Atalanta suffered at the hand of a 10 man Fiorentina side to see their Coppa Italia dreams go down the drain. An 84th minute go-ahead goalby Pol Lirola put Atalanta to bed, giving Fiorentina an upcoming quarterfinal date against Inter.
Even though Atalanta dominated possession, it wasn’t enough to get meaningful shots on goal. Woodwork from Gosens and Pasalic didn’t help matters, but ultimately Atalanta didn’t seem to have the hunger or spirit to advance past the Violets. Getting hit on the counter against 10 men truly strings, but at least La Dea have their chance for revenge in a couple of weeks, with hopefully a full strength lineup at their disposal.
On one hand, I see it as a blessing in disguise. As difficult and painful as it is to lose, it lessens the burden on Atalanta’s second half schedule. With a Top-4 Serie A Battle, plus a fight to make the Champion’s League Quarterfinals against Valencia, less workload is better than for a squad that clearly showed they needed a bit more depth trying to balance Serie A and the Champion’s League Group Stages in the fall.
However, it is worrying that Atalanta fail to provide any meaningful attack without either Papu Gomez or Josip Ilicic. Granted, I only saw highlights of today’s game, but the squad seemed to only gain a pep in it’s step when both were inserted into the lineup. Malinovskiy I think can eventually become a fine replacement for Ilicic on the right flank, but for now creativity can really be lacking when Papu and/or Ilicic is on the sideline. Muriel can provide flashes of brilliance, but he really needs someone to put a pass on a platter for him (he’s capable of setting up a teammate himself with a beautiful pass to Gosens). But ultimately, Gomez makes the team tick, and without them, they sometimes lack ideas and enough creativity in the final third to be effective. Of course Zapata didn’t play today to make creativity come a bit easier, but it still goes without saying the team truly clicks with a Number 10 to set the offensive tone, and today it wasn’t there.
Onward to SPAL next Monday, and as always Forza Atalanta!
