What to make of Marcelino Moreno at Atlanta United?

Marcelino Moreno appeared on display screen, critical and barely uncomfortable. It was March 2021, and the timid 27-year-old Argentine attacker was getting ready to do what he least seems to be ahead to as knowledgeable footballer. 

Dealing with reporters in Main League Soccer may be daunting for international gamers who don’t communicate English. However in Moreno’s case, language wasn’t the problem. This specific interview was performed in Spanish, and but Moreno nonetheless sat rigidly, noticeably anxious, and admitted that he doesn’t do many interviews “due to my shyness.”

“That is all new for me,” Moreno advised The Athletic on the time. “I’m making an attempt to get used to it. Be affected person with me as a result of I’m making an attempt my greatest to do it nicely. I’m a reserved individual. I like my privateness.”

Persistence with Moreno on the sphere has been required as he adjusts to a brand new footballing tradition. His head-down dribbles into visitors and infrequently rushed decision-making within the remaining third have pissed off supporters, elevating doubts about his tactical slot in Atlanta. 

Moreno is a fan favourite to others, although — he’s a tough employee who has scored some massive targets for the membership. 

Given the vastly completely different views on him, the query nonetheless stays: who’s Marcelino Moreno? Is he a participant nonetheless adapting to MLS and his second head coach in three seasons? Or is Moreno an enigmatic wild card in want of stability? 

In September 2020, Atlanta United have been to start with levels of their worst stretch in membership historical past. They’d fired Frank de Boer two months earlier than Moreno was signed from Membership Lanús for a reported $7 million. Josef Martínez was out with a season-ending knee damage, and Atlanta had just lately offered Pity Martínez, the membership’s former big-money DP, to Saudi membership Al-Nassr. 

Moreno, nearly unknown to anybody exterior of Argentina, was instantly the alternative for a former South American participant of the 12 months. He inherited Atlanta United’s No. 10 shirt, beforehand worn by Martínez and Miguel Almirón, however Moreno was not anticipated to be a savior of any type. 

Atlanta United technical director Carlos Bocanegra wasted no time in tempering expectations, particularly when a reporter in contrast Moreno to Almirón. 

“I don’t need to evaluate him, or anybody, to Miguel,” he stated. “Clearly Pity has left and (Moreno’s) coming right here because the designated participant slot. We’ve a profile of a participant at this membership and he very a lot matches that. He has related attributes to somebody like Miguel. Once more, I don’t need to begin evaluating. He’s a unique participant than Miguel.”

The timing of Moreno’s acquisition was unorthodox, because it’s not superb for a participant to be signed by a membership in the course of a managerial transition. However Atlanta United’s entrance workplace was decided to switch Martinez instantly after he was anticipated to succeed Almirón, however got here nicely quick. 

Bocanegra was assured that Moreno would “have a huge impact for us”, and in that sense, Moreno hasn’t underperformed, however he hasn’t produced at an elite degree in MLS, both. And that’s exactly the place evaluating Moreno will get tough. Primarily based merely on talent, Moreno matches the kind of participant who may very well be a difference-maker in MLS. In a league the place defenses are, at instances, an afterthought, Moreno stands out as an aggressive and slippery dribbler who’s assured in one-v-one conditions. His remaining product is holding him again, although.

Moreno has produced respectable numbers. Final season he completed with 9 targets and 5 assists in 32 matches, and to date in 2022 he has two targets and 5 assists. He’s sixth in MLS in shot-creating actions with 50, behind prime playmakers like Carles Gil, Luciano Acosta, Lucas Zelarayán and Carlos Vela. Moreno can also be sixth in shot-creating actions per 90 minutes (information from Fbref defines shot-creating actions as “the 2 offensive actions immediately resulting in a shot, such passes, dribbles and drawing fouls”). Moreno is third in MLS in fouls drawn that result in a shot try, and he’s fifth in accomplished live-ball passes that result in a shot try. 

Nonetheless, Moreno ranks seventeenth in accomplished dribbles that result in a shot try. One supply, a world scout, labeled Moreno as “expendable” due to the additions of DPs Thiago Almada and Luiz Araujo, who occupy related positions as Moreno.

