It’s remarkable how much more there is to write about after being drubbed rather than giving out the drubbing. In a match that saw nearly everything go wrong for Atalanta, and Napoli firing on all cylinders, it is certainly one to forget for the Bergamo faithful. And while losing 4-1 is never fun, perhaps it’s the wake up call Atalanta needed before their brutal stretch of games with the beginning of the Champion’s League group stages coming midweek.
First off, kudos to Napoli. Gattuso’s club bullied Atalanta, and was on the front foot for the entire first half. Victor Osimhen was an absolute handful, and while he scored, his work occupying Cristian Romero and causing havoc among the Atalanta back three was more valuable to their first half success. Palomino and Romero seemed clueless in how to handle him, and he wasn’t really quieted until Djimsiti came on in the 2nd half (but by then everyone had taken their foot off the gas a little). It’s difficult to say how much the international break hurt La Dea, but again it looks like rest > match minutes. It hurt Atalanta against PSG, and the club looked out of sorts as a healthy contingency of their club wasn’t even with the squad until Thursday, while Napoli was confined to Campania for three weeks due to their COVID outbreak. It’s certainly not an excuse for Atalanta’s woeful play, but I can’t help but think the rest and team continuity Napoli got to maintain for multiple weeks helped them in their overall preparation.
For Atalanta, its difficult to ascertain where it went wrong; so its easier to say that it was a full on disaster class. After a near miss off the left foot of Papu Gomez, the flood gates opened up. The easiest place to start was the defense. After an excellent start to the season for Palomino, he looked like a Sunday League player (Palomino is a statistics teacher’s dream on teaching that the average does not tell the whole story without standard deviation), and his compatriot Romero did him no favors in the middle either. In fact, Romero was probably worse with some horribly timed headers, and incredibly reckless play at the back. How he didn’t come away with a yellow card is the game’s biggest mystery, and if it wasn’t for his aggressive run and assist on Lammer’s goal, he would have been the donkey of the game (which unfortunately goes to Palomino). Perhaps both Argentine’s can do well together in the back three, but not having the calmer Djimsiti in the back to counter the unpredictable nature of Palomino and Romero may lead to heart-attacks for Bergamo supporters until they learn to gel together and be more patient in their decision making (not to mention Sportiello and Gollini).
Offensively, again there was no flow and props to Napoli for always being assertive and not giving Gomez any room to work. In a match which also finally saw Josip Ilicic return to fold, it was clear that not having played meaningful minutes since March has caught up to him. He still tried his cheeky dribbles, but it was evident that he was off the pace and offered very little in the attacking third. Hopefully he’ll get back to his old form soon, but facing Napoli was always going to be a tough ask to come back from a hiatus. In addition, not having the familiar face of Hateboer to share the flank, and instead linking up with Samp loanee dePaoli didn’t make anything easier for the lanky Slovenian (on a side note, poor showing to the start of the season for dePaoli; he looked invisible and I can’t recall any encouraging moments to build off).
Speaking of invisible, both Pasalic and Zapata were hardly in the match; and Pasalic continues his run as the most Jekyll and Hyde player on the squad. Gasperini seems convinced he can play the double pivot, but the evidence continues to build up that he needs to be moved higher up the pitch in order to be effective. Not having Remo Freuler in the middle is evident, and is the epitome of a good offensive lineman in the NFL (you don’t appreciate him until he’s not there).
As forgettable a day as it was, its still a real good lesson for La Dea going into the Champion’s League and the heart of the Serie A campaign. First, its evident that depth will be huge for the club, and even though an unorthodox lineup did not pay dividends against Napoli, I’m glad that Gasperini is not as reticent to get guys minutes to get through the next few months of attrition (both Mojica and Lammers have looked quite good in the minutes they have played). Second, I think Atalanta can take a lesson from Napoli’s use of Osimhen. Zapata is a similar striker to Victor, perhaps stronger yet a slightly slower version of the young Nigerian; and he can offer a lot of the same value as Osimhen. However, he’s seemingly hardly ever put in a position to even provide link up play. Every time he had the ball yesterday, he was isolated with minimal options going forward to offer support or a presence to lay off a pass to allow him to move forward. While the flow of the game runs through Papu, Zapata needs to be put in better positions to use his strengths and allow Atalanta’s attack to flow more smoothly and be less predictable. And finally, don’t overreact. Keep doing what has go you to this point. Every team lays stinkers (just look at Juve, Lazio, Barca, and Real Madrid yesterday alone!), but Atalanta has to resist the urge to lose confidence in the style of play that has got them to this point among the upper echelons of Europe. I’m not too concerned that Gasperini will do anything drastic, but football has a way of bringing out the haters with the pitchforks and knives way much earlier than they should be brought out. Just stick to the plan, and the results will continue to find themselves. Onward La Dea, and let’s give hell to Midtjylland this Wednesday!
Yes the players selected to start didn’t quite work out for gasp. I’ll be reading your posts now I’ve come across this. La Dea play bueno calcio
Thanks for reading! Depaoli unfortunately really scares me as a backup, just hoping he needs time to adjust and acclimate into the squad, since he’s really only been here less than a month. Hopefully Pessina is also our answer to backing up de Roon and Freuler in the middle, we’ll see!