The leagues newcomers, Nashville, kicked off the MLS 2020 season in front of a packed Nissan Stadium of 59,000 fans, facing Atlanta United, (2018 MLS cup winners and 2019 semi-finalists) were the travelling side for this fixture. Although a 2-1 win for Atlanta wasnt the result that Nashville had hoped for, there were still some positives that could be taken from the game.
In this tactical analysis, we look at what ultimately became a game of tactical organization in the defensive phase. Both head coaches, Gary Smith (Nashville) and Frank de Boer (Atlanta) organized their teams incredibly well, but in completely different ways.
Lineups
Nashville kicked off not only the MLS 2020 campaign but also the clubs history, in a 4-4-2 formation with very distinct defensive lines throughout the game which is reminiscent of Diego Simeones Atletico Madrid. Atlanta, on the other hand, were organized in a flexible 3-4-2-1 formation. The fluidity of the system allowed for either of the attacking midfielders to join the front line with Josef Martínez, creating either a front two or a front three. The wide players, Brooks Lennon and Jake Mulraney were also fluid in that they could easily drop in to help create a back five, or, join the attack. As such, the former Ajax managers team shape could, at times, have looked like a 5-4-1, a 3-5-2, or even a 3-4-3 which was impressive to observe.
Nashvilles Organized Shape
A thread that ran throughout the entire match for Nashville was for them to get organised quickly when out of possession. The theory, we can assume, was to prevent Martínez from having time and space behind the backline which might also explain the deep defensive line that the home side utilised throughout the match. The following two images show Nashvilles deep backline which limited the amount of space in behind for Atlanta to attack.
In both images, Nashville prevent forward progression of the ball. As Atlanta played the ball backwards in order to secure possession, the backline of Nashville did not alter when traditional defending may have seen teams look to push the defensive line up. This tactic was clearly to prevent any early balls in-behind as the Nashville backline was moving forwards.
