Atlanta United won’t open training camp until January, but work is ongoing from Vice President Carlos Bocanegra and manager Gonzalo Pineda to try to improve upon this year’s fifth-place finish in the MLS Eastern Conference.
In addition to a few roster changes, the two are discussing formation changes and how to put what remains a talented group of players in the best positions to succeed in the 2022 season.
“What are my goals is obviously winning,” Pineda said. “But more than that is to be the team that deserves to win and to create the culture in the team that we fight.”
The next training camp will be Pineda’s first with the team after he joined mid-season from Seattle, where he was an assistant. The weeks will provide his first lengthy opportunity to drill down into the tactics and nuances within for the players. While learning about each other on the fly last season, the team took 24 of a possible 39 points from 13 games.
“For me, it’s a great opportunity to probably pass a better message to the players on how we want to play, why we want to play in that way,” Pineda said. “And how I can also find a solution from the players.”
The team typically played with three centerbacks, two wingbacks, two defensive midfielders, two wingers and a striker under interim manager Rob Valentino and then Pineda. He did alter the formation a few times, depending upon situations.
It seems that there is consideration to changing the base formation, according to Bocanegra and Pineda. The team has a wealth of attacking talent with Josef Martinez, who led the squad with 12 goals; Marcelino Moreno, who had nine goals and five assists; and Luiz Araujo, who had four goals and four assists in 15 appearances. Whether Ezequiel Barco returns or is sold is to be determined. The team reportedly is close to signing another rising young Argentinian, Thiago Almada, who would seem to be the Barco replacement. The team also should see the return of midfielder Emerson Hyndman from a season-ending injury.
To accommodate all of that, and to play the attacking soccer that Bocanegra and Pineda desire, likely would require sacrificing one of the centerbacks.
A likely change would be to play two centerbacks, keep the two defensive midfielders and add an attacking midfielder.
“That’s what we all enjoy, seeing a team that is always trying to attack, trying to penetrate lines at pace,” Pineda said. “After that we need to maintain the control of the game, having some balance between the players that are just protecting the counter and trying to regain the ball again and then trying to continue the attack. So that is always the challenge. The hope that with a long preseason we can work on those things.”
From the formation, tactically Pineda said he wants the team to improve its rate of creating chances. The team finished seventh in MLS in key passes (71) but scored only 42 goals, 20 fewer than league leaders New England. Its rate of expected goals (1.29) was among the lowest in the league. Creating more chances should improve the probability of scoring more goals.
Pineda also wants to strengthen the team mentally. Though the team was strong enough in its final two games to earn a draw at the Red Bulls and a win at Cincinnati after falling behind, the players switched off in two pivotal moments on set pieces in the playoff loss at NYCFC that proved the difference in the 2-0 loss.
Bocanegra and Pineda said they hope that by adding a couple of MLS veterans to a roster that ranked among the youngest in MLS it will help the players learn how to manage games.
“I think if we’re able to do those two things, be more offensive, be more aggressive, be more clinical also in the final third having more numbers, we’re also experienced enough to close down games,” Pineda said. “And make sure that we get the result that we want. I think we’re going to be a very good team next year. But obviously we need to go through the process of the preseason and hopefully get there very soon.”
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Atlanta United’s 2022 MLS schedule
Feb. 27 vs. Sporting KC, 3 p.m.
March 5 at Colorado, 6 p.m.
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