Atlanta United's 2023 campaign came to a disappointing end in their game three defeat to Columbus Crew, leaving the front office with many key decisions to be made ahead of 2024.
The Five Stripes improved throughout the regular season, mainly in attack, thanks to the likes of Saba Lobjanidze, Tristan Muyumba and Xande Silva joining in the summer. But their defensive woes were thoroughly exposed in the playoffs against the Crew, which could prompt vice-president and technical director Carlos Bocanegra to do work in the transfer market to bolster Atlanta's defense.
Starting goalkeeper and club captain Brad Guzan had a year to forget, as he looked a shadow of the player he used to be while his defenders didn't help much at all to keep opponents at bay. Guzan, as well as 2017 MLS Superdraft pick Miles Robinson, could both end up leaving the club ahead of the 2024 season.
"He’s been amazing for us since he came in here," Bocanegra said of Guzan. "His leadership, his presence, you guys know what he means to this club. So really just want to understand where Brad is at the moment and have those discussions with him.
"Maybe we'll have some updates by the end of the year, but really it’s just about listening to Brad. Everybody was frustrated after the last game and disappointed. So we'll let the emotions cool down and have some conversations when we can be intelligent with our thoughts."
Bocanegra confirmed once again that Robinson, who was a candidate for the 2023 Comeback Player of the Year award, has a contract offer on the table from the club as his current deal is set to expire at the end of the calendar year.
"The contract is there," he said. "So, it’s really just a decision from Miles. We have an internal timeline that we have for that decision. But I don’t know where Miles is on that aspect right now, so I want to make sure that we can have a chat first to understand where both sides are."
It's difficult to talk about Atlanta without mentioning Thiago Almada, who led the league with 19 assists and was only second overall in goal contributions to MVP frontrunner Lucho Acosta. Almada joined the 2018 MLS Cup champions in 2022 and has only gotten better since, creating plenty of interest from potential suitors in Europe - Ajax were interested in the player's services near the end of August.
"It's amazing you have a player who won the World Cup for Argentina playing in MLS," said Bocanegra. "That’s amazing for this league. It shows where we’ve come. It's a place where players don't want to only stay for a year, then move on. They’re willing to stay for two, three, four, five years. It's a destination."
Bocanegra highlighted how MLS has gradually shifted more into a league that strives to develop young, talented players on the brink of stardom before making their mark in top leagues around the world like the Premier League, La Liga and the Bundesliga.
"When we went down to recruit him in Argentina, my message to him was to come here and use this as a building block and continue to build your profile, which he has done, continue to play well and mark yourself on this league, which he has done. When that time comes, and he would also like to make that transfer, we'll sit down and speak together on that because it's a decision that needs to have both parties involved and everybody feeling good about it."
Above all, Bocanegra's expects Atlanta to be back competing for the top four in the Eastern Conference to solidify home field advantage at their home ground, Mercedes-Benz Stadium.
"The goal is to always finish in top-four," Bocanegra said. “We always want to contend for the Supporters' Shield and that’s something to win the championship, so that’s always a goal of ours and something we should strive to... You see with the home games and how important that is for us, that is why that's one of the major goals for us to finish in the top four. We have such an amazing place to play at [Mercedes-Benz Stadium] and how we play there."
With pre-season just around the corner in mid-January, head coach Gonzalo Pineda could have quite a different roster by that time to prepare for heightened expectations in 2024.
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This article was originally published on 90min as Atlanta United technical director Carlos Bocanegra addresses Guzan, Robinson & Almada contract situations.
