Gonzalo Pineda said he learned a lot about himself as a manager, strategist and tactician last season, his first full one as Atlanta United’s manager. A lot that he hopes to apply this season.
The team failed to make the playoffs last season for the second time in three years but first under Pineda, who arrived in August 2021 and helped rally the team to the postseason.
The team had high hopes for last season after it earned 24 points in the 13 games under Pineda in 2021. Those hopes went unfulfilled, buried beneath a mountain of injuries that Pineda once said made one season feel like three as he tried to peace together lineups and triage a team to an ultimately disappointing finish.
But Pineda learned lessons.
The first, as a manager, was that he needs to maintain high standards during tough times. As the injuries -- more than 20 during the season resulted in players missing at least two games -- mounted, Pineda said he let some things slide because he was trying to do the best with what was available. Pineda didn’t want to name players or cite incidents. However, the club did suspend Josef Martinez for a week for what described as multiple instances of negative conduct.
“That’s not a regret because I still think that it was a sensitive time at that period of time,” Pineda said regarding letting some things go. “I think it was something that probably later in the year caused me trouble in terms of managing the team.”
Pineda mentioned those lapses in standards after last year’s 3-0 home loss to Austin. It may have been the low point of the season because the team was coming in with high hopes after a series of positive performances, only to be played off the field.
It’s a different experience Pineda said than when you’re working on coaching badges and licenses and thinking about a future in which the player that trains better always plays and the roster is full.
“The reality is completely different when you are competing for three points to make the playoffs and you don’t have really that luxury to do that,” he said.
Tactically, Pineda said he felt the team played well. He said the players controlled the tempo of most games and finished with the one of the highest expected goals (55.8; fifth most in the league), though they actually scored 48 (11th most in the league). He liked the team’s physicality and intensity.
He did learn more about certain players in certain positions within the tactics.
For example, Pineda has mentioned during the preseason not always pressing and instead of using a mid-block tactic to better defend the middle-third of the field. He has once mentioned playing long balls out of the back to beat pressure instead of trying to play up the field and through the opponent.
When the team does play out of the back, he said it could be too one-dimensional last season. This season, the team has been working on playing out of the back with two centerbacks and a fullback, instead of two centerbacks and a holding midfielder, which was used a lot last season. The idea is for the central midfielders to stay narrow, which gives larger pockets of space centrally for Thiago Almada and Luiz Araujo, and more room on the outside for the fullbacks and wingers.
“It has to go through the type of pressure we’re receiving and the type of structures that are pressing us,” Pineda said. “So we have the ability and the flexibility to pick and choose which of those two structures we can use. So that’s what I meant about that. Last year, I felt that we were only one structure. Now, we’re adding a little bit more nuances to that structure.”
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