2022 Player Reviews: Josef Martinez

I put this off until the second day of previews but that’s as long as I could put it off. There’s just so much to take in with Josef, though. There’s incredibly little that’s black and white. And all of his on-field product (or lack thereof) is colored by his history with the club, his injuries and the off-field intrigue that followed him for most of the latter half of the season. 

We’re going to try and get at the heart of these things as we dive in — but there aren’t a whole lot of direct answers. Unfortunately, with your Designated Players in MLS, you kind of need there to be direct answers. 

Age

29

Position

Striker

Roster Spot 

Designated Player

Minutes

1637

By the numbers

Nine goals, four assists

A single clip is worth a thousand words

What went right?

Enough to merit some heated debates within the Atlanta United fan base but not enough to keep those debates from starting in the first place. Nine goals is his lowest season total since joining MLS and 0.55 goals per 90 is his lowest output as well. In the end, he scored three fewer goals than in 2021 with 174 fewer minutes played and, oh God, wait, this is how I’m starting the “What went right?” section? Man, what a weird year. 

But Josef did become a productive super sub and scored four of his nine goals off the bench over the final quarter of the season. Four goals over your final nine games is a pretty decent output in limited minutes. Josef also delivered four primary assists on the season, his second-highest total since coming to MLS.

Oh, and he did this. 

He’s been trying to score this exact goal ever since he arrived in Atlanta and may have just saved his best-ever highlight for last. He deservedly won Goal of the Year for this. You can’t help but be happy to see him finally make it happen. You also can’t help but wish it came under better circumstances. 

What went wrong? 

A lot. Objectively, a lot. And it’s not really anyone’s fault. Blame Josef’s ACL if you need something to blame. 

Like we talked about, the goal-scoring and assist numbers are fine for a guy making routine appearances off the bench. It’s everything else that makes looking at Josef’s 2022 totally disheartening. For comparison, look at his 2019 defensive numbers and dribbling numbers in particular.

There’s obviously a notable drop-off in his scoring numbers, but the rest of his game fell off a cliff. Now, I’m not here to pretend that Josef has ever been a full-throttle, gegenpressing maniac. That’s never been his game. But he’s lost explosiveness on the ball as well. Going from the 48th percentile in dribbles completed to the 1st percentile is extraordinarily bad. (First percentile, here, means that 99 percent of MLS players are better at this than Josef.) 

He’s not meant to exclusively create his own shots over and over, but it always felt like when he received the ball in any position, he could create space for himself off the dribble. This year, he either found the rare moment where his generally stagnant movement put him in a wide-open position to score or he didn’t score at all. And the eye test backs that up. 

You can obviously do a whole lot worse than “Striker finds himself converting open chances at a decent clip.” In a vacuum that’s great. In the context of a DP striker though, you need more. Especially when you consider that his lack of movement meant you had to wait for an extended period or bring him off the bench against a tired defense to find that open chance. Of his eight open-play goals this year, seven came in the second half, six came after 60 minutes or later and half came after the 75th minute. His only first-half goal came against CF Montreal when an errant back pass from Ismael Kone put him in on goal. 

To go a little further, 29 of his open play shots came in the second half. Just seven came in the first half. Josef Martinez had seven open play shots in the first half. All season. Seven. He started 12 games. 

With 18 starts last season, he put up 19 shots in the first half and 24 in the second half. There’s a clear indication here that this year’s version of Josef couldn’t do it against defenses that weren’t gassed. 

You won’t be surprised to learn then that, in general, he covered less ground and covered that ground slower than ever. Among MLS players, Josef finished in the 8th percentile in the league in distance covered per possession, the 88th percentile in distance walking per possession, the 12th percentile in distance running at high speed per possession, the 43rd percentile in top sustained speed, and the 8th percentile in average sustained speed. 

Running doesn’t make a striker great — stay tuned for the Ronaldo Cisneros player review! —but if your off-ball movement isn’t good enough to create your own space, then you generally aren’t going to be rewarded. Again, Josef has never been full throttle at all times. But dynamic movement matters and the numbers and eye test suggest that Josef couldn’t consistently explode in the short bursts that made him the best goal scorer in MLS history. 

All that being said, there are some caveats to everything here. Mainly this. 

If it were just Josef at the top of the list, I’d see it solely as confirmation of his struggles. However, Josef is joined by a teammate. 

Atlanta United failed in general to get their strikers involved in the game. Among the 37 strikers with 1450 minutes in MLS this year, Josef and Ronaldo Cisneros were last and second-to-last in the percentage of the team’s touches they made. Compare that to the league leaders in touch percentage at striker and you’ll unsurprisingly see a lot of high-profile names. 

It doesn't mean everything. But it does mean something. Especially considering that, despite very different playing styles, both strikers had the same issue. That suggests problems inherent with the team’s system and the team itself as much as it does problems with the strikers. In this case, I think both things can be and are true. The strikers were bad, the team was bad too and that all feeds into itself over and over in an endless cycle of bad. 

In the end, though, too much of the conversation regarding Josef centered around his use off the bench. If you’re looking for problems with the team as a whole, they weren’t in Josef’s eventual role. Considering his 1st percentile defensive effort, his lack of movement, and his still apparent goal-scoring ability against tired legs, what do you do with a player who’s only involved 2.5% of the game but is effective at one particular skill? You bring him on as a sub. 

What’s next? 

In all of that “What went wrong?” section, we didn’t even have time for the off-field stuff. I figure you already know though. Josef missed six weeks of the season due to yet another knee surgery, lost his starting job, came back and decried the state of the team in the media, flipped a table, earned a one-game suspension and liked a social media post suggesting Carlos Bocanegra should be fired. That’s still up on his Twitter account, by the way. 

Basically what that amounts to is an untenable relationship. Either significant changes happen between both parties or Josef won’t be with Atlanta United in 2023. The bigger question now seems to be how he’ll leave rather than if. 

The ideal scenario for the club — other than, ya know, everyone hugging it out and Josef going full Chicharito in his offseason conditioning and returning to his 2018 form — would be a transfer out of MLS or a trade to a team outside of the Eastern Conference. However, there aren’t many teams in MLS with an open DP spot at striker and even fewer teams who’d be willing to take a risk on Josef for all of the reasons I outlined in the “What went wrong?” section. My best guess as to who might be talked into it is St. Louis CITY SC, who’d be looking to add a star to their inaugural roster and would likely be able to get Josef at a discount. Otherwise, Atlanta is probably looking at a transfer out of MLS. A transfer that Josef would have to agree to. Perhaps that’s in Liga MX, but even that feels unlikely right now.

Which puts us at what might be the most likely scenario. Atlanta just buys Josef out and the two part ways. The Five Stripes have a one-time buyout they can use once each season. If there are no takers for Josef, then they only have one real option. Unfortunately for Atlanta, there are a few other bad contracts that could also use the buyout treatment. 

Plus, the optics will look awful. Atlanta United as an organization simply hasn’t earned the trust of its fanbase at this point. There’s no reason they should or will be confident that the team will be able to find a replacement that leads to a return to glory. 

We’re witnessing a divorce here. No one is going to win in the end.