“I’d promote him if there have been takers, in a blink,” the supply stated.  

However one doesn’t must peruse a stats web site to know that his model of play may be very direct — Moreno himself even described his model as “vertical.” He was signed by Bocanegra as an untraditional midfield progressor. Moreno isn’t a possession-based midfielder, however one who excels extra in transition. Since coming to Atlanta United, Moreno has performed for 2 interim managers and two head coaches. That’s 4 completely different coaches who’ve had 4 completely different asks of the Argentine. 

His tendency to fly solo in Gonzalo Pineda’s system has made it tough to outline his greatest place. In two seasons, Moreno has been utilized as each a left and right-sided winger, as a second striker, and most just lately, as a non-traditional model of a playmaking No. 10. He may be tough to comprise when video games open up, however when Atlanta United’s video games decelerate, as they typically do, and so they’re compelled to interrupt down a low block, Moreno has had problem discovering area. 

His choice is to play as an inverted winger on the left flank. In actual fact, Moreno stated that former Atlanta United supervisor Gabriel Heinze inspired him to improvise, create his personal possibilities from that place, and to return off the wing and transfer centrally, relatively than sticking to the sideline. Beneath Heinze, Moreno sought so as to add extra targets to his repertoire, which can clarify why he typically pressed and compelled photographs within the remaining third, even after Heinze was fired and Pineda took over. 

Pineda remains to be within the strategy of defining the system that most closely fits this Atlanta United roster, one which has been decimated by accidents of late. Atlanta has alternated between wanting inflexible and too scripted, and fluid and free flowing when the artistic gamers are extra in sync. The addition of Almada this season, and the expectation that Araujo would get away in 2022, left Moreno in a form of tactical limbo. Almada is best suited within the No. 10 position, and he’s the participant who Atlanta United at the moment are constructing their assaults round. 

Araujo is a objective risk and somebody who may be very efficient when given a protracted runway to cost at a protection. So the place does that go away Moreno? 

“This season my position is to help my teammates relatively than assault,” Moreno stated on Tuesday. “It’s a place that I performed so much at Lanús, as a midfielder off the left facet relatively than as a No. 10. I really feel comfy there. Having gamers like Thiago and Luiz, I do know that I’m going to have possibilities on objective.” 

It’s a piece in progress. In opposition to the Columbus Crew on Saturday, a 2-1 loss for Atlanta, Moreno performed in that withdrawn position, with the twin duty of attacking down the precise flank. He completed with zero anticipated targets in 90 minutes. In a disciplined tactical system, one the place possession and synchronized actions are the target, Moreno is sort of a wild horse who Pineda has needed to harness. 

Moreno’s propensity to go off script can result in a second of particular person creativity or a breakdown in construct up play. However in his new position as a withdrawn attacking midfielder, Moreno has supplied 5 assists in Atlanta United’s final 5 video games. His comprehension of the right way to occupy sure areas of the sphere has improved, and Pineda final week, simplicity will profit Moreno. 

“I feel he understood that at instances within the midfield, he simply must cross the ball and transfer,” Pineda stated, earlier than describing Moreno as a “participant who likes the burden on his shoulders.” Almada and Moreno, who share the identical agent and educated collectively in Argentina in the beginning of the pandemic, have added a brand new dimension to Atlanta United’s assaults. And that’s what a participant like Moreno wanted, a associate, un socio within the remaining third. 

To check Moreno to Almirón is unfair. That’s a typical that no Atlanta United participant has matched — not to mention surpassed — for the reason that Paraguayan moved to Newcastle United for an MLS report $26 million in 2019. That wasn’t the plan for Moreno. Europe isn’t beckoning and he’s tremendous with that. 

“I feel I’m taking part in in an important league,” Moreno stated final season. “MLS is a trampoline. I feel that I’m already at an ideal membership. My long-term goal is to win the league title with this crew.”

(Picture: Brett Davis-USA TODAY Sports activities)