Date: August 13, 2022
Time: 18:30 CET | 12:30 EST
Let’s all take a minute from our collective agony over the current state of affairs, take a deep breath, and celebrate one thing – “Atalanta football is back!” After three months of waiting since the tumultuous end to last year’s season, its a clean slate for a club that has undergone extreme organizational changes. Player personnel change is a mixed bag, but there are still plenty of familiar faces to go along with a slew of hopeful up-and-comers. To kick off the campaign, Atalanta gets to ‘ease’ into competition against Genoa’s only Serie A side, Sampdoria.
Sampdoria was one of the few teams Atalanta was actually able to beat twice last year, securing a 3-1 victory in Genoa, as well as a 4-0 clean sheet at the Gewiss. Sampdoria itself is seemingly going through its own rebuild. After losing the likes of Morten Thorsby, Mikkel Damsgaard, Maya Yoshida, and probably Antonio Candreva this offseason, incoming transfers of Gonzalo Villar and Filip Djuricic (while quality players) can’t fill all the holes that Sampdoria could have on its squad this year. Its a perfect trap game early in the year, as Atalanta should be able to comfortably handle Genoa’s in-limbo side. But beware of the early season hangovers for slow starting teams, as it could lead to dropped points fans will shake their heads at in four months time.
Atalanta Passione’s Preferred Formation
So this is a blend of prediction and preference. Based on preseason, it makes sense that Atalanta will lineup with a two striker formation, leaving space for only one attacking midfielder. The thorn in the side that is Nottingham Forest may ruin our chances of seeing Ruslan Malinovskyi in Bergamo again – so Atalanta needs to insert one playmaker in the middle. Ederson is hurt already and Ademola Lookman probably doesn’t have enough reps with the first team, leaving Jeremie Boga or Mario Pasalic as the creative outlet. Everything is pointing this to be Jeremie Boga’s season to make-it or break-it for Atalanta – so let’s give him the nod.
Further back, I will not be surprised at all if Gasperini puts the Giorgio Scalvini and Teun Koopmeiners duo out in the pivot. The duo doesn’t look crisp now, but given the skill both possess we can at least hope for a Seinfeld like ascension (crap first 2.5 seasons before an elite 4 year run) for the combo to hopefully make us (never) forget Remo Freuler. But ideally, give me a Koopmeiners and Marten de Roon pairing.
Defensively, Caleb Okoli could immediately become the man for Atalanta. I don’t peg him to start in this match, but any midfield shenanigans from Gasperini could immediately thrust Okoli into the starting mix (the same could also be said for de Roon). Personally I think Scalvini is gifted enough to play any of the back three positions, as long as he can possess the aggression lost from having neither Merih Demiral nor Jose Palomino in the middle. Again don’t be surprised if we see a similar preseason back three shape of de Roon, Okoli, and Rafael Toloi.
Biggest Key to Victory
Its far too early to produce any insightful answer to this question. However, the preseason did give some early little nuggets for us to speculate off of. The biggest challenge (at least in the Newcastle match) has been shuttling the ball between the backline and the attack. Newcastle pressed well, and a shaky partnership between the wingbacks and centerbacks, alongside the new double pivot made it very easy for Atalanta to effectively be pressed. Similarly only one attacking midfielder made it difficult for Atalanta to apply its own press deep in the opposition’s half.
So where is the offense coming from through transition?
Beyond a good press and ball winning deep in Sampdoria’s territory, swift possession from defense to attack can help alleviate some of the pressure of a midfield quartet (regardless of who it is) that is sometimes less than stellar on the ball. Now I doubt that Sampdoria presses feverishly (especially without Thorsby now), so it may actually be a good game to ease into the transition play – before Milan next week.
July and August have been a bad months so far for Atalanta. With the Palomino debacle, to Malinovskyi and Freuler becoming roommates in England, to Ederson picking up an early knock – there’s little to be excited about. Fortunately winning always seems to be the best medicine for unease and angst, and the best we can do as fans is take it one game at a time, three points at a time. Once the ball kicks off for the first time this year, we can finally focus on what’s happening on the pitch, rather than what’s happening through text messages, emails, and boardroom meetings. As fans we gotta get the focus back on the pitch, and there’d be no better way to kick off the season than with three points against Sampdoria! So let’s get pumped! Football is back! As always, Forza Dea!
