The one where the king took a knee and all three

1: Josef Martinez scored 2 tonight. Good for him. I’m genuinely happy for him. Moving him on was still the right decision for Atlanta. Miami had both their goal scorers out there tonight and what happened? They won. They’ve got 6 losses because Campana hasn’t been there and this other guy Josef hasn’t been scoring. What have we been missing in our losses? We struggle without a true 9, as so many teams do, and we have yet to solve the back up 9 issue or get consistent goals from the wings or elsewhere. GG does have a little history with injuries so creativity may be required from Gonzo for us to keep finding the net and not go on these losing skids when we don’t have GG available. 

 

2: Well the match didn’t really start until the 25th minute but then we started to create some really nice opportunities. Having Etienne on the right linking up with an often overlapping Brooks was far better than having Etienne on the left with Luiz holding up the play for no good reason on the right. 

 

3: Mr Consistency was earning that nickname tonight. Lennon’s service was excellent and if he had just a little less zip on that ball to the spot to Almada in the first half, I think Thiago would’ve been able to hit it first time or at least take a touch and have a shot. You gotta think that if GG was out there tonight that he’s scoring off at least one of those balls from Brooks’ foot. 

 

4: FWIW Luiz was better tonight, much better. Maybe he’s better suited to coming off the bench. He was actually part of the attack. He actually started attacking movements. Imagine that! His passes were sharp and progressive. He didn’t sky shots or crosses. I saw a confident player with patience and vision. I saw the player we paid for but just don’t often see enough of. 

 

5: I felt we were the better team. I see reasons to be frustrated and disappointed but I don’t see reasons to be alarmed. We not only controlled large portions of the match but we had the better of the chances from open play. We do need more urgency in the final third. Without the soft penalty we get a draw, without GG, and that’s really not bad. I’m not saying there aren’t still problems to solve, there quite clearly are, but the “team is trash” takes that are out there are kinda trash themselves. What would be alarming to me is not getting results and not identifying why, or if we continue to identify but not correct the issues and for me, it’s far too early to say we’re doing that.