Pineda excited to lead first Atlanta United training session

Gonzalo Pineda said his excitement over leading his first training session as Atlanta United’s manager won’t prevent him from sleeping Monday night.

Pineda’s hiring was announced on August 12 but because he tested positive for COVID he couldn’t join the team for several days. He met some of the players face to face for the first time on August 20 in Washington D.C. ahead of last week’s 2-1 victory. Tuesday will be the first training session that he will lead. He said it will be about his first message, meeting the players and setting the standards that he expects on and off the field. Pineda plans a group meeting and then individual meetings with the players throughout the week. He said there will be a couple of immediate changes to team’s schedule and the flow of the sessions.

“Very simple, nothing dramatically different,” he said. “I just want to send that first message.”

Because he said he is very detail-oriented, the week’s sessions have been planned out ahead of Saturday’s important game against Nashville at Mercedes-Benz Stadium. Tuesday’s session Pineda said the sessions will be collaboratively managed by himself and his assistants, which includes Rob Valentino, who led the team between Gabriel Heinze’s time and Pineda’s. But for the next few weeks, Pineda said his voice will be the one heard by players most frequently. As the weeks progress, he said he is glad for his assistants to run the sessions.

At some point during Pineda’s interview process with club president Darren Eales and Carlos Bocanegra the team was in the middle of a winless streak that eventually reached 12 games. Under Valentino, the team is riding a four-game winning streak and is tied on points (27) with D.C. United for the seventh spot in the East. D.C. United has the tie-breakers.

Pineda said that the team is winning will make job as its new manager easier but there is also an expectation that makes it difficult.

“The mood of the team is better, everyone is happier and everybody is in better spirits,” he said. “That makes my life easier in terms of the message. But at the same time, I have to be careful with not everything being good news. We need to improve in a couple of areas. We are facing a very good opponent in Nashville. Expectations are high. There are some sort of expectations for the fans to see a good game against Nashville.”

Pineda said he and Valentino were in communication about the team’s tactics, formation and personnel before the past two games. He said their thoughts were very similar with Valentino making the final decision.

Pineda said he liked the team’s mentality, particularly in the last game when it turned a 1-1 draw into a 2-1 victory. He appreciated Luiz Araujo tracking back into Atlanta United’s corner to try to win the ball.

“That showed the character of the team, the mentality of the team,” he said.

He said he liked how the team looked in transition when attacking, particularly when Ezequiel Barco, Marcelino Moreno or Araujo would run at defenders.

“You can feel the danger,” he said.

Pineda said he wanted to talk to the players first on Tuesday before sharing the areas that need to be improved. He shared that some of the defensive shapes can be improved and that there are a couple of attacking movements he would like to start training.

“I will go into more detail with the players tomorrow,” he said.

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