Argentine midfielder Ezequiel Barco is the newest member of the Atlanta United attack, but any transfer starts well before the player signs a contract. Technical Director Carlos Bocanegra sat down with ATLUTD.com to explain what the front office saw in their newest recruit, and how he will contribute to the squad next season.
Q: How did Ezequiel Barco first get on the radar of the Atlanta United front office?
The scouting process lasted throughout this season. It probably began in the beginning of the year when we took some scouting trips down to Argentina, you read about players making an impression down there and hear about some of the top young players in the country. Then we were able to start tracking him quite heavily from the summer onward. We went down, met with him, watched him again.
Q: What qualities will Ezequiel bring to the squad?
What really stands out to me about him is he’s small in stature, but he gets kicked or fouled and gets right back up. He’s shifty, can make people miss and is fantastic at keeping possession and setting up other players up.
He can beat his player one v one or skip out of trouble eight out of ten times – which is fantastic – and that draws other players from around the field to him. So it fits in how we’ve built this team. You take a guy like Miguel Almirón, who’s able to keep possession and beat his man one-on-one and it draws defenders away from our other attackers. Now you put someone else on the field with similar technical ability to take defenders away from our other attackers. Now, teams can’t hone in on Miguel all game and game-plan around him. It gives us two guys on the field that we feel in any situation are going to be able to hold onto the ball, set other players up and bring other players away from their marks.
It’s a great complement, he likes to start on the left and float inside, Miguel likes to start inside and float onto the left. So when we’re going through our heat maps and analysis of them behind the scenes, you see the type of passes he’s used to making, the types of systems that he plays in for his club. We feel like that translates very well to our system and to the players we have, and especially the guys we have built the team around.
Q: As a younger player – 18 years old – what did you see that made you know he’s ready for MLS first-team level?
He’s already playing regularly at first-team level in a tough league that translates really well to MLS, as we’ve seen in our Argentine players or that came from Argentina. He’s durable. We play on turf, and his body, structure and skillset translate very well to MLS and our home field at Mercedes-Benz Stadium.
Q: Where do you see Ezequiel fitting into the squad?
He’s someone that can play anywhere in the midfield. He can play on the left, right or as a central playmaker. He’s an attacking player, we’re not bringing him in to play defensive midfield. someone we expect to come in right away and compete for spots. But luckily it gives Tata the options where he wants to use him on the field in any of the attacking midfield position.
