You can forgive Gian Piero Gasperini and his side for losing to Napoli on the weekend. But then to come out and lay a stinker against Lecce, losing 2-1, is disappointing. Its like when you’re a kid and you get scolded by your parents with the famous line, “I’m not angry, but I’m disappointed in you;” that what this match felt like. The performance was so deflating from start to finish that us Atalantini couldn’t even get the blood flowing enough to display anger.
Now we’re here left wondering why Gasperini opted to go with nine changes to his preferred starting XI. And fair play to Lecce. They punished Atalanta when it mattered and exploited the black hole that was the Matteo Ruggeri, Nadir Zortea experiment. Far too much offense early was being funneled through them. And while I don’t fault Ruggeri too much, as he is quite reliable on the ball, Zortea was being smothered far too frequently, and he had little assistance from Mario Pasalic or Duvan Zapata to make his job any easier.
There was a glimmer of hope for Atalanta when Duvan Zapata was able to claw one goal back before halftime, but in the end it was all for naught. Sluggish movement, poor passing, and a general lack of an attacking plan had Atalanta destined for zero points on the night. With Inter looming large on the weekend, Gasperini will have next to no time to prepare for the final match of the autumn calendar, placing way too many eggs in the proverbial basket of points to be earned against one of Italy’s heavyweights.
Three Key Takeaways
1- Mental errors have continued to plague Atalanta this season, and Caleb Okoli thrust himself into the crosshairs of this match. His errors directly led to both of Lecce’s goals, and while he is generally good throughout most games, he’s too prone to make one disastrous mistake that has you holding your breath. But he is not the only culprit. This was the second time in two matches, and the third time this year, that Atalanta have conceded from a short corner kick. The corner prior to the first goal was an embarrassing display of general lack of wherewithal to let Gabriel Strefezza cruise into the box unmarked and nearly put in a goal of his own. Why the team is not more ruthless in meeting the crosser on these short corner is beyond me, but it has to be addressed.
2- It was a daring strategy for Gasperini to insert so many new faces into the starting XI, and it ended blowing up in his face. Besides Okoli, none of his new insertions played especially poor, but the whole system with the new insertions in it was entirely off kilter. The aforementioned Zortea/Ruggeri black hole killed the offense in the first half, and there was little to any effort to try and work the ball through the middle of the field. Out of infrequent starters Berat Djimsiti, Okoli, Brandon Soppy, Zortea, Ruggeri, and Ruslan Malinovskyi – only Djimsiti demonstrated a level we’ve come to expect, and even Malinovskyi, while he had an assist, did little to push the envelope on offense.
3- When Duvan Zapata scored there may have been hope that Atalanta had a chance to go for a winner, but Atalanta proved again that it is not a team equipped to come from behind. That is fine, as long as the game plan is executed well from start to finish, but when things go haywire – Atalanta consistently doesn’t have an answer to trouble the opposition. It happened against Cremonese, albeit in a shorter amount of time, but today’s second half performance was almost as poor as the first half. Atalanta managed only three shots inside the box in the second half, two of them headers off corners from Caleb Okoli. And by the time Jeremie Boga and Ademola Lookman came on the pitch in a last ditch effort, there were too many chefs and not enough cooks on offense that it seemed everyone was just running into each other. You could say Gasperini abandoned the plan at the end, but there wasn’t really a plan to actually abandon. There needs to be an offensive strategy to clinch late game points, because matches like these will surface again.
Nick’s Player Ratings
Marco Sportiello: 6.5
Berat Djimsiti: 6
Caleb Okoli: 4.5 – I appreciate his onus to push the ball forward, but his dribbling chops really aren’t up to snuff to be effective at it.
Matteo Ruggeri: 6.5 – His composure on the ball is nice, I’d like to see him inserted into a lineup that doesn’t include Zortea on his left.
Brandon Soppy: 6
Nadir Zortea: 6
Marten de Roon: 5.5 – His Danish twin Morten on the other side of the pitch offered the hustle and energy we’ve normally come to expect from de Roon.
Ederson: 7 – Maybe the lone bright spot, who finally got to show off his press breaking dribbling and flair.
Mario Pasalic: 5
Ruslan Malinokvsyi: 6.5 – His assist was brilliant, but stone masons probably have softer first touches than him.
Duvan Zapata: 6.5
Substitutes: 6 – No one came on and did anything sterling. It all just kind of swirled together, making it difficult to ascertain who stood out. Although Teun Koopmeiners, of course, probably deserves to be rated a tick above the rest.
Nick’s Man of the Match – Ederson
Frankly, no one really deserves it, but Ederson demonstrated the value he can provide further back in the midfield. I wish he took more of the onus to push the ball forward, as he could have been the outlet to ease the pressure of Zortea and Ruggeri. Hopefully he takes a more assertive approach to dictating offense (especially if he’s not on the pitch at the same time as Teun Koopmeiners).
Not only does Wednesday’s loss hurt, it turns Sunday’s match into what feels like the first “must-win” match of the season. Certainly the sky isn’t falling that much, but riding a three game losing streak into a six week break isn’t fun for anyone – and having that ominously loom over the team isn’t an exciting prospect for anyone involved. There’s not a whole lot more to say, and we can only hope that the squad comes out hungry and pissed about what happened on Wednesday. We’ll need the fire. But as always, Forza Dea!
