ATL Standard

The summer transfer window is open, and excitement is building around Atlanta United’s most recent signing. On Tuesday, July 30, the club announced the addition of Alexey Miranchuk, a midfielder who played most recently with Atalanta in Italy’s Serie A.

Miranchuk is the headliner of this Atlanta United transfer class. Here’s what Atlanta United fans can expect from their next soccer star:

He has competitive experience playing in one of the world’s top-flight soccer leagues. Miranchuk played in more than 100 matches in Serie A, a top-tier league. Most recently, his club Atalanta won the Europa League for the 2023-2024 season.

While Miranchuk didn’t start every game for the club, he played a crucial role in helping Atalanta win this season’s Europa League. He played in more than 40 matches between UEFA Champions League and Europa League over the years. This year, he played 10 of 13 Europa League matches.

A quick look at his bio page on FBref shows that Miranchuk is clearly an attacking player. There’s a lot of green in those attacking categories -- the midfielder ranks in the 90th percentile or better in assists, expected assisted goals, non-penalty expected goals + assisted goals, and shot-creating actions.

On the pitch, Miranchuk is a player who can be ball-dominant like Atlanta’s previous No. 10 Thiago Almada was. Miranchuk looks comfortable getting the ball with a defender on his back and can relieve pressure for the team. But vice president & technical director Carlos Bocanegra said he also wants to see Miranchuk higher up the field in spaces where he can be dangerous and create with players like Saba Lobjanidze and Xande Silva: “We’d like to see a bit of balance where he’s helping us progress the ball but also not always coming back too deep to be the only one progressing it.”

Diving deeper into his advanced stats, Miranchuk displays quality in attacking moments from the 10 position. Miranchuk was one of the top chance creators per 90 minutes in his league, capable of setting up players with through balls and dynamic passes. Looking at expected goal contributions per 90 minutes in 2023-24, Miranchuk ranks fourth for all No. 10s/wingers playing in the top five leagues in the world.

“He’s willing to get on the ball in tough situations,” Bocanegra said. “He can make things happen out of nothing, and he can set other people up for success."

He’s not just active in open play; Miranchuck ranks top 15 globally on set plays. On set pieces and dead balls, he’s able to put the ball in dangerous areas. He also ranks third in number of shots + key passes.

The front office knew that Almada would eventually move on. A World Cup winner and the 2023 MLS Young Player of the Year, Almada was arguably Atlanta’s most impactful player, which created a unique challenge of finding another player who could produce at a similar rate.

To get ahead of that transition, Atlanta United's scouting team put together a list of potential replacements. According to Bocanegra, they identified Miranchuk as early as last March: “It’s been a process where we liked him for a long time... The timing worked out well for us that he was available to come this way.”

While it will take time per usual visa processes for international players before meeting Atlanta United's latest player officially, Bocanegra shed some light on Miranchuk's personality: “I’ll let him talk about this more when he gets here... Maybe that helped us get him over the hump here to get him onto our team.”

One of Atlanta United’s goals heading into this season was to finish in a top-four spot in the Eastern Conference. The team entered this month’s MLS pause during Leagues Cup ninth in their conference with 28 points—13 points off fourth-place New York Red Bulls and 25 points off conference leader Inter Miami CF.

While finishing fourth or higher will be challenging if MLS regular season were to conclude today; Atlanta United would be above playoff line currently after their biggest win—a comeback victory over Columbus Crew.

Atlanta United accomplished this without two designated player spots filled. With some momentum building along with an impactful signing like Miranchuk; they could cause trouble final third season.

Atlanta United's Data Scientist & Analyst Arjun Balaraman along with Data Engineer Akshay Easwaran contributed to this story.

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