Rotating Rosters & Dueling Timelines
The 2018 campaign really started with Tata Martino’s reaction to the Houston debacle: a switch to a 3 man back-line which would last for roughly the opening third of the season. Then the team returned to the vintage 2017 4-3-3 Peachtree Press setup, eventually adding a previously injured Tito Villalba. Somewhere in there, actually exactly halfway through the season, Darlington Nagbe went down with a long term injury. About 7 games in, Ezequiel Barco became a regular starter and then found himself out of the first team after 15 straight starts.