What do Miguel Almiron’s Premier League woes mean for MLS?

Miguel Almiron’s sale from Atlanta United to the Premier League was supposed to be a game changer for MLS. But after a change of manager, should his struggles at Newcastle reflect poorly on MLS?

There was an air of excitement among all interested parties when Miguel Almiron moved to Newcastle United, not least from fans of the selling club, Atlanta United.

Excitement around the sale of a player might sound unusual – it wasn’t as if Atlanta fans were glad to see him go or had concerns as to who would replace him – but in general, supporters of the 2017 Major League Soccer expansion side were proud to see one of their players do so well that he attracted interest from the Premier League.

And this wasn’t just an English team taking a chance on a young player, such as Manchester City’s move for Zack Steffen or Matt Miazga’s transfer to Chelsea, it was a marquee signing for a club looking to make a statement.

Atlanta had proof from across the pond that their star man was the real deal (not that they needed it), and the path from South America to Europe via MLS was beginning to look like it might be a fruitful one for all involved.

Supporters of the Paraguay national team were also buoyed by the move. They had another player in one of the highest-profile leagues in the world as Almiron joined Fabian Balbuena who had made a decent start to life at West Ham.

And, in what has been a period of pessimism for them under the club’s current owner, Newcastle fans finally had a glimmer of hope in the shape of a player who looked dynamic, hard-working, skillful, and productive in the final third.

The knock-on effect of this transfer could have been significant: an MLS star moving to the Premier League and making a go of it might lead to more attention on the North American league, but Almiron has so far failed to live up to the lofty expectations.

Judging Almiron on statistics alone suggests he has been a disaster at St James’s Park.

In 70 games for Atlanta United, he scored 22 goals and made 21 assists — well over a contribution to a goal every other game on average. Since arriving at Newcastle he has a grand total of zero goals and zero assists in 22 games.

It’s getting to the point where he’s being mocked on social media for his poor finishing, and even being hard-working on and off the ball might not be enough for much longer.

It isn’t all Almiron’s fault, though. He joined the club under a Spanish manager, Rafa Benitez, who could speak Almiron’s language both literally and in soccer terms. This was important, especially as working under a Spanish speaking manager in Atlanta, with a number of Latin American team-mates, surely contributed greatly to how he settled in there.

There weren’t many complaints about his lack of goals or assists during that half-season under Benitez where he played primarily as a left-winger in a 5-4-1.

It was a position he had played occasionally during his time in Atlanta, where he was primarily used as a central attacking midfielder, but since the change of manager at Newcastle he has been used on the right-wing, a position he’d played just three times prior to his move to Europe with two of those coming in 2015 during his time in Argentina with Lanus.

Almiron did manage to get his name on the scoresheet recently, though, scoring with an excellent strike from outside the area for Paraguay against Bulgaria. The goal came from a position just left of center…

Despite a flatter performance for Paraguay in their subsequent game against Saudi Arabia, there was hope among Newcastle fans that this goal on international duty would see their South American star come back in high spirits, ready to find the net for his club. But it wasn’t to be.

Another poor Premier League performance against Aston Villa ensued, as Almiron again took up a position on the right of midfield as Newcastle lost 2-0.

There’s no doubt the 25-year-old should be performing much better, regardless of the position in which he’s playing, and it eventually gets to a stage where even hard work may not be enough, but to use Almiron to make a wider point that players from MLS won’t be able to adapt to the Premier League, is wrong.

Almiron’s plight is not necessarily a reflection on MLS, or indeed the Argentine and Paraguayan leagues in which he played before moving north. If anything, it’s more a slight on the way business is done in the Premier League when a club is poorly run and has no long-term plan.

A good player is a good player, whatever league they come from, but only if the buying club has a plan which allows them to continue being that player. Newcastle, post-Benitez, don’t, and the fact their other signings are struggling similarly further exposes deeper-rooted problems at the club.

Regardless of the perceived quality of both managers, going from Benitez to Steve Bruce isn’t a continuation. Almiron looked good under Benitez, despite his lack of goals and assists because, with the Spaniard at the helm, there was a plan for the new signing and he was used according to his strengths. Playing on the right under Bruce, this hasn’t been the case.

Almiron went from being the best player in the best team in one league – a team that had a clear strategy under Tata Martino and a clear sporting direction from their first years in MLS – to a struggling Premier League side who were set up to fail once Benitez left. Is it any wonder he is struggling?