Serious Squad Turnover Done Right – But With Question Marks
This summer’s wild transfer market still has no finish line in sight. Charles de Ketelaere is the most recent player making his way onto the Atalanta roster sheet. King Charles marks the sixth significant incoming transfer completed by Lee Congerton and Tony D’Amico, but the dynamic duo ain’t done. Swedish duo Isak Hien and Emil Holm are the hottest names being moved up to the front burners, and if those moves go through, that’s eight transfers that will all be vying for significant playing time.
While Atalanta needs depth, the incoming transfers are obviously not just here to provide more bodies for European football. Rasmus Hojlund, Jeremie Boga, Sam Lammers, and Joakim Maehle have all gone onto new challenges. And it would not be a surprise to see Brandon Soppy, Merih Demiral, Duvan Zapata, Aleskei Miranchuk, and Luis Muriel donning different kits this autumn. On one hand, you have to appreciate the Percassi’s ability to extract positive accounting value everywhere they can. 72M euros in expected plusvalenza value (12M minus Rasmus) is enviable return on investment, and shows savvy timing for Atalanta to shuttle out assets at a time when they still have value to the rest of the market.
Still the rampant squad turnover, while exciting and necessary, opens up plenty of avenues for Atalanta frustration early in the year. Realistically, four or five of the ten outfield positions could have a primary starter that has just arrived in Bergamo. Let’s take this sample starting XI for argument’s sake:
The good thing is the pulse of the team in the middle doesn’t change – with Atalanta’s arguably most important duo still occupying the midfield slots. Its almost like Remo Freuler knew he was leaving us in good hands, and wouldn’t leave until he knew his replacement was in place!
Isak Hien obviously isn’t a guaranteed starter, but marshaling alongside Toloi and Scalvini – two who know how Gasperini plays – should help to cover for Hien’s growing pains. Additionally, Hien’s primary job in the center will to be aggressively dog whichever center forward he’s tasked to knock around. The system isn’t as demanding to learn as it was for, say, Ederson who had to learn all the intricacies of the double pivot and how to cover for a fleeing centerback. By the end of the season Ederson looked far more comfortable being deployed all over the pitch, especially in the middle. This was all a long winded way to say that the defense will do what the defense always does: be aggressive, win back balls, get forward, and give in their fair share of goals that less aggressive teams would never concede. Essentially, the quality of the player has less to do with the success of the defense than the identity Gasperini has given the defense.
Which leaves the attack…. Atalanta’s Achilles heal the last several years. On paper there’s legitimate quality all around, but how quickly can that quality learn to mesh together? Ademola Lookman is the only returnee who will see serious minutes (you can argue Mario Pasalic too), and then even Lookman has little time to establish a repertoire between himself Scamacca, De Ketelaere, and Toure.
Atalanta can hope that at least one of its new attackers gets off to a scorching start like Lookman did – making it far easier to match Lookman, Pasalic, and newcomer to muster together offense. Then if you want, throw in Ederson and Koopmeiners for additionally offensive support – and supplement the center midfield position with Michel Adopo (its great having four midfield options finally, isn’t it?!).
Its a big ask for the offense, especially since crispness has been its biggest weakness the last two years. Ball possession has never been a problem for Atalanta, but precision has made possession an empty calorie endeavor. Once again, I fear that could hinder La Dea early on this season – with the only silver lining being the options in Atalanta’s offensive vault (just finding the right combo is the challenge), and the competition – with games with should be victories out of six in August and September.
Regardless of how the early season commences, it has still been a watershed summer for Atalanta. Overcoming the August stumbling blocks that every team encounters is a drop in the bucket compared to the serious funds that Atalanta is now investing into the squad. If Charles de Ketelaere is as advertised – its possible Atalanta will complete three transfers over 25M euros, including a club record transfer fee, and its incredibly likely that Atalanta will be dishing out the highest salary ever to one player, and will likely have the highest wage bill in the club’s modest history. All of this, of course, without Champion’s League coffers to dip into (although Hojlund himself is like two seasons in the UCL). It probably takes a longer article, but Atalanta’s push to throw its chips into the ring now could not have come at a better time.
Juventus stays in its financial mess, Napoli loses its coach, Lazio loses the best midfielder in the league, and Roma takes the high risk approach of raiding Ligue 1’s best teams. Serie A remains the most open league in Europe, but dare I say that we haven’t witnessed such a free-for-all before matchday 1 in years! Call me out for having black and blue shades on, but the chips are falling into place for Atalanta to take the league by storm, climb back into the Top 4, and with a few breaks, be in the hunt to hoist the Scudetto next May.
But, baby steps! We’ll start with finishing off a strong transfer window, and beating the teams we’re supposed to beat! As always, Forza Dea!
