Atlanta United’s DPs confident Gerardo Martino will bring out their best

Any Atlanta United bounceback from last season’s franchise-worst performance will hinge on the improvement of Designated Players Emmanuel Latte Lath, Miguel Almirón and Alexey Miranchuk.

The team opened training camp Monday under new manager Gerardo Martino with belief from two of the three DPs that their play and therefore the team’s results are going to improve.

“His energy gives a lot,” Latte Lath said of Martino. “We’ve just got to do our best to do better than last season because it was really tough for us as well, too, because we didn’t have this connection.”

Almirón and Latte Lath struggled last season. Almirón finished with six goals, three from penalty kicks, and seven assists, four primary. Latte Lath finished with seven goals and one assist. Miranchuk, who was moved around by previous manager Ronny Deila in part because he was trying to figure out how to use Almirón, finished with six goals and four assists.

“Tata’s return is not only going to help me,” Almirón said. “I think it’s going to help the team, the club, the city.”

Deila typically played Miranchuk as the attacking midfielder with Almirón on the right. Almirón, though, frequently would drift into the same spaces on the right side of the pitch where Miranchuk liked to play.

Deila tried moving Miranchuk back into a deeper role with Almirón playing as the attacking midfielder. It didn’t produce results. Deila eventually moved Miranchuk back to the “10″ and tried Almirón on the right and then on the left.

Truly, nothing worked, which was why Atlanta United scored only 38 goals and Deila was fired shortly after the season finale.

Almirón said that he and Martino have discussed him having more free reign to find the ball and dictate play than he had last season, which he frequently said he didn’t want to discuss the specifics of.

Playing under Martino as the attacking midfielder in 2017 and ’18, Almirón scored 21 goals and had 28 assists.

“I like to play in that kind of free role, and Tata knows me well, and I know Tata and his staff, but it’s not just about me or about those three players, it’s about everyone,” he said. “And so I think we’re gonna continue to work hard.”

Latte Lath said he’s had only a brief conversation with Martino about his role. Because he wanted to unplug during the offseason, Latte Lath said he hasn’t watched any film of the ‘17 and ‘18 teams to see how Martino used Josef Martinez, who scored 50 goals in those two seasons.

One of the reason that the three DPs struggled may have been because they didn’t play a single minute together in a preseason friendly last season. Latte Lath said he’s not sure if that affected their performances. He did agree that the chemistry wasn’t there because he was tired last season.

Neither Almirón nor Latte Lath got an offseason before the 2026 season. Latte Lath came to MLS from the Championship in England. Almirón came from the Premier League. Almirón said he was prepared for 20 consecutive months of soccer.

Though he said he spent the recent offseason thinking about Atlanta United, he added that getting six weeks off should help his performances this year.

“Break is always helpful for you, mentally, physically,” he said. “So it’s always going to be a positive. Last year was difficult and strange.”

Latte Lath said that last season taught him how to suffer, but an offseason will help.