Date: October 24, 2020
Time: 9:00 EST
What a strange string events for Serie A teams recently. Sampdoria trounced Lazio last week, and Lazio goes on to beat Dortmund handily midweek. Napoli trashed Atalanta last Saturday, but then loses to a COVID crippled squad in AZ (at home nonetheless). And Atalanta comes back after said Napoli thrashing to do some vicious damage in Denmark. If there’s one word to describe Serie A right now it’s volatility. We really don’t know what will transpire, making this Sampdoria match much more tricky than one would probably think.
Now in normal times, Atalanta shouldn’t have too much trouble with Sampdoria at home. But these aren’t normal times…. The squad is playing it’s 3 match in 7 days, and has a dangerous match against Ajax in only 4 days times. Clogged schedules have become a natural part of Atalanta life, but fortunately we have the depth to handle it. Previously I wouldn’t be comfortable with Colley leading the line in-lieu of Zapata or Muriel. But now we’ve got Lammers to appropriately to lead the line, and in all honesty I wouldn’t be surprised to see him start tomorrow. And its crazy to think we have Malinovskyi, Ilicic, Pasalic, and Miranchuk all fresh and ready to go in attack to fill in the attacking midfield positions. Hell, we could even give Papu a rest if we really wanted to (but I’d rather not!).
As always, I’m still concerned on the wing, specifically the right hand side. Gosens and Hateboer are so important to La Dea’s success, I feel like I want to coddle them, rest them, and ensure they don’t get fatigued; much more than Gasperini obviously. Especially after Depaoli’s initial poor showing against Napoli, I’d be super hesitant to even play him. But out of necessity, he may be running up and down the right flank to keep Hans warm for Ajax. Mojica I’m less concerned with as he’s shown to be quite adaptable in the system already, and again I wouldn’t be surprised to see him get his first start on Saturday.
Overall tomorrow will be a very cagey affair. With balancing the lineup during a tight fixture schedule along with playing a Sampdoria team that has won two straight (and in very convincing fashion against Lazio), they cannot be taken lightly. It’s still obviously very early in the Serie A campaign, but this is the type of game that you can easily look back on and say, “damn if only we didn’t draw or lose that game things, could be looking a lot different in the standings at the end of the year.” Let not make that this game. Stay focused and driven, and let’s get the job done in only our 2nd game at home this season. As always, Forza La Dea!
