Atlanta United are in a rough patch at the moment, but newly signed midfielder Jurgen Damm hasn't had a chance to make his mark yet, and the Mexico international says he believes better times lie ahead when he gets the chance.
The Five Stripes are reeling coming off a poor showing at the MLS is Back Tournament in which they failed to score a goal and lost all their three of their games. Head coach Frank de Boer mutually parted ways with the club shortly after the unceremonious end, with questions aplenty about the state of the roster and how they're going to score without injured superstar Josef Martinez.
Speaking in an interview with The Guardian published on Tuesday, though, Damm said he's still plenty excited for what his future may hold with the club. And when the time comes when he can combine with Martinez from out wide, he said his hope is that he'll be racking up some gaudy assist totals, which sometimes eluded him during his time in Liga MX with Tigres UANL.
' [In Liga MX] a lot of [my crosses] don’t perfectly reach the forward’s head, but they fall and catch a rebound causing a goal, I don’t get the assist,” Damm told The Guardian's Francisco Navas, before joking: “Hopefully [Martinez] makes me the league’s assists leader, so the fans can get off my back!”
Martinez is still a ways off from a return as he recovers from a torn ACL, but the thought of the two combining is certainly an intriguing one. Martinez is the most efficient striker in the league, and Damm brings a ton of pace out wide, and crossing ability that the Five Stripes hope can replace some of the production from the position they lost with the departure of Julian Gressel, who was one of the league's top wide assist men during his time in Atlanta.
Damm wasn't eligible for Atlanta in the MLS is Back Tournament, but assuming a season restart following its conclusion, the hope will be that he can provide some sort of boost to the Five Stripes' struggling attack.
