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Atlanta United midfielder Julian Gressel joined Dukes & Bell on Wednesday to talk some CONCACAF Champions League, the changes under Frank de Boer, and playing with Pity Martinez.

Gressel told the guys he feels good with the week of training the team has gotten before their game Thursday.

“It’s been a good week of training,” said Gressel. “The one thing that comes out of those performances is you get better; you work on things you didn’t do well and you get better as a team.”

Gressel told the guys what it’s been like due to the coaching change.

“The short offseason and coaching change made us all buy in again,” Gressel said. “The new coaching staff in general have been great, they don’t want to change too much right away. But the identity is a little bit different. We want to be more sound defensively and still attack the way we do.”

When asked about the addition of Pity Martinez...

“He’s a good player, but he can’t do it on his own,” said Gressel. “It goes back to what I said earlier. We have to do it as a team and that will help his skills shine even more.”

Gressel told the guys that the team scoring an early goal isn’t vital on Thursday night.

“It would be nice to get out to an early lead, but we don’t have to have one right away,” Gressel said. “We have to still show patience, because we know if we keep taking shots we can score at any time and I’m convinced we can score two goals and shut them out.”