Date: August 28, 2021
Time: 18:30 CET
Atalanta’s home opener is here, and yes there will be fans to finally cheer the team on! In what feels like eons since Atalanta kicked a ball around Gewiss with supporters in the stands, it’ll be so refreshing to see i Bergamaschi cheering and jeering with every kick of the ball. Last week’s match was nice, but the cavernous Stadio Olimpico can feel like a mausoleum and the whole affair felt slightly cold and devoid of emotion. Now we’ll have a more cozy setting that makes the stadium actually feel like it’s at 100% capacity rather than 50%. I cannot wait!
Coming into town to face off against La Dea is the ever mercurial Bologna. Mihajlovic’s club perpetually seems destined for midtable, with flashes of brilliance equally coupled by moments of complete absence. The task will be even more challenging this week for the Rossoblu with the red card suspensions of starters Roberto Soriano and Jerdy Schouten. With the confusion around Takehiro Tomiyasu’s position with the club, it is quite likely that Bologna will be without over a quarter of its best players. Nonetheless, Bologna still has the offensive firepower to pad the stat-line, but given the defensive frailties they’ve experienced so far in the Coppa and against newly promoted Salernitana – they’ll have their work cut out for them to prevent a similar 5-0 score-line they suffered to Atalanta last time out.
Bologna Player To Watch – Musa Barrow
If anyone has the ability to provide an offensive spark out of nowhere for Bologna, it is Atalanta’s former player Musa Barrow. Coupling blazing speed with a powerful right foot, giving him any sort of space can be a dangerous proposition for Atalanta. While Barrow was effectively neutralized the last few times out they squared off, his pace can still be a problem for Rafael Toloi (as we all know is not the most fleet of foot) who will be seeing his first match action of the year.
Atalanta’s Expected Starting XI
Fortunately for Atalanta, the club gets two major pieces back in the starting formation with the likes of Rafael Toloi and Remo Freuler. Missing out on Freuler and de Roon last week was a major detriment to the club’s strategy last week, and his presence in the midfield will hopefully stabilize the rest of the club. Matteo Pessina is probably the preferred option to pair up with Freuler in the middle, especially with Pasalic’s offensive heroics last week. The jury is still out on if Pessina can adequately supplant in the midfield, but he is much less error prone than his Croatian teammate – and if you give me the choice between flair and safety in the double pivot, I’m taking safety everyday and twice on Sundays.
Speaking of offense, Saturday is should hopefully be what the doctor ordered for Ruslan Malinovskyi to get back on track. The experiment of placing him on the left side of the attack (per usual) did not go as planned, and I truly think he’ll displace Ilicic to the bench giving him the freedom to roam comfortably on the right side of the attack. He barely put a foot wrong last time out against Bologna, notching an assist and a fabulous goal. A weakened Bologna defense without Tomiyasu should give him the necessary space to get his groove back, and elevate his game back to the player he was last Spring.
With the return of Toloi and Freuler, Saturday is shaping up to be a day that Atalanta can really hit the ground running. There are questions still to answer on the transfer market, but at least there is now stabilization in the starting XI. And most importantly Matteo Pessina will be the only one playing out of position. But Atalanta must be wary of what Bologna can do on the counter attack. Last year’s bottling of the a 2-0 lead is still firmly burned in many Dea supporter’s minds, and is a constant reminder of what can happen when a team collectively takes a breather mentally.
Take no prisoners on Saturday, and let’s hopefully witness the Malinovskyi-Muriel tandem get back on track that was scoring goals for fun at the end of the season. Let’s make the home opener one to remember, Forza Dea!!!
