Date: March 3, 2021
Time: 20:45 CET
Trap game central on Wednesday! After a solid workman like performance over the weekend against Sampdoria, Atalanta look to stave off any potential bad juju as they face Crotone firmly entrenched at the bottom of Serie A. While Atalanta was able to come away with three points last time out against the boys from the boot, it was anything but simple. A 2-1 victory became much more complicated as Atalanta looked labored in the second half and were firmly in defensive mode, being fortunate to prevent Crotone from finding an equalizer late in the 2nd half. With both teams coming off a short week it may be a good opportunity for Atalanta to play against a squad with minimal depth, and should hopefully be good value to continue it’s winning ways before the upcoming gigantic MNF match against Inter.
While Crotone may have to rotate out of necessity, Atalanta will probably take this match (similar to Samp) as an opportunity to continue giving starts to other players. With Kovalenko, Lammers, and Sutalo out due to injury, it does make it harder to find bench players to give the nod to. Be it as it may, I’m not opposed to giving another start to Malinovskyi who was excellent on Sunday and always seems to pair nicely with Muriel up front. In fact, the 3M attack would be nice to see. Muriel-Malinovskyi-Miranchuk played quite well in the Coppa together, and should be able to provide similar fireworks against one of the worst defenses in Serie A.
On the flanks, there isn’t a whole lot Gasperini can do to give a breather to the soon to be overworked Joakim Maehle and Robin Gosens. Youngsters Ruggeri and Ghislandi are both in the convocatori, but after Ruggeri’s weak performance against Torino, I’m not sure how willing Gasperini will be to give the babies the nod (especially Ghislandi who has yet to make his Serie A debut). If there is a game to rest the wingers; however, it is this one. Gasperini could go very cavalier and run out Toloi and Ruggeri on the wings, with a back three of Djimsiti-Romero-Palomino and probably be fine. It’s not ideal, but it would give two of our most important players some much needed rest in the least risky of moments.
Crotone has scored only one goal in its last five Serie A matches. But they certainly don’t play like a team that doesn’t look to score. Against Juve, they actually tried to build out of counter-attacks, and had a few half chances from current Atalanta loanee Arkadiusz Reca – plus some wild long shots from Junior Messias who is bound to eventually hit on one of them. Given that Crotone look keen to not sit back and play for a 1-0 loss, it becomes paramount to get on the front foot early, and not give Crotone a chance to hang around and get on the end of a lucky break or counter attack. Atalanta needs to blend the hunger of the first half of the Torino match with the defensive maturity of the Sampdoria match to gain essential points that are undroppable to maintain status in the Top 4. If Muriel and Malinovskyi can link up well as they did last match, we hopefully don’t have too much to worry about. With very few opportunities – given the matchups – to gain ground on opponents (with Lazio even being gifted 3 points for the time being) the mental becomes as important as the physical. It’s almost harder to get up for these games – especially with Inter ahead – so let’s hope for a grounded mature game and don’t let Crotone get a sniff at anything. We can do it, let’s go make it happen! Forza Dea!
