Atlanta United exclusive: ‘We know we can get more from the rest of the group’

Jonathan Spector knows what it’s like to come to MLS from an overseas league.

Atlanta United’s head of international recruitment and development, Spector returned to the United States to join Orlando after playing for teams in England from 2003 to 2017.

He theorized Tuesday that changing leagues, with the subsequent issues of jumping from one season into the next, and all that comes with changing countries, is partly why some of Atlanta United’s newer players have struggled this season.

Spector discussed that and more in Part 2 of an exclusive interview with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

In the first part of our exclusive interview, Spector detailed the club’s efforts to sign central defenders Enea Mihaj and Juan Berrocal to improve a porous defense, to add more leaders and the ability to scout for injuries, which are an important factor in the poor play of the defense.

Questions and answers have been edited for brevity and clarity.

Q: Looking at the designated players, I think it’s fair to say they haven’t fulfilled the expected potential. When you scouted, for example, Emmanuel Latte Lath, what did you see at that point and as a former soccer player and a guy who’s heavily invested in the team emotionally, that you aren’t seeing now?

A: It’s an interesting one. Having done this myself, coming from a European season straight into an MLS season, I don’t think people appreciate how challenging and difficult that is.

For a defender, I think maybe it’s a little bit easier. For an attacking player, I think it’s even harder. And I say that because we’ve asked him to play his full season, pretty much, in Europe, and then add on to that. Physiologically, we’re just not used to that. We’re not built for that. So it takes time.

He’s going to need a break this offseason. And I think it’s just shown a little bit that, as an attacking player who’s super-explosive, super-dynamic, when you maybe don’t have that because you’ve been playing for so long that fatigue kind of compounds over time. I think it’s really challenging.

I don’t think we’ve seen the best of him here in Atlanta just yet. I think there’s a lot more to come from him.

What we really liked about him is his profile. I think his profile for MLS is really good. He’s explosive; he’s dynamic. He’d finish in different ways. He started extremely well. And I think everyone looked at him and thought, “OK, this is a great MLS player, great Atlanta United player.” And I think, you know, some fatigue maybe set in for him.

Add the challenge of living in a new place, family, all those kinds of things, it’s not easy transition to make.

So I think we’re going to see a lot more of him in terms of what he’s about and what we saw in him as a player. But I think his profile for this league is fantastic in terms of what he brings. He can score goals in different ways. He had a couple crosses from Brooks (Lennon) early in the season where he just towered above central defenders and headed in a goal. And he can beat players one on one, finish in the box, outside the box. So, I’m not worried about him in terms of what he can bring to the table. I think he just probably needs a little bit of a rest.

Q: Is some of that also true for Miguel Almiron?

A: I think for any guy that’s played at a high level in a really demanding league, and then coming here into another high level and another demanding league, it’s hard when you’re asked to play for that amount of time.

There’s a reason you’re constantly hearing players, managers talking about the congested fixtures and trying to find time for players to get a break. These are real challenges that we all face, and even more so for some of these players that are coming from Europe, and then we’re asking them not to play 12 months, but 16 months. Most of them are used to playing eight or nine months, right?

Q: When describing your emotions this season, because you were putting the puzzle pieces together based on needs and wants, I think before the year everyone thought this was a team that had MLS Cup potential. I’m curious, based on what you were just saying about the length of the seasons and some of these guys coming from Europe to MLS, if you thought the team had MLS Cup potential or if it was a year away, and just what you’re feeling now that the puzzle is still not complete?

A: Yeah, I think there’s always things that, always areas we can improve. Nothing is ever going to be perfect.

When you look at all the MLS teams, you can look at any roster and say, “OK, this is a really good roster. This isn’t this. This is where things need to be fixed, where this is where teams can improve.”

We look at all those things. We look at ourselves and in terms of what we can do better. I would say, going into the season, we had some expectations that we haven’t met for whatever reason. I think that’s something that we’re continuing to look at and analyze.

At the same time, we have a new sporting director in Chris Henderson, we have a new (manager) in Ronny Deila, new assistant coaches, new director of high performance, all these new pieces coming together. I think it would be misrepresentative to say all that’s just going to click right away. We have two new designated players coming in as well.

I’m not sure that we said, just like that, we’re going to snap our fingers and all of a sudden everything’s going to be exactly where it needs to be. We know it’s going to take some more work. I think we did some good work in this past window. We’ve got a lot of work ahead of us in the next window to try and get it to where we want it to be.

Q: Chris Henderson said last week that y’all were going to be looking at the Under-22 slots, which is a roster mechanism that (team president) Garth Lagerwey, from what he said in the past, doesn’t seem to like a lot. I’m curious are you pursuing some Under-22 signings?

A: We are looking at that. To be honest, we’re always looking at those opportunities. Garth wanted some, some prime-age players to build the core and the foundation of the team. I think we’re in a pretty good place with that now.

If we find the right players, then obviously we’ll bring that to Garth, to ownership, to Chris and make sure that everyone’s aligned in terms of what we’re looking to achieve within the group.

Q: You worked under former technical director Carlos Bocanegra. You’re working under Henderson. What are the differences between those two?

A: I’d actually say they see things in a similar way. Both had really good experience as players and then as executives within this league. Both have had success. So for me, it’s been great to work with both of them and learn from both of them, as well.

But in terms of differences, I think there’s probably more similarities than there are differences. Everyone has a slightly different way of working. I managed to build a good relationship with Carlos, continuing to work to build a good relationship with Chris.

Q: Chris said last week that everyone’s job is on the line right now because the results are not there. How much responsibility do you feel for the fact the team could be eliminated from the playoffs this weekend?

A: I think we all look at ourselves and see, what could we have done better? I don’t think anybody’s perfect in that, myself included. We look at that and want to make sure that we get this right for ourselves, for the group that’s here, for the fans.

We are incredibly appreciative of the support that we have as a club, even through challenging moments like what we’re going through right now and so we want to make sure that we can pay the fans back. So we’re working tirelessly to make sure that we can do that.

Q: What could you have done better?

A: That’s one of those reflective things. I would say we are looking at everything in terms of process, in terms of the makeup of the roster, what things could we have done? Were there some near misses on certain things? Could we have been more patient with something? Did we need to move quicker on something? There’s always players that we don’t talk about, obviously, in terms of players that we’re looking to bring in, and there’s always near misses.

We’re really happy with the group of players that we have here, for the most part. We know that we need to make some changes, but in general terms, I think we’ve got a good core of players that we can build around.

We need to look at and evaluate which players we can move on and which players, what positions we need to bring in, and who’s in that core.

I think the recent signings, the guys that we’ve brought in recently, I think are a good group, guys like Mihaj, for example, I think Steven Alzate is a player that we’ve made a long-term commitment to because we believe in him and what he can bring to the club. We’ve got our three designated players who we feel are players who can impact games more than they have been recently. I think Alexey (Miranchuk) has really come on in recent weeks and shown what he’s capable of.