The 13 minutes that Jeff Larentowicz and Eric Remedi played together for Atlanta United in its 3-1 win against D.C. United last week shows promise should the two be paired for more minutes in Saturday’s game at Montreal.
“Communication was fine,” Larentowicz said. “Thought it went pretty well. We had the lead. One thing you saw was we passed the game away. That’s important.”
Remedi came on as a sub in the 77th minute in his first appearance with the club after being acquired from Banfield in Argentina.
Atlanta United had been shopping for another defensive midfielder since January, which is when it sold Carlos Carmona to Colo-Colo in Chile.
Though described as a pure holding midfielder by manager Gerardo Martino, Remedi said he can play either as a partner with Larentowicz or move farther up the field to join in the offense.
“The offensive players are the ones that generate the plays so, I’ll let them do it,” Remedi said.
During a scrimmage last week, Larentowicz said Remedi started beside him as a pair of holding midfielders. By the end of the scrimmage, Remedi was playing in front of him.
The ability to read the game, and take up good starting positions, is one of the things that Atlanta United Vice President Carlos Bocanegra said they appreciated about Remedi.
It was a crazy week for Remedi, who landed in Atlanta on July 13th, began training with the team on the 16th, and was in his first 18 on the 21st.
“Luckily my Argentine teammates and Miguel (Almiron) have helped me adapt well to the group,” he said.
With Martino’s decision to not allow Ezequiel Barco to play in Saturday’s game at Montreal, the resulting lineup decisions could see Remedi and Larentowicz starting together in the midfield. Martino could go with the same starting 11 as he used against D.C. United, with Andrew Carleton moving into Barco’s spot on the left side of the midfield, or he could move Julian Gressel from the middle to the left, and Remedi into the middle.
If Martino were to do that, the team’s playing style may closely resemble last year’s energetic high press when Carmona and Larentowicz were the duo in the center behind Almiron. This year, when Darlington Nagbe was in the starting lineup before suffering an adductor injury, the team pressed, but was more selective when doing so.
Remedi said Atlanta United’s system is similar to what he played in at Banfield. However, with Martino as manager there’s more emphasis on direct play.
“I’m just trying to get used to things as fast as possible,” he said.
