Date: November 20, 2020
Time: 12:00 EST
With international breaks feeling longer and longer and increasingly boring, we’re finally back to some cracking Serie A football! On paper Atalanta should be cruising by the newly promoted side; however, Spezia has admirably carried their weight in the league so far, and have demonstrated good form in the league, most recently shutting out Benevento while netting 3 goals.
Atalanta looks to get back on form after a mixed bag of recent results has still has them in the thick of Serie A hunt, as well as the Champion’s League picture. Picking up their form, but also some key players, is huge as we head towards the New Year. While La Dea will unfortunately be without Ruslan Malinovskyi due to his positive COVID test (get better soon!), the returns of Gosens, Piccini, and de Roon to the squad list is enormous for a team that was really battling to stay afloat at some key positions.
The key to Atalanta winning on Saturday has to be avoiding a post International break hangover. Over half the club participated internationally in some shape or form, so while rest won’t be on their side, they’ll at least have match fitness in the legs. I really don’t know which one is more important at this point (I seem to keep leaning towards rest, especially after the PSG debacle), but this time around we got the best of both worlds almost. Beyond the players who received game time, some important players got much needed injury recovery time, especially Gosens and de Roon. Interestingly Gasperini may be saving both of them for the mid-week Liverpool clash, we’ll have to wait and see. Fortunately, Ruggeri and Pessina impressed enough in their respective positions to give Gasperini the flexibility to do what he wants with the lineup, and I feel totally comfortable with both being inserted into the starting XI against Spezia.
If there’s anyone I’m worried about it’s the South American contingency. Not only having to fight jet lag, the Colombian striker duo was absolutely embarrassed during the break, and Papu got a measly minute in one contest which is more a slap in a face than an honor at this point. I’m hoping the back and forth travel (and massive intercontinental travel) isn’t too much of a burden for the attacking trio, since so much of the offense obviously rolls through them. But don’t fear, I feel our new Russian friend Aleksey Miranchuk is ready to pick up the slack and provide his own offensive magic. After some killer balls into the box, his perfectly placed strike past Handanovic two weeks back demonstrated the class he can bring, proving that Ilicic may be taking a back seat in subsequent fixtures… Only Gasp knows at this point, but I think its truly time to unleash Aleksey.
Again the soccer gods gave Atalanta a gift post international break and pre Liverpool with a match against a newly promoted side, but that doesn’t mean take Spezia for granted. Spezia already showed they’ll fight and claw, give up their share of goals, but also score them as well (just look at how they climbed back into to draw against Fiorentina a month ago). Hopefully the boys have knocked off the international break funk (or rust, or whatever voodoo comes with the international break) and are ready to make the short trip to Cesena (randomly) and climb in the ranks in a very crowded top half of the Serie A table. Let’s get back to it, and always Forza La Dea!
