Head coach Ronny Deila began Friday's session at Children's Healthcare of Atlanta Training Ground with a team talk. Players huddled around and listened intently as the gaffer laid out what he wants from them heading into the weekend. Atlanta United will play on Sunday Night Soccer for the second time this season when they host FC Cincinnati at 7 p.m. ET May 25.
The 5-Stripes keep pushing to find their form on the pitch, and facing one of the league-leading squads is a great opportunity to begin a dramatic turnaround. Deila and his staff are looking within to make improvements and asking their players to do the same.
"[The leadership] comes from the gaffer, from the coach, straight from him," Alexey Miranchuk said after training Friday. "For him, it's most important that we are one. We're together in this boat."
Making magic happen
Deila got deep in the numbers after training Friday, harping on Atlanta United's chance creation and lack of final product.
The figure that Deila focused on was 60. That's the amount, according to the club's data, of chances the 5-Stripes have created this season. They've scored just 14 goals, fourth-least in MLS on the year, making their conversion rate under a quarter of their chances. That, to players and staff, must change.
"We want it so much that we maybe stress too much in these kinds of situations," Deila said. "Take it even more calm, take a bit more time and do it [accurately] ... You don't do that if you just put everything under the carpet, or we don't train. We need to work on it every day."
The squad put a big emphasis this week on finishing. In the open portion of Friday's training, the players took shots from through balls and crosses over and over, leaning on the repetition to fortify their finishing boots.
Miranchuk has been a big part of the team's chance creation this season. He leads Atlanta United in expected assists with four, yet he has no assists to his name.
"It's a little bit in our heads, in our mindset," Miranchuk said. "We have opportunities, but we cannot put the goal behind it. It's mental play. [In] games, you play you versus you."
Everyone grounds themself mentally in different ways. For Miranchuk, it's being among family and "the trees". He said he's been able to reset by hanging around the campfire sharing good times with his loved ones.
Creating chances and finishing them is as much mental as it is physical. It's about maintaining composure all the way through an attack and making the right plays in the final third, not always the flashy plays.
"Always in the field, you're trying to do some magical stuff to flip around everything," he said. "[We] just got to keep it as simple as possible, and then slowly go to magic stuff."
How to break down top-of-the-table talent
After Sunday, Atlanta United will have played the two teams at the top of the Supporters' Shield standings: Philadelphia Union and FC Cincinnati. Like the Union game, it'll be a rematch for the 5-Stripes and the Orange and Blue on Sunday Night Soccer.
One thing is for sure about Cincy, they build through their star attacking midfielder Evander, who always seems to be in the middle everything. Literally. FC Cincinnati filter their attacks through the left or right middle channels nearly 80 percent of the time, rarely creating from the wings. The team has the third-least crosses of any MLS team this season according to FBref.com.
To counter that tendency, Atlanta United's low block defending, which has been much improved in the last couple of matches, will need to once again be shutdown.
On the other end, Cincinnati concedes crosses at a near-league-high rate. They've allowed their opponents 288 crosses this season, good for second-most in MLS. That could be a real opportunity for the 5-Stripes, who have crossed the sixth-most in MLS this season.
Deila has joked previously about telling his team the goal is in the middle of the pitch, not the sides — his point being that he wants the ball to flow through the middle of the attack more often. In the end, though, he doesn't care where chances come from as long as they come.
"I value whatever chance you can get," he said when asked about if he values crosses as much as other chances.
After Friday's training, players spent time whipping in passes and finishing them past the keepers. Connecting successfully on those passes Sunday could be the difference. Jamal Thiaré, who connected with a great cross against Philadelphia last Saturday but couldn't find the net, made a couple of powerful finishes.
"These couple of phases we are very good at, but we are not effective enough," Deila said. "We are too weak in the main areas of the pitch, that is our own box and opponent's box. We have to be much more clinical, much tougher, more physical, verbal and everything to to get most out of the performances."
