A thorough tactical breakdown of Atlanta United at FC CinciLOL, just kidding, we’re going to talk about Alexey Miranchuk

You must choose a side. It's the only way.

There isn’t too much to learn tactically from a game where only one of the five center backs involved gets regular starts. International break MLS is a time for clinging to your tactical safety blanket and praying you have enough juice to see out a result. You’ll be shocked then to learn that neither team made any tweaks whatsoever in Atlanta United’s 2-2 draw at FC Cincinnati.

Fortunately for Atlanta, that meant Cincy pressed out of a 3-5-2 and didn’t apply the same kind of pressure that’s caused the Five Stripes so much grief as they’ve gotten deeper into games over the first four matches of the season. A little more time on the ball and an easier time winning second balls against an “Oops, All Backups!” center back trio for Cincy led to a good amount of success in attack for Atlanta. With the Garys putting in a totally uninspiring performance across the pitch, the Five Stripes could have walked away with three points if it weren’t for their inability to reign in Evander.

Oh well. Still, there were a couple of notes to take away from a (boring) rewatch and glance at the numbers afterward.

• Will Reilly put in a shift. Again, there were certainly moments where he attempted passes that just weren’t in his bag. But otherwise, he buzzed around the pitch for the full 90. Reilly had a team-high 73 touches, took 13.9% of Atlanta’s touches in the middle and final third (by far a team-high) and picked up a game-high seven tackles + interceptions. It could be really fun to see how he develops as the year goes along. Who knows how many opportunities there will be, but Reilly made it feel like Atlanta is five-deep in central midfield. Having a homegrown who can come into that situation and perform is a nice bonus. The big question for me is if he can do it against a team that’s pressing higher and with more intensity than what FC Cincinnati showed.

• Saba Lobjanidze definitely spent more time on the ball as a right-sided attacker. In the first four games of the season, Lobjanidze took 7.0% of Atlanta’s touches outside of the defensive third of the pitch. In his first game back on the right, that number jumped to 9.1%. I think the main reason for the jump is that Atlanta builds down the right more often than they build down the left. Lobjanidze has been asked to stay high and stay isolated on the left side in the first four games. This game set up for him to be more involved. I don’t think it’s as simple as “he’s better on the right.” He might be. But, for me, his performance is more about the team’s structure rather than individual comfort. The results were pretty darn good though. I mean just look at the G+ numbers from this one. There’s Saba right at the top and OHNOALEXEY.

Well, that’s not ideal. It’s probably got at least something to do with the one clip I ended up pulling from my rewatch…

Yeahhhhh. Saba had all the space in the world and was not thrilled he didn’t get the ball there.

For me, that looked like the norm in this one. Admittedly, he didn’t get as many opportunities to course correct once he shifted into Tristan Muyumba’s spot in midfield for the middle portion of the game, but, yeah, if you’re wondering why there’s suddenly been a deluge of Alexey Miranchuk discourse on this website and in the MLS Media writ large, well, there you go. That’s a microcosm of what folks are picking up on.

To offer a differing opinion from Joe: