After a snowy weekend, Atlanta United began preseason this week at the Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta Training Ground as enough snow had melted and cleared for the team to hold their first training sessions of 2025 on the pitch.
The new year brings a new beginning, in a way, for the club. In December, Atlanta United announced the hirings of Ronny Deila as head coach and Chris Henderson as Chief Soccer Officer and Sporting Director. The two are both here in Atlanta and already integrating into their new club and roles.
While the two new hires mean a remake to the front office, several returning and familiar faces were out on the pitch. Two of them, seasoned professionals Brad Guzan and Derrick Williams, met with the media for the first player-led press conference of the year.
“It’s always nice to see familiar faces when you come back for the first day,” Guzan said. “It’s always a day that brings a lot of smiles to everyone’s faces.”
Here are a few more takeaways from the first few days of preseason training:
One word to describe first impressions of Ronny Deila
Tuesday marks only the second day of training under new head coach Ronny Deila. The Norwegian manager was announced as the new head coach of Atlanta United on December 20. He arrived in Atlanta last week and took tours of both the training ground and Mercedes-Benz Stadium.
In his first meetings with players, Deila reportedly went over his expectations. Williams said that the new head coach was straightforward and shared how he wants the team to play.
One word that jumped out when speaking about Deila was the word discipline, something Williams said the team needs. In one of those initial meetings, Deila reportedly told the group that he watched several of their previous games. His takeaway was that the team played inconsistently. A disciplined approach, and an emphasis on fitness, will help the team be more consistent on the pitch.
“Being the fittest team in the league would be a good thing to start off with,” Williams said.
One new player to keep an eye on
Two designated player spots remain open on the club roster, a task Henderson described as “exciting” during his introduction. Even with those gaps to fill, Atlanta United has made some movement and added to the roster this winter. One acquisition was Mateusz Klich, a midfielder acquired in a trade with D.C. United in December.
The 34-year-old brings experience to Atlanta, and he’s competed not only in MLS. He previously played five seasons at Leeds United in England, helping the club get promoted to the English Premier League. He went on to make 82 appearances in the EPL.
Atlanta United and MLS fans will recognize Klich from his playing career at D.C. United. Klich finished his two years in D.C. with a total of 22 assists, and he was clearly one of the players that Atlanta United scouted for when the two Eastern Conference teams met.
“When you talk about playing against D.C., you had to have an eye on Christian Benteke but also Klich,” Guzan said. “He was a guy that made them tick and made them go, and somebody that covers ground in the middle of the pitch, somebody that can play both sides of the ball. When you have a competitor in that area of the field, he's only going to make your team better.”
Guzan and Williams, like Klich, both played in Europe prior to joining MLS. (Guzan played eight seasons at Aston Villa, Williams played 11 seasons in England.) Williams knows Klich very well from their shared time at D.C. United. The center back called Klich one of his closest friends in football.
“On the pitch, you can expect good quality,” Williams said. “He runs a lot. I think he averages close to 12 [kilometers] a game. The one thing I like about him is he always looks forward. Every time he gets the ball, he’s trying to play a ball in behind or into a striker’s feet… He’s a good guy. He’s a locker room guy. He gets on well with everyone.”
On the pitch, Klich’s propensity for playing the ball forward will benefit Atlanta’s playmakers such as Alexey Miranchuk and Saba Lobjanidze and, of course, strikers up top like Jamal Thiaré. But there’s one young player who Williams believes will especially benefit learning from Klich:
“It’d be good for the young lads, especially Jay Fortune\]. [Jay can learn a lot from him. Klich is experienced – a lot of international games, played Premier League – and I think Jay has the potential to do all those things, so hopefully he can learn from him.”
One thing to keep in mind about preseason
After a few weeks of training, Atlanta United’s preseason schedule will consist of five matches. Like in past years, the team will start out with matches against lower-tier clubs and then ramp up the competition. The club’s fifth match against FC Dallas on February 15 will be the final preseason scrimmage before the club’s home opener at Mercedes-Benz Stadium on the 22nd.
Guzan, who will be playing his ninth MLS season in 2025, knows how to approach a preseason. Individually, it’s about getting fit, getting back into a rhythm, and helping new players get settled as quickly as possible. As a group, it’s about picking up the principles from the new coaching staff and understanding what they want out of the team.
“It’s a process. It’s going to be a continuation from Day 1 to Day 2 to Day 3, and you slowly start to build on each day,” Guzan said. “As we get more fit, as we have more understanding and more clarity of what the coach wants, what the staff wants... the quicker we pick that up, the quicker we can continue to build.”
Heading into a new season often feels like a fresh start. And there’s certainly an element of that for Atlanta United, especially with a new coaching staff. But there’s also a sense of picking up where they left off. While 2024 fell below expectations (Guzan himself at the end of the year summarized the season as “frustrating”), the season ended on a high and hopeful note when Atlanta United qualified for the Audi 2024 MLS Cup Playoffs then knocked out the No. 1 seed and Supporters’ Shield winners.
Key players such as Williams and Guzan, who both started every playoff match for Atlanta United, haven’t forgotten that hopeful feeling. They plan to use that as motivation to push the group in the early days, especially with a rematch early in the regular season on March 16 at Mercedes-Benz Stadium against the team Atlanta bounced in the playoffs, Inter Miami CF.
“Last year gave us a bit of a taste to show that we can beat the best teams in the league, we just have to do it on a consistent basis,” Williams said.
