Atalanta finally gets its man, it just took all summer to arrive at this point! It has been plain and obvious that Atalanta has always needed depth in the defensive midfield, but La Dea outdid themselves not only fortifying its depth, but bringing in one of the best midfielders in the Netherlands – Teun Koopmeiners. The AZ captain, at 23 years of age, looks to be the whole package, and La Dea seemed to take advantage of a buyer’s market signing the Dutchman for 14M total euros.
Doubts were always prominent if a deal was going to get done, and I don’t think anyone was expecting the saga to last until the last moments of the transfer market. Nonetheless, it appeared to work out for Atalanta – who seemingly drove a hard bargain – as the club was able to shave about 6M euros off the asking price. Given that Koopmeiners and Zappacosta came in for nearly an identical price, I guess we cannot do anything but applaud the Percassi’s for playing the market to perfection – even if it came at the slight cost of not acclimating Koopmeiners in with the team immediately.
Ultimately the greatest underlying question will be how Gasperini intends to use Koopmeiners. There is very little doubt that Marten de Roon and Remo Freuler have shown no indications of slowing down, and likely remain the starters in the double pivot. However, when you have a player of Koopmeiners quality and character, it feels criminal to simply use him as a rotation player to give the occasional rest to one of de Roon or Freuler.
The questions start will probably start surfacing, does Gasperini change tactics to utilize all three midfielders, will Koopmeiners eventually displace de Roon or Freuler once acclimated, or will he be moved around the pitch given his flexibility to play multiple positions? These are all intriguing questions that no one outside the locker room can answer right now. Personally, I feel Koopmeiners has too much potential, does too many things well, and wouldn’t have come to Atalanta without some sort of guarantee of that he’d receive a healthy amount of playing time.
If I were to guess, I would assume he ultimately takes up the place of de Roon. The challenge becomes that de Roon is still a stalwart in his role with La Dea, and he’s only 30 years old and nowhere near over the hill. It’s a good problem to have, but with three quality midfielders Gasperini will have the challenge of divvying up the playing time while keeping all three of them fresh. Personally, I would kind of dig the experiment of playing Koopmeiners in the Pessina role. His offensive ability is undeniable, and given the defensive work that Pessina does as a trequartista, Koopmeiners would still be able to put his defensive skills to good use.
With this saga having dragged on for so long, the signing of Koopmeiners feels like stumbling across the finish line of a marathon rather than gaining speed right at the end of the sprint. Personal feelings aside about how the deal went down, its undeniable that Atalanta is getting a player of not just supreme quality but character. Amid all the cryptic and confusing rumors, Koopmeiners was always the consummate professional. I imagine he knew he’s eventually leave; nonetheless, he gave his all in AZ’s Europa League qualifying matches, and played a hard 90 minutes against Herenveen, his last day with his boyhood club. There’s not a whole lot of opportunities to judge the character of football players, but the way Koopmeiners handled himself throughout this transfer window and the start of the season demonstrates the elite character Atalanta is getting in a player. There’s a reason he was a captain of a Europa League level team at the age of 23.
This move probably culminates one of Atalanta’s busiest and best transfer windows every. Now its just time to meld individuals into a cohesive team. The Atalanta pivot can be a bit tricky to pick up (just see how uncomfortable Pasalic and Pessina look in the role), but I’m confident that Koopmeiner’s prowess as a classic defensive midfielder will allow him to slot in much soon rather than later. Welcome to Bergamo, Teun – and as always, Forza Dea!
