Atalanta are daring to dream of European football. They moved up to fourth in the Serie A standings with a superb 2-0 win away to Napoli last weekend and while the competition is tough, four consecutive victories and a tally of seven in their last 10 matches means the top-five finish that would secure them a Europa League place now looks within their reach.
It is necessary to go back to the 1940s to find the last time the small, Bergamo-based club finished in Serie A’s top five. This is their sixth consecutive top-flight season and not once in the last five years have they finished higher than 11th
Even more impressive is the fact that their excellent campaign to date has been built around a core of young players. Atalanta’s most regularly employed 11 players have the lowest average age of those at any Serie A club (at 24.91), while only three sides have more than their four Italians aged 25 or under among that number.
Wily coach Gian Piero Gasperini has fused big-club castoffs, youth academy graduates and the odd well-scouted signing from afar to form an attractive and effective side who are riding high on the back of the league’s third best defensive record and seventh best attack.
Gasperini’s style
Gasperini initially made his name at Genoa, where the template was set for his tactical approach. He builds his teams around a three-man defence, strong off-the-ball pressure and quick attacking transitions. All of those hallmarks are evident at Atalanta.
La Dea top the league in interceptions per match (18.8), with all three of their regular central defenders positioned inside the top seven of the individual rankings. Their defence is one of perpetual movement, with one or more of the central defenders stepping out to aggressively track an opposing forward while teammates shuffle in behind to provide cover.
It is a system that seems to teeter on the brink of disastrous disorder but very rarely descends into it.
Franck Kessie and Remo Freuler hold things together in the centre of midfield, reading play well and distributing simply yet swiftly out to the flanks, while the two regular wing-backs Andrea Conti and Leonardo Spinazzola are both forward-thinking runners.
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The majority of Atalanta’s attacks are constructed in wide areas, where those two wing-backs link with the two forwards as they drift out to the flanks.
The loping, left-footed Andrea Petagna and the squat and effervescent Alejandro Gomez have little in common physically or stylistically but they are both tasked with the same job: to take defenders out of the game on the dribble to open up space for others to join the attack. And they are pretty good at it. Both rank in Serie A’s top six for completed dribbles.
At 29 years old, Gomez is one of the squad’s most experienced players and is enjoying a standout season, having made a direct contribution to 14 goals. He is already just one away from equalling his most productive Serie A campaign, which came at Catania back in the 2012-13 season.
Petagna, meanwhile, has five goals and five assists in his first full season in the top flight. And he regularly causes danger.
Youngsters shining bright
Atalanta’s style of play and excellent results so far this season have fired the club and its young players into the limelight.
Academy products Mattia Caldara and Roberto Gagliardini were snapped up in January by Juventus and Inter Milan respectively, each after less than 12 top-flight starts. Gagliardini went straight into the Inter team, while Caldara, who has drawn comparisons with Juventus legend Gaetano Scirea, returned on loan until the end of the 2017-18 season.
Kessie was brought in at 18 from Stella Club in his homeland of the Ivory Coast and is now being linked with the likes of Chelsea and Manchester United.
And the pipeline doesn’t stop there. Emmanuel Latte Lath scored against Juventus in the Coppa Italia in January, while Alessandro Bastoni, Christian Capone and Italian Under-19 international Filippo Melegoni have all made at least one start in the league or cup this season.
The club have taken a patient approach to youth development and are now reaping the rewards in terms of a talented first-team squad and profits on sales.
Europe awaits?
With his merry band of Bergamo youngsters, Gasperini seems very much at home at Atalanta. Like many Italian coaches, he has brief and unsuccessful spells at Inter Milan and Palermo on his c.v. but after a solid second stint in charge of Genoa, he is now once again proving himself to be as clever a coach as he looked in his first spell there back in the late 2000s.
He and his team have the city fully behind them as they seek to qualify for European competition for the first time since 1991. And even in the wider football community, there are likely to be few who would begrudge this little club, their affable coach and their young and talented squad a chance to extend their stay in the spotlight.
