Describing their play with the ball as sloppy, but confident that it will improve, Atlanta United manager Frank de Boer said Friday that the goals will come, possibly as early as Sunday’s home-opening game against Cincinnati.
The team, which scored 70 goals in each of the past two seasons, has been shutout in its past two games against D.C. United and Monterrey. In those two games it has put just three shots on goal, all of which came from outside the penalty box.
“If you see D.C. and Monterrey, we have to be better and we can be better,” he said.
De Boer said the main issue is the lack of patience the team has the ball when it attacks. Players are giving away the ball either with poor passes or by trying to do too much by themselves.
He said the phrase the coaching staff uses is “log on” when describing mentally what needs to be done when the team has the ball.
“Good football players make right decisions in the right moments,” He said. “If you have to give 100 percent the ball to a player that can go one-on-one, you have to give it. If you do it four times and four times it doesn’t succeed, you have to keep the ball.”
De Boer was using that as an example and not singling out any particular player.
When Atlanta United wants the ball in its end, he described wanting to see the team exercise patience as it builds attacks. Too often, the team has attacked with inferior numbers and lost the ball.
“You spend 10-20 seconds running to get the ball and two seconds later you give it away,” he said. “Why do that? Have to recognize when to make difficult passes and when you have to keep the ball and push them back into their own box. Then when you lose the ball in two seconds you can have the ball back and make another attack.”
Some of Atlanta United’s supporters have expressed displeasure with de Boer, the 3-4-3 formation he prefers, and the lack of offense. It’s understandable but also possibly misplaced.
The team is trying to institute not only the new formation, which is one of the most difficult to learn, but also switch its mindset that’s akin to going from thriving in chaos to producing while reading a blueprint.
Fullback Mikey Ambrose described the difference between what previous manager Gerardo Martino wanted as “all-out attack. Everybody go forward. Everybody press. Everybody try to score.”
De Boer wants more focus on shape and discipline.
“Last couple of years everything went great,” Ambrose said. “Attacking style was a lot of fun, but we were sometimes left vulnerable in the back. Trying to improve on that. Once we get established, all around it will look a lot better.”
Because of the compressed schedule of four games and travel of more than 6,500 miles the past three weeks, de Boer and his staff haven’t had a lot of time to work on tactics in training. A lot of time has been spent on rest and recovery between games.
When planning what the team would work on during the preseason, before the team started living out of suitcases, de Boer and his staff reasoned that the offense they inherited seemed fine, but that improvements on defense could be made. That’s where most of the time was spent.
That work, outside of the first game at Herediano in Costa Rica, has born fruit. The team’s shape on defense was good in the pouring rain and freezing cold in Washington, D.C. The two goals were conceded with the result of individual errors. Until fatigue set in in Mexico, the team had allowed just one goal through 79 minutes against Monterrey.
“They are doing much, much better,” de Boer said. “The game isn’t 60 minutes, it isn’t 80 minutes. It’s 90-95 minutes. Especially against teams like Monterrey. It’s all decided by small details. If we want to be the best in MLS we have to improve in that.”
The work on offense likely will begin in earnest in a week. After Cincinnati on Sunday, the team will host Monterrey on Wednesday in the second leg of the Champions League and will host Philadelphia four days later. Rest and recovery will again be the routine between opponents.
“Still on the right track and just need a good result,” de Boer said. “Sunday is a good place to begin.”
About the Author
