Atlanta United’s Rebuilding Problem
This article was inspired by Saturday night’s 0–3 defeat against Austin FC.
Felipe Cardenas’s article on The Athletic has an interesting quote by current club vice president and technical director Carlos Bocanegra during the 2019 season. “We’re succession planning,” He said. “I don’t ever want it to be a case where we have a rebuilding year…”
Guess what Carlos? You’ve been in a rebuilding year. For almost 3 years and it started ever since winning MLS Cup.
No matter what happens in a season, changes will always occur to a team. It’s no different from Atlanta United. Gerardo “Tata” Martino had accepted a deal to be the Mexican National Team head coach at the end of the season while Miguel Almiron looked to already be on the move to Europe.
The front office knew of Tata’s departure early on, so it would make sense that they would find a coach that would suit the club’s current style of play. After an extensive search, they would decide that the best candidate to lead the team was Frank De Boer. The man who was recently sacked by Crystal Palace after 4 games in charge and was dubbed by Jose Mourinho as “The worst manager in Premier League history.” To De Boer’s credit, he lasted longer at the helm in Italy as Inter Milan coach before being inevitably sacked 3 months later.
Frank De Boer’s success as a manager is held up by his time at Ajax. He won the Eredivisie 4 years in a row since starting in 2010 and left in 2016 after receiving the offer to coach Inter Milan.
However, this was already a big sign of changes to come.
Even before De Boer was announced as head coach, Atlanta had already found their Almiron replacement in Pity Martinez. Having won Player of the year in South America and the Copa Libertadores with River Plate, this was a massive statement by Atlanta across the league. One of the best in his division joining for a whopping $16 million showed Atlanta’s intention to continue their run of success. How was his time in Atlanta? In 39 games played in MLS, he has registered 7 goals and 8 assists. He would continue to struggle before being transferred to Saudi Arabian side Al-Nassar for $17.6 million.
This would be a running theme for the front office where they would sign a player that the manager had no say in and was supposed to make do with. Pity would be a prime example of this as he struggled with the tactical demands of De Boer. At River Plate, Pity was most effective playing as a #10 behind the striker as that was his forte. Instead, De Boer would play him out in the wings when he had no qualities to be a winger. Tata Martino was also reportedly against the signing of 18-year-old Ezequiel Barco, who cost Atlanta $13.5 million from Independiente, and it showed as he barely featured for him during the 2018 campaign.
De Boer’s first season with Atlanta ended with the club winning its first U.S Open Cup, Campeones Cup, and just missing out on a back-to-back MLS Cup final by a defeat against Toronto FC. However, there was a real struggle to how De Boer his team up tactically. Compared to Tata’s attacking style, De Boer set on to implement his possession style on the team. The main issue was that not many of the players were comfortable or compatible to play that way. This explains the numerous changes to formations from a 3–4–3 to a 4–2–3–1 to get the best of the players.
The start of the 2020 campaign would see numerous turnaround players and it would leave Atlanta struggling on building their squad. Julian Gressel, who was one of the biggest contributors to Atlanta United’s attack, left for D.C United. Hector Villalba, who was a part of the attacking group with Josef Martinez and Miguel Almiron that won MLS Cup, had struggled to get playing time under De Boer. He would leave for Paraguian side Libertad for $4 million. Both of Atlanta’s center backs had left with Michael Parkhurst retiring and Leandro Gonzalez Pirez being sold to Club Tijuana in Mexico. Finally, Darlington Nagbe, Atlanta’s guy who can run the midfield and progress the ball forward, would leave for the Columbus Crew and be reunited with his former manager, Caleb Porter.
Atlanta would go on to sign replacements for the upcoming season, but for the majority of the signings, it would end on a sour note for them and the club:
- Fernando Meza- Bought from Nexaca, little to no improvement defensively, and struggled to adjust in the league. He was eventually loaned back to Mexico.
- Manuel Castro- Brought on loan from Estudiantes. He registered 0 goals and assists during his time here and will be remembered for all his missed opportunities. Returned to Estudiantes the following season.
- Adam Jahn- Brought in from Phoenix Rising as a Martinez replacement. He was essentially our answer whenever Atlanta decided to spam crosses into the box. He did his part and scored from time to time, but not consistently. He was later sold to Orange County SC.
