Slisz’s departure leaves Atlanta United with Ajani Fortune (-0.03 Net G+ p96 in 2025), Tristan Muyumba (-0.01), and Steven Alzate (-0.04). Spot minutes were also provided by homegrown Will Reilly and Cooper Sanchez, but neither seems quite ready for a starting role.
Atlanta was rumored to be bringing in Guido Rodriguez of Club America and Real Betis fame, but he ended up at CF Valencia instead. They brought in Adrian Gill, an American who came up in La Masia. Gill has unfortunately struggled with injuries and only has four appearances for UE Cornellà on his resume as a professional, so he is a wildcard and possibly an Atlanta United 2 player.
Other reinforcements
Atlanta was, by their standards, a relatively quiet offseason in terms of signing players. They have brought in players like Hoyos and Gill, as well as defenders Tomas Jacob (possibly a midfielder?) and Elias Baez. None of these are major signings, and some come into positions where there are already established starters. Baez, for example, is a more defensive left back who uses a very different style than Pedro Amador. Does his signing mean Amador won’t be such an important attacking piece?
I doubt Atlanta is done with the market, but at the same time the season is quickly approaching. There won’t be as much time for new acquisitions as they are made later.
Outlook for 2026
2025 was miserable, but there were glimmers of hope. Atlanta had the worst underperformance against xGD and xPoints in the league, both overall and in even game states. Even a normal regression to the mean would lead to an increase in the table. In that sense, Tata Martino has a comfortable path to meeting expectations.
At the same time, Atlanta’s schedule is pretty front-loaded in terms of difficulty. That is both a challenge and an opportunity; If they can hold on for the first part of the season before the World Cup, more aggressive moves could take place over the summer to plug any gaps that emerge during that time. Everyone also knows that the World Cup will draw more attention to the sport. Signing sessions during the tournament attract the most attention and create excitement within the team. It wouldn’t be surprising if Atlanta made a big jump on the market in July or August to make a true stretch run for the playoffs.
However, if Atlanta takes a big hit early on, it could be a long season. Fighting back to avoid being bottom of the table would be demoralizing for a group that was already struggling under different coaches. Tata Martino is a good manager, but this would be his biggest challenge in MLS yet.
By Paul Harvey
There are many teams for whom the 2026 season holds promise, whose new signings look to be building on a strong foundation, and whose fans are already starting to seek out hotel prices in October.
CF Montreal is not one of those teams.
Montreal’s problems date back well before 2025. Manager Laurent Courtois was hired in 2024 to right the ship, with Montreal hoping Wilfried Nancy’s assistant could copy Nancy’s success. Courtois managed to outperform xPoints by almost five points in 2024, moving Montreal close to a playoff spot. That was enough to keep his job.
They cleared the decks after 2024, returning just 60% of their minutes, and leaned heavily on young and cheap players to build a foundation for the future. In fact, players under the age of 26 and with salaries under 400,000 per year accounted for 24,109 of Montreal’s field minutes. The next closest team was Philadelphia at just over 16K.
Unfortunately it didn’t get that hot.
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