Thiago Motta and his villainous attire got off to a good start, but in the end his evil plan to lay siege to Bergamo fell short. Atalanta put up its highest goal tally of the season to date, scoring five – with enormous contribution from all of La Dea’s offensive outlets. Mario Pasalic continued his storming form, and perhaps most importantly Luis Muriel notched his second goal of the season – and first since the opening match of the season. Atalanta should take any offensive contribution that it can get outside of Duvan Zapata – and goals from Pasalic, Muriel, and Malinovskyi bode well for the offense to continue clicking as the winter months approach.
As dynamic as the offense was, the defense still leaves a little to be desired. Chaos in the box, and questionable defense against the direct pass or long ball continues to put the defensive collective in spots of trouble. Individually players did not make grave errors against Spezia, but the sum of the individual performances exceeded the overall team’s defensive effort. Questionable play inside the box extends opponent’s attacks far too long, and it bit Atalanta on both of its goals conceded. The defensive frailties are easy to gloss over when five goals are scored, but shoring up pinballs in the box will be essential next weekend against Juventus. But for now, let’s be glad that the offense gave its best showing of the year, and celebrate a firm grasp on the 4th spot in Serie A one-third of the way through the season.
Atalanta Passione’s Player Ratings
Juan Musso: 6 – Not the best effort on Spezia’s first goal- seemed slow to react to the ball clanking the post that he should’ve been able to corral.
Rafael Toloi: 6.5 – A good first match back after injury, nothing that stood out – but commanded his post well.
Jose Luis Palomino: 7 – Continued excellence from the Argentine, he bodied up the strong N’Zola well all match.
Berat Djimsiti: 6.5 – A steady first start in a long time. It’s crazy how you forget how much he loves to get forward, until he actually does it in the game!
Davide Zappacosta: 7 – His crosses are getting better and better each week, as he found Pasalic through loads of traffic for Atalanta’s first goal.
Joakim Maehle: 7 – He wants a goal in black and blue so bad. While it didn’t come his energy to drive forward helped to spur numerous offensive attacks.
Teun Koopmeiners: 6.5 – Not his best day at the offense, but it may have also been a comfortability learning curve with de Roon – who (if I’m not mistaken) he has not started in the midfield with.
Marten de Roon: 7 – Spezia’s only offense came through long balls, and it makes sense that there was no way through the middle of the pitch thanks to de Roon’s dirty work.
Josip Ilicic: 6 – A very quiet day for il Professore, but fortunately his magic wasn’t needed.
Mario Pasalic: 8.5 – I feel vindicated for my latest article about his positioning. It paid off in spades on Saturday with a brace and assist.
Duvan Zapata: 7.5 – He got lucky on a penalty do-over, but again his all out hustle iced the game with Pasalic’s 2nd and Atalanta’s 3rd goal.
Ruslan Malinovskyi: 7 – Another day, another long distance goal.
Matteo Pessina: 6.5 – Tasked with playing the pivot, he didn’t make any grave errors, which should have been his priority.
Luis Muriel: 7.5 – A goal and assist in 11 minutes, can’t ask for a whole lot more.
Roberto Piccoli: s/v
Giorgio Scalvini: s/v – Hopefully he learned a good lesson about positioning against Serie A target men!
Atalanta Passione’s Man of the Match – Mario Pasalic
Mario Pasalic is tied for the lead in Serie A assists this year. Let that sink in for a moment. Combine that with another two goals today, and Super Mario already has ten goal contributions across Serie A and the Champion’s League this year. For a player that earlier in the season felt like an afterthought in Atalanta’s future plans, Pasalic has become a no-brainer in the starting XI. Pasalic put forth his best performance on Saturday with a pair of one-timer goals, and he set up Luis Muriel for his own one-time goal. His whole body of work from his finishing, positioning, and passing helps to open up the offense and lessens the blow of missing out on Robin Gosens’s goal scoring threat. Pasalic has gotten a lot of shade thrown at him in recent months, but no longer this year!
Other Atalanta vs. Spezia Odds and Ends
Saturday’s victory was Atalanta first Serie A home victory since Sassuolo two months ago. An upcoming home match against Venezia should hopefully be a manageable test for Atalanta.
One of my biggest worries was Zapata and Muriel falling into a funk post International break in which Colombia has still failed to score in over 450 minutes. Beyond tallying goals for the box score, its huge for both Colombians to find their goal scoring form immediately after getting back to Italy.
Duvan Zapata’s got bailed out by Erlic leaving his line early after his horrible penalty take. He redeemed himself nicely on his second effort, but it may be time to see Koopmeiners step up to the spot next penalty.
Everyone knows how much Rafael Toloi likes to push forward, but its even more insane how far Berat Djimsiti exerts his presence in the attacking half. Not only was his heat map further forward than Toloi’s, it even rivaled Maehle’s as well!
At 25 points Atalanta is in sole possession of 4th place, four points ahead of Juventus and Lazio. On top of that both Napoli and Milan lost this weekend, and Atalanta is only seven points off the top of the table. Not saying that Atalanta is back in the Scudetto race, but this weekend played out nicely to bring about a lot more parity in the league. It’s not just a two team race, as everyone was ready to declare before November, and there’s still 25 games to play! Let’s not declare Atalanta contenders for the Championship, but if Saturday’s offensive performance becomes more frequent – La Dea certainly deserve to eventually be sharing the headlines with the Serie A’s usual suspects. With Juventus coming up next week, imagine the waves Atalanta could make with another hallmark victory against the Old Lady??? It certainly not out of the realm of possibility, let’s go do it! As always, Forza Dea!!!