- JJ Willams- Brought in from Columbus as another striker option, but never did hit it off. All I can recall from him was the red card against FC Cincinnati in the MLS is Back Tournament and hearing him cuss out the referee. He was sold to Birmingham Legion later on.
- Jurgen Damm- Brought in from Tigres on a free. Made little to no impact at the club and was known for his TikToks making fun of his playing style. He did just know how to run. The club bought out his contract before the start of the 2022 season.
The beginning of the 2020 season would be put on hold because of the Covid-19 pandemic and wouldn’t return until July as the MLS is Back Tournament. Atlanta United would lose all three of its matches and this would see the end of Frank De Boer’s time as a coach. Stephen Glass would be hired as interim head coach for the remainder of the 2020 season.
The front office would continue their need for signing players without a manager by bringing Marcelino Moreno from Lanus. This was the same club Atlanta brought Almiron from. From what I can tell, Moreno was supposed to be a replacement for Pity, but it didn’t prove to be enough as Atlanta missed out on the playoffs for the first time in club history.
The club began their search for a new manager and they would finally decide on Argentinian coach Gabriel Heinze to lead the team. Heinze had experience coaching in Argentina with Velez Sarsfield and Argentinos Jrs. He was brought on to lead Atlanta for the coming years. However, those years would turn into months after a debacle between Heinze and the players would emerge that would end in his sacking after attempting to faze out star player Josef Martinez. Heinze lasted 17 games with 1.18 PPG. It makes you question what kind of background check the front office does that they didn’t catch him over-training players in Argentina and was a difficult person to work with.
Heinze brought the likes of Santiago Sosa, Franco Ibarra, Lisandro Lopez, and Alan Franco to the club to help build his team, but in the end, it didn’t matter. Lopez would return to Argentina after the death of his father left him unable to concentrate on his career. Sosa and Ibarra are young midfielders who still have a lot to prove while Franco may need to improve before Atlanta decide to cut their losses on him. The fact Atlanta made him a DP signing still doesn't make sense.
After Heinze’s sacking, the front office felt the need again to make a big-money signing to salvage the season. For this, they managed to sign winger Luiz Araujo from French team Lille for $12 million. This was before they made their announcement to sign Gonzalo Pineda as head coach of the team. Whether or not Pineda had a say, it helped as Atlanta managed to get into the playoffs only to be knocked out by eventual champions, NYCFC.
Pineda’s first full season with Atlanta would start on the wrong foot as numerous of his key personnel would get injured. Ozzie Alonso would get injured early in the season while backup keeper Dylan Castanheria would follow suit. Brad Guzan, Miles Robinson, Andrew Gutman, Ronald Hernandez, Brooks Lennon, and Emerson Hyndman are all on the list of players that are currently injured.
Ezequiel Barco would depart from the club to River Plate while Atlanta would sign Thiago Almada from Velez Sarsfield for $16 million. Recently, Pineda made the decision with the board to sign goalkeeper Raul Gudino and Center-Back Juan Purata to the club from Mexico. We’re still waiting to see how these two signings pay off along with U-22 DP signing Edwin Mosquera.
Final Thoughts:
Atlanta United has shown how to quickly go from one of the top teams in the country to a team barely hanging on by a thread. Questionable decisions made by the front office puts into perspective what their goal is at the of this. Pineda has a squad full of young players and players who have no drive whatsoever. As Josef Martinez said in a post-game interview after the Austin FC game, “ We are professionals. It’s not kids anymore. And if you come here, you have to know what we have to do.” He continues “If you don’t come here for 100%, you don’t have to [choose] this club to play.” He even targets the front office in this interview. “That’s the message for everyone. If you want to bring guys, it’s because they want to play here. It’s not because [of] business. And has been for a long time.”
The constant need to rebuild the squad every season comes from the lack of planning and decision-making from the board. 4 managers in 3 seasons doesn’t look good for Atlanta. Bocanegra and Eales are on the tight end as Atlanta is looking to miss the playoffs this season. Drastic changes may need to happen if the club wants to get back to the good old days.
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