Training Ground Notebook: Atlanta United's homegrown core steps forward
- Jason Longshore
- 2 hours ago
- 6 min read
Tata Martino's ideas are starting to take hold, and the players driving it forward are the ones who grew up here.
Atlanta United's training ground availability on Thursday gave two clear looks at the same story. Will Reilly described a homegrown core that has decided this team belongs to them as much as anyone. Tata Martino described a team that is starting to look like the team he has been building toward all season. The two conversations fit together in ways that feel less like coincidence and more like cause and effect.
Saturday's home match against CF Montréal is the next chance to keep it going.
Not passengers
The best quote of the day belonged to Reilly, and it did not require any setup.
"No one wants to just be a passenger on a train that's headed straight into a wall," he said. "We want to be part of this and assume responsibility. It's not just a bunch of kids anymore. We want to be full members of this team."
That sentence carries a lot of weight when you consider who said it and when. Reilly is a homegrown. So is Jay Fortune. So is Matt Edwards. So is Cooper Sanchez, who is still finishing high school but has started nearly every match this season. Together, they have formed a core that is doing more than filling minutes. They are shaping how this team competes.
Reilly said the conversation has been direct among that group. "Jay, Matt, and I talked about this," he said. "We're not really young guys anymore. We have to assume some responsibility and assume a role on this team to help get us out of this situation, start winning games, and start performing."
Martino recognized exactly what Reilly was describing, and he recognized it from experience. At Inter Miami, he said, he watched a similar group of young players find their way among much bigger names, and he felt connected to them for exactly that reason. He sees the same dynamic unfolding here.
"I really like it when young players from the club step up, when they're brave, when they're committed, when they feel like they have to deliver for the club," Martino said. "I identify very strongly with that."
The moment that crystallized it came Tuesday against Charlotte, when Reilly wore the captain's armband. He said he had no idea it was coming. "Manu (Latte Lath) just came on and tossed it to me," Reilly said. "I thought he was passing me a note. It was super cool. Having come up through the academy especially, and seeing all these massive guys at the club that have worn the armband, that was a cool experience."
Martino was asked about it and gave an answer that said everything without overcomplicating it. "If there is any player who has the qualities of a leader and a captain, without a doubt it's Will," he said.
One thread inside that homegrown core stands out on its own. Reilly said Sanchez is his locker room buddy, that he only recently moved in nearby, and that when he first crossed paths with him years ago while training back with the second team during a college break, something registered immediately. "I do remember it being a pleasant experience," Reilly said with a grin.
He was more serious when asked to describe what he sees in Cooper week to week. "He's a kid, but he's playing like a man. That's exactly what we need."
The process, and the proof
All of this homegrown energy exists inside a larger story about whether Martino's ideas are taking hold, and Thursday's availability gave real reason to believe they are.
Reilly addressed the tension directly when asked about the winless streak earlier in the season and whether doubt crept in about the approach. "That's definitely a challenge because, ultimately, we judge our success based on results and outcomes," he said. "So if those aren't coming for an extended period of time, you question if maybe something's wrong with the approach. But it's always a challenge to find the balance between jumping between a bunch of different approaches and not being able to stick something out versus staying with something and working with it until things start to turn around."
Then he made the key point:
"I think we're seeing that things are starting to turn around. There's definitely belief in the process, and we're still a long way off from the ultimate goal of how we want to be playing, but it's on the right track."
Martino is seeing the same thing from his vantage point, and he did not hesitate when asked about what Atlanta has found without Miguel Almirón. "I believe a team has to find answers when it doesn't have its best players," he said. "And if it finds those good answers, those good answers can never be tied to the absence of one of the best players." The logic cuts both ways. The good run belongs to the team, not to Almirón's absence, which means when he returns, Atlanta does not lose what it has found. It adds to it.
Lines tighter, ball won higher
If you want to understand what the process actually looks like on the field, the best description came in two separate answers from two different voices that pointed at the same thing.
Martino was asked whether Atlanta has changed anything defensively since the Columbus match, given that the team has looked much more organized in recent weeks. His answer was specific. "Above all, we're playing with our lines closer together," he said. "I notice that the back four is supporting the midfielders' positions much more, and I think this allows us to play and win the ball a little higher up."
He was clear that this is not a new idea. What is new is the confidence to actually do it.
"It's not something new, it's something we've been looking for since the start," Martino said. "Probably, now is the moment when we're most confident to carry it forward."
Reilly's description of his own role connects directly to that. When asked what Martino and the staff have emphasized most in his deeper position, he did not talk about tactics in the abstract. "Be disciplined with positioning," he said. "Hold that space in the build and then back up play, picking up those attacking players on the other team that maybe aren't tracking back." That is the back four and the midfield working as one unit, which is exactly what Martino described from the outside looking in.
The structure creates the platform. The wingers and forwards create the problems. Reilly and the back line hold it all together.
Part of what makes that attack tick right now is Alexey Miranchuk's role in it. When Martino has used Miranchuk as a forward rather than a wide player, the effect on the team has been notable. "I think we have more control of the game," Martino said. "He's very intelligent at finding space. We benefit a lot because, through his technique, he controls the ball well and he also plays in the players who make runs in behind."
Reilly confirmed it from the midfield perspective. "He's so good at finding those pockets in the middle, dropping into space," he said. "It makes it really challenging for the opposing center backs and also their midfielders, because now they have to worry about Alexey dropping in behind them. So it opens up space for everyone else."
Martino indicated that arrangement could continue depending on the opponent, but the bigger conversation underneath it is about Latte Lath. Both are designated players, and Martino has been direct about the unique pressure that designation carries in MLS. "The franchise players carry enormous pressure in MLS," he said. "It becomes a direct equation: they're the highest paid, so they're the ones who have to deliver the most. And sometimes that creates a burden on a player that, at certain moments, hurts him." His solution for now is to take some of that weight off by bringing Latte Lath off the bench rather than starting him. "Sometimes it's better to take that pressure off by putting him on the bench and bringing him in for minutes," Martino said, "rather than giving him the starting spot permanently, at least until they reach the desired level."
When Miguel Almirón does return from injury, Martino sees him slotting in as a winger within what is already working. The foundation will be there waiting for him.
"The first thing I assume is that when he comes back, we're going to be even better," Martino said.
A team building belief in itself, a homegrown core growing into its responsibility, and one of its best players still to return. Atlanta United hosts Montréal with a story that is still being written, but one that is pointed in the right direction.