Atlanta United's stagnant movement and lack of creativity in the final third doomed them against New England

just one more cross i mean lane i mean cross

I want to start with an observation from our friend Joe Lowery over at Backheeled (a very worthwhile subscription if you aren’t there already but I figure most of you are there already).

“Deila didn’t come back to MLS to reinvent any tactical wheels. He doesn’t seem to instill detailed final third patterns into his team, instead preferring to let his players solve problems as they arise out of a predetermined base structure. Deila is similar to Bruce Arena in that way, always wanting to put players in their best positions and letting success flow from there

If the first eight games of Atlanta United’s season have taught us anything, it’s that Deila isn’t quite sure what those best positions are.”

Deila shifted Miguel Almirón to the left side in Atlanta’s 1-0 loss to New England. The hope for that move putting everyone in their best positions centered around Almirón operating in the left half space and leaving space for Alexey Miranchuk to operate as a No. 10 without being crowded out as Saba Lobjanidze pushed higher up the field on his (maybe) better position on the right side. Instead…

Via MLS Stat on Bsky (y’all better follow them.)

Some of those positions are notably skewed by the substitutions Atlanta made throughout the second half. But the eye test (and most everything else) feels right for both Miguel’s positioning and Atlanta’s dedication to building down the right in this one.