Was Atlanta United Built Simply to Outscore Opponents? (The Designated Pundits Show)
I was given the opportunity to join Bob Ventimiglia and Scott Omer on their show to discuss everything from MLS Matchday 2, specifically Atlanta’s defensive struggles in Charlotte.
On Monday night, I was given the opportunity to be a guest on The Designated Pundits Results and Recap show, where we reviewed the best and worst from an eventful second week of MLS action.
Bob, Scott, and myself opened the show by discussing the best thing we saw in MLS action (starts at 3:25 in the video), and our beginning talks broke down how the Red Bulls were able to beat Nashville SC with two good goals and a quality defensive structure.
From 16:54-21:43 we broke down the worst thing I saw this week, which was the defensive breakdown of Atlanta United on the two goals created in part by Wilfred Zaha. We analyzed where in the play the team’s structure fell apart and how Charlotte exploited the space afforded to them. There was also talk on how Guzan could have handled the second goal better with his parry and dive for Zaha’s volley.
However, there was one disagreement from last night, and that is where Bob says that the Atlanta team was made to simply outscore their opponents. I didn’t state it at the time, but I happen to disagree. While yes, Atlanta’s attack was built to score a lot of goals, I feel like a lot of effort has been put into the defense, too. The partnership of Gregersen and Williams has shown progress, but injuries (Williams played 32 games last season, but Gregersen had only 27) and personal defensive mistakes hurt Atlanta both last year and in Charlotte. I don’t think it is the structure of the defense or the quality of our starters that holds us back, just fluky moments mixed with poor wingback depth and not staying healthy. Scott even believed we didn’t defend that badly when we set up our shape, and I agree too. It’s making sure we defend well in transition. We struggled mightily under Pineda trying to do so, but one of the first things I noticed when we brought Gregersen in was how he was able to defend well against the counter-attack. Williams, for his part, was pretty good last year too. We will see if Deila can fix this long-standing issue for the club over the next few months.
It is discussed in the video as well, but mistakes will happen when a center-back plays as a left-back (Abram) and the right-back is a Homegrown making his 2nd ever start (Edwards). Therefore, I am not yet worried about this team’s defending. However, what does put some doubt in my mind, and gives the most credit to the “built to outscore” opinion, is the longitivtiy of Brad Guzan
You never want to come to conclusions after one bad game. However, Guzan was very very poor in Charlotte, simple as. Bob and Scott held the belief that Guzan could have caught or parried the shot from Abada that led to Zaha’s goal into a less dangerous position if he was younger. I was more caught off guard by his slowness to dive for Zaha’s volley, reaching rather than moving to than go to ground. After last year’s playoff heroics, I will never again assume Father Time has caught up to Guzan. It’s just something to be aware of if it does overtake him in the race.
My conclusion is that Atlanta United was not built solely to outscore other clubs. But, they are built to outscore clubs if needed, depending on backline health and Guzan’s performances at 40 years of age. Let’s hope it does not get to that.
Another noticeable moment in the video regarding Southeast clubs our site covers was the breakdown of the pitch invader in the Inter Miami game (could Messi’s bodyguards have stopped him?) and Houston’s decision to give fans a choice to attend another match for Lionel Messi being rested (Sunday began a stretch of 5 games in 15 days for Miami) at 28:30 in the video. Not specifically for the Southeast, you’ll hear interesting insight into Philadelphia Union, FC Dallas, San Jose Earthquakes (with a bit of talk on Josef Martinez), and more!
It was a great time being on, so thanks to The Designated Pundits crew for the opportunity!
I tend to agree with you. Really hard to judge Atlanta as a whole until they have their starting outside backs back, fit and in form. I think the defense and the offense will improve greatly. Looking forward to listening to this.