Atlanta United Vs FC Cincinnati: 5 things we learned – Time to panic?

3. Lacking verticality

Frank de Boer is instituting a new system at Atlanta United: possess the ball and kill the opposing team with a million passes before breaking through and scoring. Against Cincinnati, the team excelled at two of those three, but lacked in perhaps the most important category.

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The early goal was great, but once Cincinnati settled into the game defensively, Atlanta had a hard time breaking through the expansion side’s defensive block. They out-possessed Cincinnati 66.5% to 33.5%. Atlanta made 661 passes to Cincinnati’s 339. The team also completed 86% of their passes compared to Cincinnati completing just 74% of theirs.

Take a look here at Atlanta’s successful and unsuccessful passes on Sunday night. A closer look at the passing map will illustrate the clear issues with Atlanta’s attack. There is a lot of green in the midfield and along the flanks. In the box, however, is a lot of red. Atlanta struggled to get any decent penetration into the penalty area, a spot where the league’s best striker thrives.

Atlanta passed the ball in the midfield all game long. While the passing was efficient in and of itself, none of that passing was vertical enough, which translated to a lack of creativity. It sounds silly, but the lack of goals led to a lack of points at the end of the day.