The Elimination Still Shows Where The Club Needs To Grow
Full disclosure, I have not yet been able to watch the second leg; and while it would be helpful, it is not essential to write this roundup and reflect. Because at the end of the day Atalanta simply weren’t good enough; 1st leg misfortune coupled with 2nd leg mistakes is not a recipe for advancement. Real Madrid demonstrated its maturity, while Atalanta still aren’t to that level of European caliber; despite its excellent showing in the group stages and last year’s knockouts. What will it take to get there? Certainly not what we saw yesterday…. but there still is things to be encouraged about, and overall is still a great learning lesson for La Dea.
Question Marks In Lineup Selection
It’s always would’ve, could’ve, should’ve been with lineup selections, but there have been some recent trends that finally came back to bite Gasperini – mainly the continued selection of Marco Sportiello over Pierluigi Gollini. As Atalanta’s seemingly bonafide number one keeper, it was confusing to many fans why Sportiello started five straight matches without an injury to Gollini or any true egregious errors. While Sportiello wasn’t the reason Atalanta lost the tie, it certainly put the club in a huge hole to climb out of with his horrible distribution right to Modric. Always a weakness of his game, Marco demonstrated why so many people feel more comfortable with Gollini in the back. Not only is Gollini’s distribution superior to Sportiello’s, in an offense driven so much by possession and playing out of the back it becomes an even more important facet of what Gasperini needs from a keeper. Gasperini rode the “hot” hand in Sportiello too long and lost all of his chips. Who knows what is up with Gollini, but if he doesn’t start against Verona, there will probably be serious question marks on his future with the club (rightly or wrongly).
What was also a serious head scratcher was Gasperini’s decision to start two of Atalanta’s most up and down players together in the attack, Mario Pasalic and Ruslan Malinovskyi. I can understand starting one of them, but both of them is quite strange. While Ruslan played well, Pasalic was ineffective to the point that Zapata came on in the second half when it was already too late. With Zapata and Ilicic both on the bench it begs the question why Gasperini didn’t start one of his more dynamic and consistent offensive threats – especially against a stacked backline? Was it another dice roll? Okay fine, but it is very very risky – not just playing against one of the best teams in Europe but also with a depleted double pivot to help cover the attack. Hindsight is 20-20 and I’m not paid millions to coach a club so I don’t want to be too critical of the lineup selection… but with Zapata and Ilicic both sitting on the bench, I think it is a fair question why at least one doesn’t get the starting nod.
Depth Issues Rise Up
One of my biggest fears came true. What do you do when both Gosens and Hateboer aren’t fit? The answer looks to be not a whole lot. Ilicic was brought in after Gosen’s injury in the match, and without seeing the match as of this writing, who knows what the lineup looked like after that? Maehle, while fast, can’t cover both flanks and it is a severe blow to Gasperini’s lineup without two capable wingbacks – and had to have affected how the rest of the match played out. Let’s just hope that Gosens injury isn’t too severe. Pushing Ruggeri into starter’s minutes is not ideal for the Champion’s League push.
Probably not as severe, but still worth noting, is the domino effect that comes with having to start Matteo Pessina in the double pivot. As the third option in the pivot, yet a starter up front, it is not ideal to have Pessina start the pivot, although he can handle it. The dominoes fall as such: Pessina starts in the pivot > Not as strong a partnership with de Roon (Freuler and de Roon can read each other’s mind) > Gasperini is forced to start a less desired option up front > Pasalic slots into a role he has not yet mastered > Atalanta lacks additional coverage in the midfield with less work rate coming out of the attack … Again not as severe as the wingback issue, but it did come to fruition against Madrid. Atalanta must address midfield depth this summer, unless Kovalenko is expected to be the answer.
Where To Go From Here?
It’s not the end of the world. Atalanta lost to a good and mature hardened veteran team that knows the Champion’s League as well as La Liga. I don’t mind Gasperini making a few gambles in lineup selection, but it looks like his bluff with an off-suit 7 and 8 was rightly called this time.
The red card put Atalanta in a horrific position to pass through the leg, yet the boys still showed fortitude the entire leg trying to claw back on top. I’m happy mentality stayed high and should hopefully turn the poor second leg into a good learning lesson. As Atalanta looks to advance back into the Champion’s League next year, they should take Madrid’s performance to heart. Madrid demonstrated high confidence throughout the tie, even with a depleted squad in the first leg, and even before the red card, Zidane’s club played as if it had the best starting XI on the pitch. Then in the 2nd leg, an interesting 3-5-2 setup allowed Zidane to use his best available players to hide injuries, address Atalanta’s flank strength, and still put together an effective game plan. While Gasperini will never go away from his back three, there still is enough he could do lineup wise to give his club the best chance to win – perhaps starting your best keeper!
I can’t fault Atalanta for bowing out against Real Madrid in a strong European run. La Dea still are performing leaps and bounds higher than what people expect from the club, and are still an excellent shout to return back to Europe’s highest competition next year. Hopefully we stay strong and put the furious race for 4th place in Serie A to bed and win the matches we are expected to win… Buon lavoro Atalanta, and always Forza Dea!!!
