To watch Atlanta United’s offense in the first half of Sunday’s 1-0 loss at Charlotte was to wonder whether the millions of dollars in transfer fees spent on acquiring players was worth it.
When the team had the ball, players off the ball rarely moved. There were seldom runs to the ball. There were seldom runs down the field. Charlotte’s players only had to stand next to their mark because their mark likely wasn’t going to move.
Still, when players did move the team produced three quality chances in the first half.
“Well, it’s not easy is one of the main things,” manager Gonzalo Pineda said. “Good teams, I think, do that.”
The thinking goes, though, is that Atlanta United should be doing that. Not all the time, but certainly with more frequency than it has this season and much better than it did in the first half against an expansion team.
Pineda will never criticize his players publicly. But he has said a few times that they are missing that final pass, or that final run, or that decision in the field’s final third.
It has been true, and it was true for the final 40 minutes of the first half at Charlotte.
Pineda said the game plan, which included playing with three centerbacks and two wingbacks, was to get those wingbacks, Brooks Lennon and Andrew Gutman, involved in the attack up the field. But they couldn’t because the players who were responsible for finding them, Marcelino Moreno and Thiago Almada, were hemmed in by Charlotte’s four aggressive midfielders in the middle of the field. There was no space nor time to receive the ball, lift their head up and find a runner. D.C. United did something similar the previous week.
“It’s not like it was an easy game,” Pineda said. “We knew there were challenges. We knew that we needed to have more patience in our build-up, so we could be able to really unbalance them. I think the moments we did that, that’s where we succeed. But the moments we were very direct, we try to force balls to tough areas and they were very good at pressing those half-spaces that we want to occupy. That was the first half.”
But Charlotte was also able to control the flanks, keeping Lennon and Gutman from getting up the field. Atlanta United finished the first half with three crosses.
“I mean, when you’re on the road, you want to dictate the tempo and have a lot of the ball and connect your passes, get the team moving side to side,” Lennon said. “But that is something that we didn’t do (Sunday) that we need to improve on is getting runners in behind into those primary assist zones that Gonzalo talks about so that we can create better goal-scoring opportunities. And we had a lot of players coming to the ball (Sunday), but not a lot of players running behind, and that’s something that we all need to work on it, you know, collectively.”
Pineda hopes that with more consistency in the starting lineup the issues the team experienced in the first half will be resolved. The team was without striker Josef Martinez, who is out six to eight weeks after undergoing arthroscopic surgery on his right knee, and Luiz Araujo, who suffered a hamstring injury in the first week.
“So I will say that yes, we need to work a bit more,” he said. “We need to maybe message better the players on how to attack.”
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Atlanta United’s 2022 MLS schedule
Feb. 27 Atlanta United 3, Sporting KC 1
March 5 Colorado 3, Atlanta United 0
March 13 Atlanta United 2, Charlotte 1
March 19 Atlanta United 3, Montreal 3
April 2 Atlanta United 1, D.C. United 0
April 10 Charlotte 1, Atlanta United 0
April 16 vs. Cincinnati, 6 p.m., Peachtree TV
April 24 at Miami, 1 p.m., ESPN
April 30 at Montreal, 4 p.m., BSSO/BSSE
May 7 vs. Chicago, 6 p.m., BSSO/BSSE
May 15 vs. New England, 1:30 p.m., ESPN
May 21 at Nashville, 7:30 p.m. FOX
May 28 vs. Columbus Crew, 7 p.m., BSSO/BSSE
June 19 vs. Miami, 4 p.m., ESPN2
June 25 at Toronto, 7:30 p.m., BSSO/BSSE
June 30 at New York Red Bulls, 8 p.m., BSSO/BSSE
July 3 at NYCFC, 5 p.m., BSSO/BSSE
July 9 vs. Austin, 7 p.m., BSSO/BSSE
July 13 vs. Real Salt Lake, 7:30 p.m., BSSO/BSSE
July 17 vs. Orlando, 3 p.m., ABC
July 24 at L.A. Galaxy, 9:30 p.m., FS1
July 30 at Chicago, 5 p.m., BSSO/BSSE
Aug. 6 vs. Seattle, 3 p.m., ABC
Aug. 13 at Cincinnati, 7:30 p.m. BSSO/BSSE
Aug. 17 vs. New York Red Bulls, 7:30 p.m., BSSO/BSSE
Aug. 21 at Columbus, 6 p.m., FS1
Aug. 28 vs. D.C. United, 4 p.m., UNIV
Aug. 31 at Philadelphia, 7:30 p.m.
Sept. 4 at Portland, 5:30 p.m., FOX
Sept. 10 vs. Toronto, 7:30 p.m., BSSO/BSSE
Sept. 14 at Orlando, 6 p.m., BSSO/BSSE
Sept. 17 vs. Philadelphia, 3:30 p.m., UniMas
Oct. 1 at New England, 1 p.m., UniMas
Oct. 9 vs. NYCFC, TBD, BSSO/BSSE
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