Atlanta United has traded for Brooks Lennon, a player that "will leave it all on the field," according to Real Salt Lake analyst Brian Dunseth.
Atlanta United traded $150,000 in Targeted Allocation Money and $150,000 in General Allocation Money to Real Salt Lake in exchange for Lennon, a 22-year-old defender.
Lennon made 86 appearances, including 63 starts, for Real Salt Lake from 2017-19.
“At 22 and amount of games he has, a pretty good option for coaching staff,” said Dunseth, who also co-hosts the show “Counter Attack” on Sirius XM.
Dunseth described Lennon as a pro who needed a change. He came up as a Homegrown player in Real Salt Lake’s academy before joining Liverpool. He returned on loan, and it was made permanent in January 2017.
An attacking player, he moved to right back by necessity.
That was then.
Now the right side of Real Salt Lake’s formation is loaded with Aaron Herrera, Everton Luiz and Jefferson Savarino, with Corey Baird first off the bench. Lennon’s playing time became spotty the second half of 2019.
Lennon’s stats, just one assist last season, didn’t compare well with his competitors. In his career at Real Salt Lake, Lennon finished with three goals and 10 assists. He averaged less than once chance created per game last season, according to whoscored.com.
However, Dunseth says that Lennon is a player who enjoys facing the field and can deliver passes from a variety of points in a variety of ways.
“He’ll do well as wingback,” Dunseth said. “His skill set will do well with Atlanta United and how it plays than at RSL, which is more of a grinder of a team.”
Lennon is expected to compete in Olympic qualifying, so he should be fit when Atlanta United’s training camp opens in mid-January.
“He will be in a good spot, an excited spot,” Dunseth said.
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