Atlanta United 2026 Tactical Preview
How much can Tata Martino change from what is mostly the same roster that finished near the bottom of MLS in 2025?
This is part two of a week-long series previewing the 2026 Atlanta United season. These are all free, but please consider a premium subscription for access to all of our written, audio, and video content for the whole season.
After years of toiling in mediocrity or worse since Tata Martino left the club after his initial stint, Atlanta United is charging the Argentine to pull an even bigger rabbit out of his hat than the first go-around that culminated in an MLS Cup title.
Martino got to build that team from scratch. This time? More like an episode of Chopped, where Martino will attempt to form a functional team that balances savory and sweet, while requiring to use of [OPENS BASKET]:
One Miguel Almiron, which is potentially expired but hoping that natural fermentation could expand his shelf life. If good, he’s a core ingredient for Martino’s cooking style.
One Alexey Miranchuk, an exotic flavor for someone like Martino, who prefers his players to have an ability to sprint and press. If accentuated with the right aromatics, we’re told Miranchuk is actually an addition to the dish. But everyone remains skeptical.
Two broken high-TAM players in Saba Lobjanidze and Stian Gregersen. The view for a comeback seems clearer for Gregersen, which is almost entirely health related. Can Martino get a direct winger like Saba firing similarly to Tito Villalba, who became a supersub goal threat?
And a bouquet garni of homegrown players that will be needed to give full body and flavor to whatever Martino is hoping to build. Young players like Will Reilly, Luke Brennan, Jay Fortune and Matthew Edwards will need to fill in the gaps and elevate the floor that fell out beneath the team last season.
For reasons I neither agree with nor control, we were only able to witness one preseason game this camp. And even though it was played prior to the bulk of the tactical portion of camp, it gave us some things to glean as to how Tata Martino is thinking about deploying his players.
The Shape
The biggest change for Tata Martino’s team versus not just last season, but every season since Martino left is the way the midfield will orient itself and operate with a single pivot. Since Martino left, every manager since has played with a double-pivot, often complementing it with a playmaker like Thiago Almada or Alexey Miranchuk playing ahead near the striker.
Changing midfield in this way is impactful for three reasons. First and most obviously, it’s going to ask different requirements from some players than what they were tasked with under Ronny Deila. Under Martino, midfielders like Stephen Alzate, Jay Fortune, Tristan Muyumba, and others will be asked to do much more in the way of running forward and impacting play in the attacking third.
Secondly, it’s going to change the way Atlanta builds from the back, which will now heavily revolve around the No. 6 (whoever winds up earning Martino’s trust in the role) dropping into the back line to form a back three. This changes the entire structure of the buildup and how players are assembled on the pitch from what we saw in 2025.
We saw Martino utilize a wrinkle in the preseason opener where he used a traditional winger Luke Brennan to serve as the player keeping the width in buildup with boots on chalk. When Martino has a playmaker like Almiron or Miranchuk playing in the flanking attacking areas, they will tuck in narrower to find spaces to receive between lines and the fullback will play the traditional overlap role.
Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, Martino’s midfield shift means there’s not a natural spot in any of the three roles for either Alexey Miranchuk or Miguel Almiron. But it’s most notable for Miranchuk, because it removes the “No. 10” role from the equation entirely (an ironic move from Martino after all the bickering about who should be the No. 10 last year).
One primary reason the No. 10 role suited Miranchuk specifically is it spared him from doing much sprinting to track streaking fullbacks or other quick players he’d find on the wings. How will he press in this system? Against a back three, a pressing situation is relatively simple man-for-man – if aggressive. But against more common two banks of four, the press will need some pretty consistent communication and muscle memory on how to close down on the ball.
Overall, it’s not an easy task for Martino this year. The way Atlanta’s roster sits as it begins the 2026 campaign will present about as pure of an A/B test at head coach that a team could have. Whatever happens, we’re going to learn quite a bit in in the next few months about whether the team’s failures last season were primarily on the coach or primarily on the roster and those who helped construct it.