Whether coincidence or not, young American central midfielder Emerson Hyndman showed up right around this time, making his first appearance against Seattle as a substitute, and playing every single match following his introduction, ending the season by starting and playing 90 minutes each of the last seven regular season matches. Hyndman by my estimation is a top passer with great instincts whose knack for finding space and making smart, positive runs is unmatched by any player on the team. The kid has a rocket of a foot as well and finds shots for himself inside the penalty area. That said, while he can step up with a timely high press from time to time to win the ball back on the counter press, otherwise, his defensive presence is severely lacking for a central midfielder, and he would do well seek out the ball even more than he currently does in the buildup.

I’ve said all of this without saying an important name and probably the biggest story of 2019 for Atlanta United: young American center back Miles Robinson. The defender’s athleticism and poise have come together to create a highlight reel of a season in hero defending when some of his more careless teammates lose the ball in midfield. At the midseason mark, I was quietly sounding some alarms at American Soccer Analysis headquarters about Robinson’s poor play in possession. This after all was the knock on him in his first two seasons as a pro with Tata Martino, Jeff Larentowicz and others on record as saying he had to improve his decision-making on the ball to see more time with the first team. While his defensive skills were unquestionable, Robinson was a detriment to his team in attack over the first half of the season, which was a problem given the overly possession-oriented approach de Boer’s tactics called for. Sure enough, the possession chain data bore this out as Cheuk Hei Ho impressively showed in his introduction piece on a possession-based plus/minus system: With Or Without You. When the ball moved to Robinson in Atlanta United’s defensive third, the team’s xG output dropped precipitously. Even when controlling for successful advancement of the ball from the back, when Robinson completed passes forward to the midfielders, the team’s xG output was markedly worse than when Robinson’s defensive partner Gonzalez Pirez completed passes to the same midfielders. It was a real problem, and a problem that the team’s shift to a 3-5-2 appears to have solved. With Robinson sweeping centrally between two ball-playing center backs in Gonzalez Pirez and Escobar, the team has still benefited from his marvelous hero-defending and athleticism, and the new buildup structure only requires that he distribute laterally along the back 3 to launch his team’s possessions (while also affording him the opportunity to split lines if the situation demands it). The average pass difficulty of Miles’ attempts has dropped since this change while LGP’s has increased as both players’ xBuildup and pass score figures have improved. It’s the best of both worlds and Robinson’s coach and teammates have all echoed the importance of his defensive abilities in allowing the rest of the team to pour forward in attack. On the Benny/Sal podcast, captain Michael Parkhurst mentioned how “Miles standing on the halfway line 1v1 with the striker” enables Atlanta to do all of the good stuff they’ve been able to since July. On top of all of this, I do believe his on-the-ball decision making has improved – after all he is still young and we would expect this to get better over time – but the team is playing to his current strengths finally. For the record, tasking one player to clean up the mess for the rest of the team may be a less sustainable strategy in the playoffs than it is in the regular season.

Update: Miles Robinson has gone down with a hamstring injury about a week out from the first round of the playoffs. If Robinson can’t go on Saturday, you would expect to see legend Michael Parkhurst or Florentin Pogba take his spot.

I can round out the 2019 Regular Season review saying that Josef Martinez continues to be a bona-fide star and legend in the city, Julian Gressel has put up two seasons in a row now of historically elite open play goal service from out wide and deserves a big pay day, and Darlington Nagbe remains one of the best at knowing when to move the ball forward though midfield on the dribble and when to make the simple pass to recycle possession. His attacking transition play is starting to heat up as well – keep an eye on this. Ezequiel Barco and Tito Villalba have managed only half of the minutes we expected of them this year – and they may ultimately be the true wild cards of Atlanta United’s playoff attempt. Midseason acquisition Justin Meram has stepped in admirably at left wing back in Brek Shea’s absence and has shared some truly jubilant moments with the club. His ability to win 1v1 dribbles against opposing defenders is genuinely exciting, but by my estimation, his play at wing back is still probably a weak point for opposition scouts to focus on.

Playoff Formation