Friendly or no friendly, Saturday’s performance left a lot to be desired. In Atalanta’s first ever matchup against England’s West Ham United, La Dea played end product was what one may expect in a preseason friendly. Despite the name of the “final,” fortunately the Betway Cup was actually a friendly with little to no bearing on upcoming league performances. However, it would have been nice to see Atalanta string together some more offense – La Dea registered zero shots on target – and left far too much space open in the middle of the pitch.
You can squint to see that both of West Ham’s goals were a bit fortuitous, given that different types of deflections led to both goals- the Hammers still deserved their victory. West Ham’s stingy defense and stellar counter attack gave Atalanta plenty to work on prior to Serie A, and ultimately proved to be a good lesson for Gasperini and the squad on what needs to be shored up.
I highly stress that I don’t wish to jump to conclusions after one friendly, so everything here has got to be taken with a grain of salt. Gasperini obviously wanted to get as many guys playing time as possible, he played a bunch of juveniles, and I wouldn’t put it past the skipper to purposely play muted offensive and defensive setup so as not to give away too much tactical fodder to future opposition.
Offensive Fluidity
Roberto Piccoli got the nod up front, and the trio of him, Pasalic, and Miranchuk barely mustered any pressure on West Ham’s backline. Piccoli, not truly a surprise, is not ready for the big time, but even more frustrating was Pasalic and Miranchuk’s fluidity with one another – particularly the Croatian. Naturally there was a bit more action up front when Zapata and Muriel came on, but the outcome still stresses Atalanta’s need to have a guy capable of unlocking a low-block. Come back soon Malinovskyi!
Open Space In Middle of The Pitch
Just an observation, but I was surprised to see how much open space was left in the middle of the pitch. Said Benrahma played really well for the Hammers, but it was unencouraging to see how much free space he was permitted to spur counters. Perhaps it was tactical, but everyone of West Ham’s counters seemed to be met with little to no resistance at the initiation of the attack.
Defensive Rotation
It was great to see Lovato and Demiral get game action, and even witness Lovato do his best Toloi impression and bomb forward. Both still looked a bit shaky in the setup, which is to be expected. However I was quite pleased with Lovato’s assimilation and Demiral’s aggression and desire to give his all, even in a friendly. On the left hand side, Pezzella’s stiff legged defense led to West Ham’s final goal, so it will be worth monitoring how is defense progresses as he acclimates more with the squad.
Again I stress, I don’t want to overreact over a preseason match. Instead, it should be used more as putting up a subpar scoring on an SAT practice test. Not what you want to see, but still plenty of information to consume on what needs to be improved, and time to implement those improvements. Atalanta is looking to rotate at a minimum three and perhaps a maximum of six new players into the squad, so time is still needed. Next week’s friendly against Juventus will be a better barometer of how the team flows – results still won’t matter! – so for now let’s just do our homework on the match, be glad no one got injured, and look to improve everyday in preseason. As always, Forza Dea!
