look like they want to get involved. Players are jogging back at a walking pace when Miami are on the counter, so players are left wide open. Then on the attack the midfielders and attackers sometimes jog away from the player with the ball giving them no options. Or, the midfielders will make a pass and then stand there after they pass the ball. Now it is important to point out that I don’t necessarily think this is the players’ faults. I think they are confused when they are out on the field so they don’t know when to press or where to make runs. Whether it’s the players’ fault or not though, playing like that just doesn’t get you results, and Atlanta are finding that out the hard way.
At the end of the day Atlanta are still in trouble. The team are running out of time to fix the season. It’s possible rumored signing Marcelino Moreno could help a little bit on offense. However, he’s an unknown player, so to rely on him to fix everything would put way too much pressure on a new player. And even if he helps the attack and the midfield (which is a huge ask,) how do the defensive problems get fixed? This is more than a couple problems here and there. This is a whole team problem. The only thing I can think of that might help fix it right now, is a new coach. Get a new coach, possibly bring in Moreno or a new player (but don’t panic buy,) and almost press the restart button on the season. I think at this point, you’re going to need wholesale changes, not small ones. And the later it gets into the season, the less likely it becomes that wholesale changes can work to save this season. Action needs to be taken now within the club, before it becomes too little, too late.