Pineda is vibing on United’s vitality

Atlanta United’s Gonzalo Pineda said he liked the energy shown by the players in their first training session with him Tuesday.

“I just want to keep it up,” he said.

Pineda was named Atlanta United’s manager almost two weeks ago. Because he tested positive for COVID-19, and because of the team’s schedule of games, he hadn’t been able to lead a practice before Tuesday.

The session ended with a competitive game, which Pineda said he likes to do. The team broke into four teams of five and played several games against each other on a smaller field. Pineda could be heard shouting encouragement during the short games. He said he likes to find out whether players show what the team worked on in training.

After training, Pineda met with the media before meeting with the team to give them his message for the rest of the season. He didn’t offer details about what he was going to say to them.

Most of Atlanta United’s players trained Tuesday. Missing were centerback Miles Robinson and fullback George Bello, who are at the league’s All-star festivities in Los Angeles, and midfielders Santiago

Sosa, Franco Ibarra, Jake Mulraney, Mo Adams and Amar Sejdic. Mulraney was jogging around the training fields after practice. Striker Jackson Conway and winger Machop Chol didn’t participate because they played for Atlanta United 2 on Sunday. Midfielder Emerson Hyndman is out for the season.

Pineda said he is not committed to one formation, but he likely will play with three centerbacks, a formation switch put in by interim manager Rob Valentino. It’s a formation that Pineda switched to in his previous job at Seattle, with the approval of manager Brian Schmetzer, before the season. Pineda said he prefers to keep personnel within the same lineups so there is consistency.

During the training sessions, Pineda said he wants to improve the connectivity between the centerbacks and midfielders. He also wants to get the wingbacks more involved in the attacks.

“So in some ways, I’m always looking for different shapes,” he said.

Tactically, Pineda said he prefers zonal marking on set pieces but that he needs to speak to the players because he wants things to be collaborative. As for the defense, he said he wouldn’t commit to zonal or man-marking. Instead, he prefers that the team defend as a collective.