Stephen Glass: Atlanta United need clarity not complexity

-Ed. Note: Quotes in this article were taken from an audio recording of Stephen Glass’ introductory conference call provided by Joe Patrick.

On Thursday interim manager Stephen Glass spoke to the media for the first time since being appointed on Monday. This is the first chance we got to look into how Glass thinks and is approaching his new role with Atlanta United, and how he feels about the club’s current shape.

Starting off, Glass didn’t mince words when addressing the teams current form, calling them “disjointed” and declaring they “need direction”. It wasn’t all negative though as he believes the team has a “fantastic group of players” and that “the players will show more than what they have been recently”.

When discussing how he plans to move the team forward, Glass offered a simple but refreshing take.

“It’s important to get back to being an attack-minded team that people know they’re going to come up against and what they’re going to see.” He also added “if you’re an Atlanta fan, you want to know what you’re going to see and expect attacking football.”

When it comes to tactics and formations we’ll have to wait and see because Glass isn’t willing to give other teams a head start. Glass did at least mention the players need a “clear idea of how the team is going to play”. This makes a lot of sense based off of some speculation that former manager Frank de Boer’s tactics were overly complex and led players to think more than play.

Last thing Glass spoke on was how he would go about unifying the team, even with all the different personalities on the roster. He believes that if the staff sticks to having a strong game plan around the team’s ethos, of attacking soccer and controlling the game, while allowing players to grow and get better in their new roles that they will become unified with the results they get in the rest of the season.