Now that the season is officially at it’s halfway point, it’s a perfect time to reflect on how Atalanta have fared up to this point.
Positives:
Champions League Football is still in the cards for the 2020 season: pulling out a miraculous 7 points to close out the groups, Atalanta persevered to outdo both Shakhtar and Zagreb to nab the second spot of their group, and draw a “relatively” fortunate draw against Valencia in February. No one would have predicted this after their early drubbings to Zagreb and Manchester City, but they did it, and in the process became one of the best underdog stories to root for in 2020.
Still in the running for Champion’s League Football in 2020-2021: Here’s the current top 6:
1. Juventus- 48 points
2. Inter- 46 points
3. Lazio – 42 points (1 less game played)
4. Atalanta- 35 points (lead Roma on goal differential)
5. Roma- 35 points
6. Cagliari- 29 points
Even without Zapata for most of the first half, they still managed to bang in goals from all over, with Muriel, Ilicic, Gomez, Pasalic, and even Gosens leading the charge and picking up the slack. With Zapata hopefully back to full-strength for the second half, he should be a much needed offensive weapon to fend off Roma, and potentially catch Lazio (if they’d ever lose, that 3-3 draw still stings!)
Profiting handsomely: Netting over 40M Euros for Dejan Kulusevski to Juventus (currently loaned to Parma) was a savvy piece of business that could cover most of the club’s wage bill for next year alone. The 19M Euro deal for 3rd striker option Musa Barrow to Bologna cannot be ignored too. And if more money could not be rolling in, making it to the knockouts of the Champion’s League will net La Dea another 40M Euros.
Banging in goals: Atalanta has netted a whopping total of 49 goals so far this year, 8 more than Lazio in second place! The beauty of this team is goals can truly come from anywhere, and an opposition defensive always has to be marking everyone for from attackers to the flying wingers.
Negatives:
Early Champion’s League struggles: There aren’t too many negatives to speak of, but a 4-0 rout by Zagreb made Atalanta the early laugh stock of the Champion’s League, but we all know how that story ended, and it was and should be quickly forgotten.
Leaky defense: Everyone knows that Atalanta presses, and it’s a high risk high reward mentality. Atalanta can still get torched on the counter, and giving up 26 goals so far this year isn’t great, but also clean sheets don’t matter when you bang in over 2 goals per game.
Zapata injury: He was cruising early in the season, until a thigh injury in a meaningless national appearance against Chile sidelined him for over 2 months. He’s finally back, and has played about 70 minutes combined over the past two games, but they will need him to fully be fit and gel with the attack again to fend off Roma and maintain their top 4 place.
Draw against Lazio: All teams are due for a letdown, but its even worse when you’re up 3-0 with 20 minutes to go. That 4-point swing is huge in the bridge between the two clubs and seemed to have springboard Lazio into their torrid pace. Teams can have off halves, but man that stings more given how dominant they were for most of that game.
Overall its been a lovely first half. Duds against Sampdoria and Bologna aren’t great but, making Champion’s League for the first time in the clubs history (playing an extra 6 games without a lot of depth can be brutal) and dismantling a weakened AC Milan over Christmas weekend are essential building blocks for moving Atalanta into the next tier of Serie A. I for one cannot wait to see what the second half has in store for La Dea. Stay tuned with me and always follow for the best Atalanta analysis!
