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 out of 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.
He's a creative attacking player who can drive the team forward
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 the way 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.”
Miranchuk is an elite chance creator
Diving a little 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."
Rank | Player | Team | npxG/90 | xA/90 | xGC/90 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Kevin De Bruyne | Manchester City | 0.15 | 0.67 | 0.82 |
2 | Mohamed Salah | Liverpool | 0.45 | 0.32 | 0.78 |
3 | Leroy Sané | Bayern Munich | 0.38 | 0.39 | 0.77 |
4 | Alexey Miranchuk | Atalanta | 0.41 | 0.29 | 0.7 |
5 | Thomas Müller | Bayern Munich | 0.28 | 0.39 | 0.67 |
6 | Raphinha | Barcelona | 0.33 | 0.3 | 0.63 |
7 | Brennan Johnson | Tottenham Hotspur | 0.37 | 0.26 | 0.62 |
8 | Ousmane Dembélé | Paris Saint-Germain | 0.24 | 0.35 | 0.59 |
9 | Ferrán Torres | Barcelona | 0.37 | 0.21 | 0.59 |
10 | João Félix | Barcelona | 0.44 | 0.14 | 0.58 |
He’s not just active in open play. Miranchuck ranks top 15 in the world 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.
He’s been on Atlanta’s radar since last year
The front office knew that the team’s main No. 10, 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, Atlanta United's scouting team put together a list of potential replacements. According to Bocanegra, they identified Miranchuk and put him on the list as early as last March:
“It’s been a process where we liked him for a long time, and when Thiago ended up moving, we had done a lot of work on him already, and then it was just the final touch was meeting him and all that other stuff. The timing worked out well for us that he was available to come this way.”
Atlanta’s hip-hop scene was a selling point
While we have yet to meet Atlanta United’s latest player, it will take time per the usual visa process for international players, Bocanegra shed some light on the midfielder’s personality. Intelligent, curious and quietly confident were some qualities that impressed Bocanegra, as well as some fun ones too.
“I’ll let him talk about this more when he gets here, but he really likes the hip-hop scene, which Atlanta is a great place for that,” Bocanegra said. “Maybe that helped us get him over the hump here to get him onto our team.”
Miranchuk could help Atlanta go on a run
One of Atlanta United’s goals heading into the season was to finish in a top-four spot in the Eastern Conference. Atlanta United entered this month’s MLS pause during Leagues Cup ninth in the Eastern Conference with 28 points in the table, 13 points off fourth-place New York Red Bulls and 25 points off the conference leader Inter Miami CF.
While the target of finishing in fourth place or higher will be very difficult to reach, if the MLS regular season were to conclude today, Atlanta United would be above the playoff line. And the team is coming off arguably their biggest win of the regular season, a fierce and determined comeback victory over the defending MLS Cup champions, and current third-place conference team, Columbus Crew.
Atlanta United accomplished this without two designated player spots filled. Some momentum building in MLS play, along with the boost from an impactful player signing like Miranchuk, Atlanta United could cause some trouble the final third of the season.
Atlanta United's Data Scientist & Analyst Arjun Balaraman along with Data Engineer Akshay Easwaran contributed to this story.
