“The switch has to be flipped”. That was the response from 92-9 The Game’s Atlanta United analyst Jason Longshore as he and Jon Chuckery discussed the team on Thursday night following their 3-3 draw with New England. While Thursday’s draw marked the third consecutive match to end with that result, United found themselves having to battle back in all three of the draws. Lonshore’s response came following Chuckery’s questioning of whether or not the defensive effort of United has to be looked at for adjustments.
“Is it a matter of effort at times on defense? Does something have to change? Not just hey we need to play better, but can anything be done to shake up what our defense is,” Chuckery asked Longshore as he wonder could United’s recent defensive struggles be related to alignment. “Or doe it just come down to want to and effort,” the evening host asked. While Longshore responded to Chuckery that he understands why “want to and effort” could be the scape goat type answer to Atlanta’s problems on defense, he does not believe that the team is only showing effort in one half of the field and not the other.
However, the United color analyst did tell Chuckery that “mindset” of transitioning from attack to defending may be at the root of the defensive struggles for United. “When you’re a team that is as good as this team is in the attack, and has players and has defenders that love to get forward and contribute in the attack, and everything is based around that side of it, the switch has to flipped and it’s really easy to say and hard to do,” Longshore said.
Click link above to hear Chuckery and Longshore’s conversation in its entirety:
