Date: July 21, 2020
Time: 13:30 EST
With short rest Atalanta are back at home in Bergamo against Bologna, and are looking to come back firing after a difficult draw against Verona. Similarly Bologna will be looking to avenge a brutal loss to Milan on Saturday, which saw them concede five goals to a surging AC squad. Bologna and SPAL are the last teams to have defeated Atalanta in Serie A, so avenging this loss will be in the back of everyone’s mind as La Dea look to get back to their winning ways.
With Champion’s League wrapped up, and only a single point behind Inter for 2nd place, gaining a full 3 points at home will be paramount to keep the pressure on Inter before they square off at the end of the year. Now that Ilicic is out of the lineup, and seemingly on a separate training program to prepare for the PSG matchup in Champion’s League, we’ll probably get either Malinovskyi or Pasalic manning the attacking front. Or perhaps in prep for the Milan clash on Friday, Gasp will opt to rest Papu and play both Super Mario and Malina, who honestly seem to play well together up front and are starting to build some good chemistry with one and other.
If anything could be garnered from last week’s Verona game, it stresses the importance of the de Roon Freuler partnership in midfield. de Roon and Freuler are such a steady presence in the middle of the pitch, and while they can seemingly go unnoticed, yet continually do top notch work of winning back the ball and squelching counters. They provide a calming presence on the pitch when the rest of the club get super offensive and bombs forward. Adrien Tameze is proving he can play with de Roon and Freuler, and I’d be shocked if Tameze didn’t get game time or even a start to continue developing a relationship with his midfield partners.
One worry I do have is Robin Gosens. He was quite poor against Verona, wasn’t too active on the left side, and just didn’t seem to have the pace we’ve normally grown accustomed to. He was a scratch against Juventus due to injury and immediately came back against Brescia. I’m hoping the knock he picked up in warmups against Juventus isn’t lingering and he’s not trying to tough through it, especially with the workload that both Castagne and Hateboer have had to endure (frankly its remarkable how the wingbacks can continually be so active given all their duties requiring superior stamina). If anything I’d love to see Cyzborra get his first Serie A start. He was a little skittish in his game time against Brescia, naturally due to some nerves, plus the addition of Gosens moving into left centerback, and knowing Gosens’s tendencies, he began to act more like a 2nd wingback rather than the more supportive centerback that we’ve grown accustomed to with Djimsiti.
A final note, cheers to Musa Barrow who has seemingly found a nice home in Bologna since his move to the Rossoblu in January. He’s already blasted 8 goals for Bologna in 14 matches, and if anyone was to score against La Dea, I’d like it to be him (let’s just hope the score’s 3-0 before he decides to place one past Gollini). Overall, with Champion’s League wrapped up, and the Scudetto going to Juventus (provided a complete collapse), Gasperini needs to do his duty to keep the guys hungry. 2nd place is huge, but with PSG still looming large in August, its natural for the boys to look ahead and not focus on the immediate present. Bologna can be a trap game, considering how everything is lining up at the end of the season, but I’ve got faith that the boys will come out swinging and avenge their earlier season loss against the Rossoblu. As always Forza La Dea!
