Wishing for a reasonably perfect Atlanta United offseason

We can't really offer anything else right now.

I keep starting to write. I keep stopping after that. A position-by-position breakdown of each player’s 2024 with a look ahead to how they fit into 2025? Well, that depends. A list of potential free agents, transfers and more that could power this team back to the top of MLS next year and beyond? Well, that depends. A complete look at Alexey Miranchuk’s role in this side and what he needs around him to look more like a $13 million DP in his first full year in MLS? Well, that depends.

We can’t go anywhere until we know who’s driving. Typically, we could just assume that whoever Atlanta United brings in as head coach and technical director would say all the right things about wanting to be on the front foot, possession-based yet pragmatic, etc. etc. That may still happen. And if it does, that will probably be just fine. But Jim Curtin’s inclusion as a potential candidate has messed things up.

Curtin famously switched to a high-pressing, direct 4-4-2 diamond formation at the insistence of Philadelphia Union sporting director Ernst Tanner. Throughout the Curtin-Tanner partnership, there were fleeting moments where Curtin swapped to a back three setup when injuries and absences called for it. Before Tanner arrived, Curtin had the Union the more standard, possession-oriented 4-2-3-1. In short, there are a number of tactical directions this could go if Curtin really does end up with the job.

That doesn’t even get into what Garth Lagerwey and Sporting Director To Be Named Later could want. Lagerwey has mentioned multiple times the need to be multifaceted in the team’s tactical approach. What he’s basically ended up describing is Seattle under Brian Schmetzer. Seattle under Schmetzer is decidedly not the Union under Curtin. If it’s Curtin, would Lagerwey and SDTBNL ask him to shift back to the 4-2-3-1 of his early seasons in Philadelphia? Would Curtin want to cling to the diamond that turned the Union into the East’s winningest regular-season team from 2019 to 2024? Are Lagerwey, Curtin and Chris Henderson sitting on the deck of Arthur Blank’s yacht fighting about this very thing as I’m typing this? Is that what’s holding this up?? IS THAT WHY EVERYTHING HAS GONE SILENT AND MY LIFE HAS SPIRALED OUT OF CONTROL???

1. Maybe. 2. Maybe. 3. Maybe. 4. No, that’s unrelated.

Anyway, it’s made me a bit restless. I’ve been daydreaming in the meantime. The latest of those goes like this: I meet a reasonable genie who falls for the “I wish for unlimited wishes” thing (idiot) but warns me that unlimited wishes always puts you on a direct path to misery and unfulfillment (nice guy). So we agree that I can wish for anything I want within reason. No unlimited money, no world peace, etc. I have to play with the deck I’ve been handed. So after getting bored of reducing my student loan debt and making minor improvements to DeKalb Avenue (he wouldn’t let me fix it), I turn my sights to Atlanta United.

My goal? Create the perfect offseason. Within reason of course. No Jurgen Klopp, no healthy Rodri. Maybe, like, Ilie Sanchez.

Here’s what it looks like.