Date: March 12, 2021
Time: 20:45 CET
Atalanta gets the unfortunate luck of having the double weekday fixture schedule as they prepare to host Spezia on Friday. It’s quite an unfortunate circumstance to play so soon after having played Inter on Monday in a hotly contested battle; but with a Tuesday Champion’s League fixture on the road in Spain. On the surface, regardless of rest, current form, or any thing else, this would feel like a win for Atalanta – going up against a newly promoted side that has never sniffed Serie A football prior to this year. However, Spezia has been anything but an easy out this year for the more firmly established clubs at the top of the table – forcing La Dea to a nil-nil draw in November, and more recently dominating Milan in a 2-0 victory. Vincenzo Italiano’s name has rightly been thrown around as one of the next big things in Italian management, and while his club’s form has not been great since the Milan upset, his upbeat and attacking football should be keeping Atalanta on its toes.
Given Spezia’s penchant to try and play on the front foot, we can expect a much more open match than what we saw on Monday against Inter. Knowing this, Ilicic should be licking his chops to find space to work in, and hopefully not running into a brick wall of defenders as he did against Conte’s back line. Ilicic’s inconsistency has been quite maddening recently, and perhaps some openness will allow him to get his feet wet prior to Tuesday’s monumental fixture.
Elsewhere offensively, monitoring Zapata’s muscle injury will be important. Getting him more rest before Tuesday is more important than getting him match minutes, so I wouldn’t be surprised and actually expect Muriel to get the start. He could do some real damage against an opponent that has given up the 4th most goals in Serie A this season.
The biggest test on Friday for Atalanta will be mental. While Gasperini is always adamant that his club never looks past fixtures to focus on bigger prizes (read the UCL), there does seem to be some sort of drop off (maybe its pure randomness) when Atalanta is forced to jockey Champion’s Legaue and Serie A fixtures. While losing Monday, it was still an incredibly focused team that made few mental errors. That same mentality will be needed to avoid dropping points against a club definitely capable of stealing points. Being sandwiched between to major opponents, Spezia does worry me. It will require a robust and mentally prepared back three and double pivot to ensure that their mentality and aggression then carries through to the attackers. Djimsiti rose to the occasion well on Monday – and has showed many flashes of rallying his backline mates – while he’s not the captain I’m hoping his mentality can carry through to the rest of the club to put away Spezia quickly and ruthlessly.
With Roma playing Parma this weekend, getting 3 points is essential to hold pace with the currently 4th placed club that never seems to lose against opposition outside of the Top 7. In a way they’re Atalanta’s polar opposite, in that you know exactly what to expect with Roma results wise. Atalanta, well they can beat Liverpool at Anfield, but then promptly go a blow a three point lead against relegation Torino – a straight up box of chocolates. Hopefully Friday we get a nice rich milk chocolate Atalanta – maybe with a bit of caramel – and none of those chocolate with nasty orange flavor hidden in the middle. This isn’t a match we can afford to lose, so let’s keep the mentality high and focus on Madrid only when the weekend hits! As always, Forza Dea!!!
