Article by Matt Lichtenstadter
Three weeks into any league’s season is probably too early to derive any definitive trends from, but stories are usually emerging that are worth taking note of. MLS is no different. Some teams are impressing, such as the Sounders, DC United, Toronto FC and even Houston. A few teams are not, such as San Jose, Chicago, New England and Philadelphia. But one of the teams that has started slowly is a pretty big surprise: Atlanta United. They have two points from their first three games, and they’re already out of CONCACAF Champions League. It hasn’t taken long for the natives to begin to worry about where the defending MLS Champions are heading. Why are things going south, and can they change before it’s too late?
Frank De Boer’s managerial history outside of Holland is checkered. His stints at Inter and Crystal Palace were unmitigated disasters, so there was worthy skepticism when he was linked with the Atlanta United job. Reports suggested that he wasn’t looking into the vacancy himself, it was Darren Eales who went over to talk to him about the job, while he talked with people like Earnie Stewart and Marc Overmars to see what MLS was all about. Those stories don’t elicit much confidence, and the play on the pitch in their first seven games hasn’t done much either to quash the concerns.
Under Tata Martino, Atlanta United played at an incredibly high pace. They had lethal speed on the counter attack and going forward, which they utilized at every possible opportunity. This Atlanta United is the complete opposite. The build up is slow, methodical and deliberate, so is the passing and the attacking. At times, it feels like their games are being filmed in super slow motion. At first, it seemed that De Boer would stick with his 3-4-3 formation with active wingbacks and play deriving through central midfield, particularly Eric Remedi. But recently, he’s tried a diamond in midfield (to go with three at the back and up front), but then switched to a back four mid-game against the Union. Atlanta’s players seem just as confused, as attacks break down rather easily once they get halfway into the attacking third, and they don’t generate nearly enough good scoring chances.
De Boer will argue, and in many ways rightly so, that it’s not about the specific formation, but more about the principles and ideas. To go from the way that Atlanta played under Tata Martino to De Boer is a massive sea change. To that end, he’s right, although perhaps some of his changes were unnecessary for a team that won by doing something they’ve now abandoned. For a team to have seven percent possession yet generate worse scoring chances and expected goals than their inferior opponent at home is a major concern, and it has happened more than once. And while De Boer is right that his team has played a lot of soccer, including travel to Mexico and Costa Rica in the last month, he hasn’t rotated his side nearly enough to give his team a chance to be refreshed on the fly, which most good managers have done. He’d be right in saying this team lost its best player in the winter and hasn’t yet figured out a way to replace him, but the grace period there is getting shorter and shorter. Worst of all, he isn’t tailoring his approach to the strengths of the squad he has, which the best managers in the world, certainly in MLS, do all the time.
At Inter and Palace, the stakes were a lot higher a lot sooner into his tenure. It was evident by this point in both of those stops that De Boer was in major trouble. In MLS, with seven playoff spots on offer, there’s a lot more leeway. In MLS, teams can be downright bad until July and still be perfectly fine come the postseason. De Boer in that way gets a big pass. But after only two wins in seven, both in CCL, and some ugly play against inferior opposition, there are questions about the defending champions that have not been answered and may only be getting louder with time. There is time for Frank De Boer to right the ship, time for Pity Martinez to adapt to MLS’ physicality and time for the principles that he’s established to take root. But even in a forgiving league, there is only so much forgiveness to give.
Will Atlanta United be “fine”? Probably. They’re more than likely not going to miss the playoffs, but that’s not exactly the standards this club set in its first two years of existence. The Five Stripes changed the game in MLS, and now as the league catches up with them, and they go through a period of major transition, their slow start has provided more questions than answers about whether this club will be what they’ve been consistently, or whether that was something more temporary than first thought.
