Date: October 31, 2020
Time: 10:00 EST
It may be Halloween, but let’s hope we don’t have anything freaky in store this weekend. Atalanta have the fortune of heading down to Calabria to take on newly promoted and currently 20th placed Crotone. To me everything points to a trap, trap, trap. Don’t forget Crotone has already tied Juventus this year for their only point, and while they may be in last place now, they certainly haven’t played like a pushover the few time I’ve seen them. Simy leads the line well, and they are adept at hitting on the counter, and just causing discomfort in general.
No de Roon, no Gosens, Liverpool on Tuesday, and a 1200km trip is all a recipe for things to go south (no pun intended). In Football Manager terms, Crotone beating Atalanta is like the 34 year old striker coming on in the 90th minute, hasn’t scored in 25 league games, and buries home a crappy header to steal the match. Everyone who’s played FM knows what I’m talking about, so we gotta do what we can to ensure we don’t get FM’ed.
Gasperini may be gun shy in running out too many subs after it backfired last week against Sampdoria, so without de Roon, everything is up to Remo Freuler. Regardless of who he’s paired with, he’s gonna have to do extra work to solidify the midfield and erase any mistakes Pasalic or Pessina would make. It’s not ideal to have Freuler carrying so many minutes, but we’re in a bind, but I have a feeling the Swiss National is up to the task (at least for tomorrow). He’s our unsung warrior and does all the little things that let’s Atalanta’s attack tick and gives freedom to Gosens mainly to do his thing down the flank.
One guy we’ve hardly talked about this year is the Ukrainian missile Ruslan Malinovskyi. We’ve barely seen him this year, and its showed in his play. He was pretty sloppy against Ajax, could’ve been sent off for a nasty tackle on Antony, and skied a perfect long range chance that he’s become known for. I imagine it’s still him trying to shake off rust, as he’s barely got any minutes this year (207 to be exact), and I’d be much keener to start him or Miranchuk over Ilicic as the second striker.
The football gods have given us the best opportunity possible to get back on track in Serie A while trying to manage European fixtures. Actually all of Italy’s Champion’s League participants got away with relatively easy fixtures this weekend, so its best to take advantage of it when you’re blessed with a 6 and a 5 at the blackjack table. The Ajax comeback should be a good motivator to a team that was looking for something positive going forward, so let’s hope that second half momentum carries over to 3 points this weekend. I’ll cut Gasperini some slack if he wants to get creative with the lineup this time, because Crotone have demonstrated they’re certainly not Sampdoria, I just want to see him do it smartly. Out of necessity he’ll have to make some starting XI changes, but let’s see what Pessina and Miranchuk have in store for us, and even Lammers again. I know Tuesday against Liverpool is one of the biggest matches in La Dea’s history, but let’s get back on track this weekend and not think ahead to Tuesday. Because dropping point against Crotone could be a perfect catalyst to not having the opportunity to play teams of Liverpool’s caliber in Europe next year. With all that, let’s do our job, attack, and show no mercy. As always Forza La Dea!
