Predicting Atlanta United’s starting lineup vs. Real Salt Lake

After a thrilling comeback against the San Jose Earthquakes, Atlanta United completes its busy week by returning home for the first time in over a month to face Real Salt Lake. What formation do we see? What players will be on the field? I’ve been wrong a lot recently, so why do you guys still let me do this? Alright, let’s give it a shot again.

Here is the definite, surefire lineup for Sept. 22.*

*I’m probably wrong.

Formation: 3-5-2. Am I reactive? Typically, yes. However, the 3-5-2 allows Tata Martino to keep Jeff Larentowicz in the lineup by bringing him to the backline as well as still keep Darlington Nagbe and Eric Remedi in midfield. I think that’s pretty important to Martino. I guess we’ll see if that’s true on Saturday.

Goalkeeper: Brad Guzan. I got this one right.

Center Back #1: Leandro Gonzalez Pirez.

Center Back #2: Michael Parkhurst. Him and LGP are almost always constants.

Center Back #3: Jeff Larentowicz.

Left Wingback: Chris McCann. Greg Garza, where art thou?

Right Wingback: Julian Gressel.

Central Midfielder #1: Eric Remedi.

Central Midfielder #2: Darlington Nagbe.

Attacking Midfielder: Miguel Almiron. Four goals in five matches after not scoring in 14 of the previous 15 comes at a great time as the Five Stripes start preparing for the postseason.

Striker #1: Josef Martinez. 30 goals this season. 30.

Striker #2: Tito Villalba. He mostly scores bangers and we should all be completely OK with that.

To recap, here’s my projected lineup against Real Salt Lake.

What do you think? Let us know in the comments.