Almirón, Gregersen, Berrocal sparkle as bright spots for Atlanta United
Three bright spots emerged from another gray Atlanta United match.
Miguel Almirón started for the second time this season on the left, and central defenders Stian Gregersen and Juan Berrocal paired together for the first time in Saturday’s 1-1 draw with San Diego.
Almirón scored Atlanta United’s goal after Jamal Thiare won a penalty kick. Almirón, making his 100th appearance for the team, also created two chances while putting two of his four shots on goal.
Almirón looked more dangerous on the left than he has this season on the right or as the attacking midfielder.
“I feel good playing in different positions,” Almirón said. “For my national team (Paraguay), I also play on the left, but they also know I feel good playing as an attacking midfielder, so I try to help the team wherever I’m called and wherever the coach says.”
Manager Ronny Deila said he started Almirón on the left because he likes to come inside onto his left foot. Being out wide gives him space to go inside and then cut back.
That wasn’t the only reason.
Attacking midfielder Alexey Miranchuk’s preference to work out of the pocket of space on the right side of the pitch, along with and the interchangeability of deeper midfielders Bartosz Slisz and Steven Alzate, and left fullback Pedro Amador’s ability to get up the field and into the attack, resulted in the change.
“I think we got good opportunities out of that,” Deila said. “I think it is our first match playing like that since the first match (of the season) so it takes a little bit of time to get everything coordinated again. I think it’s a possibility for us to keep playing like that.”
Atlanta United finished with 2.05 expected goals and 17 shots, six on target.
San Diego finished with fewer in every one of those categories mostly because of the work of Gregersen and Berrocal, who combined for 17 defensive contributions.
“I think (Juan) and Stian played well together,” Deila said. “Stian played probably the best that I have seen him.”
Gregersen was a bull running up and down the middle of the pitch. Though a central defender, he created two chances, including one that resulted in Thaire being taken down for the penalty kick.
It was Gregersen’s seventh consecutive match as a starter after missing the previous 14 matches because of a quadriceps injury.
“I’m more fit now than I was last year so that’s good because we train harder and it’s more professional now inside the club for body fat and stuff like that,” he said. “It’s helping now.”
Berrocal was the fifth different player to start beside Gregersen in a two-player pairing this season. He said he felt that he and Berrocal were precise and communicative.
“Stian is at a very high level, as well as Enea (Mihaj),” Berrocal said. “With Stian, it was very comfortable. Honestly, it’s easy to play with him; he’s strong physically and he helps me in certain moments.”
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