Date: March 1, 2020
Time: 9:00 EST
With last week’s Sassuolo campaign postponed due to Coronavirus outbreaks and threats, Atalanta travels down to the south of Italy with much more rest than they would have originally anticipated. However, even without any action occurring since La Dea’s bout against Valencia, it does not mean that their has not been big news impacting the team not just this fixture but potentially for the rest of the season.
If you haven’t heard already center back Rafael Toloi has picked up quite a serious injury potentially sidelining him for the next 3 months, according to ForzaItalianFootball.com, one similar that had striker Duvan Zapata on the mend for a similar length of time. While this is a huge blow to a staple of Atalanta’s back three, Berat Djimsiti is also likely to miss time due to injury. A late scratch during warm-ups against Valencia, Mattia Caldara was forced to take his place moments before the match was about to get underway, essentially warming up as the game was taking place.
Needless to say, losing two of your three centerbacks in a 3-back system is a huge blow to any squad, especially in La Dea’s case where first choice replacement Caldara has played less than 10 matches in the last several years due to severe injuries. It’s quite the conundrum, and in which it will be interesting to see how Gasperini handles it. Marten de Roon showed some capability of filling in at the back, and is often the last line of defense if one of the centerbacks happens to make a run forward. Likewise, Adrien Tameze could also be called upon to fill in and provide some depth at the back until Djimsiti’s injury is sorted out. There’s also rumblings that Timothy Castagne could be taking the place of Toloi, which would be quite an interesting overload on the right side with the aforementioned, Hateboer, and Ilicic all aggressively pushing forward.
Now with all of this out of the way, what does it mean for the match against Lecce. In my opinion, it’s the perfect test for Atalanta to tinker, and allow the team to get off on the right foot as they try to sort out the best formation, and at the same time be confident they can come away with 3 points. Lecce have a fair attack, having netted 32 goals up until now, a healthy number for a squad firmly in a relegated battle, so their attack should provide a nice but not ruthless test for Atalanta’s defense. However, Lecce’s defense is plain porous. They’ve given up 49 goals so far, most in Serie A, and any shortcoming and kinks La Dea’s defense will work out in a new system should be offset by constant attacking by Papu and company making up the difference.
Atalanta were able to comfortably outlast Lecce in October at home 3-1, but I imagine this game could provide more goals than the last round. Even after their 4-0 rout at the hands of Roma, Lecce has been on good form recently, even besting Napoli at the San Paolo. However, with Atalanta’s electric run of form, and additional rest due to the postponement last week, even a brand new defense shouldn’t provide too much of a hurdle for La Dea to overcome. I’m anticipating a tight game, perhaps with a barrage of goals, but I feel confident that Atalanta can keep up their momentum and outlast Lecce and pick up an essential 3 points in the battle for 4th plae. As always, Forza Atalanta!
