Atlanta United and Minnesota, the other club coming in next year, will each get five picks in the expansion draft on Dec. 13, with the coin flip to be held on Sunday determining who will go first. Past drafts have included 10 selections, which increases the probability of finding several useful first-team players.

McDonough said five is OK because the two new teams will be given extra allocation money (the amount hasn’t been determined), which will allow them to try to sign they players have they clearly identified that they want, rather than possibly those that their current clubs have made available because they are no longer wanted. If Atlanta United can find five first-team players in the expansion draft, and use the allocation money in some way to find two more, McDonough described that as a winning situation.

Atlanta United hasn’t done any mock drafts, but he said those are coming soon. He has spent a lot of time along with others at the club rolling through permutations of Atlanta’s roster.

“We’re just getting to the stage where we are trying to guess what the other teams are going to have exposed,” he said.

It’s important to McDonough that the club has a balance of youth and experience. So far, that’s working. The inexperience of homegrown signings such as Andrew Carleton and Chris Goslin, as well as Jeffrey Otoo and Hector Villalba, are offset by the experience of veterans Kenwyne Jones and Chris McCann. McDonough said Orlando City may have geared too young when he was there.

As much as McDonough wants all of Atlanta United’s signings to work out, he knows they won’t. McDonough learned in Orlando that mistakes made with personnel need to be dealt with immediately. That may mean holding back some allocation money so that weaknesses in year one can be fixed in year two.

Also, he said preference in the expansion draft won’t be given to players with ties to Atlanta. The need is for useful players, no matter where they are from.

Another lesson McDonough learned is that he thinks while he was in Orlando City the franchise may have become too focused on its success in the United Soccer League. As a result, it may have taken away some of the focus on preparing for MLS. NYCFC, which came into MLS at the same time, didn’t have USL, so it couldn’t be distracted. It’s similar to the situations for Atlanta United and Minnesota, which is finishing its final NASL season before joining MLS next year.

“Going through the expansion process, you have to live it to truly understand it and how difficult it is,” he said.