Ronny Deila is an interesting person.
From his favorite singer to his favorite song to his health habits, Deila is a cocktail of uniqueness.
It may take all of the elements that make him to do what those before him haven’t: take Atlanta United to the heights it reached under Gerardo Martino in winning the MLS Cup in 2018, and Frank de Boer in winning the U.S. Open Cup and Campeones Cup in 2019.
It has been five years since Atlanta United has reached even a championship match in any tournament.
There have been many reasons: COVID-19 and its effects, rosters that in hindsight seemed piecemeal, injuries, signings that seemed great on paper but turned out to be much less than that, and bad luck.
Deila will inherit a roster that, on paper, may be its best since 2018. It has back Miguel Almiron, one of the key pieces in its first two years. It has speed and proven scoring on top in Emmanuel Latte Lath, speed and proven productivity on the other wing in Saba Lobjanidze, a proven playmaker in Alexey Miranchuk, a pair of Polish nationals in central midfielder in Bartosz Slisz and Mateusz Klich, and veterans in defense led by captain Brad Guzan.
So, what makes Deila, who has won six trophies in 17 seasons as a manager, different from Gabriel Heinze and Gonzalo Pineda, those who preceded him? What makes him believe that he can be the person to take the tens of millions of dollars spent on the roster and put in a position to win trophies?
“I’ve done it everywhere I’ve been,” he said in an exclusive interview with the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “I know it will happen after at least two years. Next season is going to be better than this season, but this season we have already a good team, so we can do big things at the same time. I don’t know how many clubs I’ve been to now. I know how to start the process better than I did from 15 years.
“I feel very confident. I think also the steps we are taking for three, four weeks is, I think the players and the staff and everybody you can see a big change from where we were when I started, and where we are now.”
Deila compares his vision for Atlanta United’s playing to hearing a band play a love song. It will produce in the players a feeling of winning and camaraderie and the enjoyment afterward of knowing that it made people happy.
And, like musicians on a tour, those kinds of performances must be done again and again and again.
Deila can draw the comparison between music and soccer because he’s fairly well versed in both. Though not a musician, he loves a good story in a song.
Among his favorite singers are Miley Cyrus because of her voice and authenticity. Lady Gaga also is a favorite. “Whiskey Lullaby” by Brad Paisley and Alison Kraus is one of his favorite songs. When he managed NYCFC, after a match at Nashville, he took some folks along Broadway and sometimes would stop at a bar and pay the band there to play the song.
And then there’s Johnny Cash.
Deila didn’t know him, but in 2005, when Deila was a player on Viking in Norway, a TV was turned to MTV in new the locker room in the new stadium.
The song “Hurt,” Cash’s remake of the Nine Inch Nails song, came on.
Deila turned to a teammate, “Who’s the old guy?”
“Are you stupid?” the teammate responded. “Johnny Cash is the king.”
From that day, Deila began listening to Cash. He saw the movie “Walk the Line.” Deila find his life very interesting.
When Deila exercises or needs to relax, he usually listens to country. He doesn’t need the hard riffs of rock music or loud country because he said internally he’s like that all day. The “bum-bum-bum” of loud music inside him been especially true for the past four weeks because he has been on the go for 12 hours a day, trying to put his vision into place.
“I’m a guy that love to create something together with others, to develop, take potential in the team and also in individuals,” he said. “I have a picture in my mind that I like to watch as a football lover, and that picture is clear and clear every day because you learn through experience.
“When I come into a club, I want to get the team to play in that way. And then hopefully that picture gets also to the fans, our supporters, to want to come back to the stadium and have a good time. So that is my drive, is creating these kind of things.”
Of course, there’s also the feeling of winning, or avoiding the feeling of losing.
Deila said he can tolerate losing if his team played well and the other team simply played better. But if his team didn’t play as well as it could, he takes it so personally that he has difficulty sleeping the night after. Because he knows himself, Deila has learned that it’s best to not talk to the team the day after a game because the combination of fatigue and irritation can result in him becoming too focused on the small details or negatives.
Instead, Deila will wait a day, gather his thoughts and go again. He referenced the phrase when a coach looks in the mirror, he will see his team. He wants his team to see his belief.
“You have to come into the club, everywhere, into the media and show, ‘Hey, I believe in this’,” he said. “I know what are we gonna do. This is the way. And then they have to follow.”
It’s a lesson that Deila learned during the COVID-19 shutdown. After years and years of coaching, Deila said he didn’t realize how tired he was until he had nothing else to do but nothing. He lost weight. He started training. He developed more structure.
He started to become more of the manager who will be expected to lead Atlanta United to more trophies.
“A lot of things got better,” he said. “I had more energy. I felt better. I haven’t stopped with that since. So I’ve been much more aware and conscious about what I need to be the best version of myself.”
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