Atalanta Bergamo – Juventus: Shadows Of A Former Self (0-0)
The flexible passages of Atalanta Bergamo once polarized a competition dominated by Juventus. Two entities attempted to figure one another out, but as the game progressed, thoughts of this fixture’s magnitude in yesteryear would cast a harsh reality. Atalanta and Juventus need to do a lot more in order to battle for the crown.
Tactical analysis and match report by Joel Parker.
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On the top of the Italian football pyramid, a goddess and an old lady continued to squabble as the league moved around them. Although they have strayed from different paths in the last five years, Atalanta and Juventus found a peak under their respective coaches, but progressing from that point has proved to be difficult.
Gian Piero Gasperini is Serie A’s longest-serving manager and was surrounded by more constant change at Atalanta in the summer. The sale of Rasmus Højlund gained the most traction, but Merih Demiral, Joakim Mæhle and Jeremie Boga also drew big sales. Atalanta is no longer a team that holds onto the ball for long periods and cuts teams through with wide overloads; they circulate the ball deeper, without the halfspace joy that they used to gain. Charles De Ketelaere and Gianluca Scamacca were brought in to add offensive firepower, but after four clean sheets in their first six games, it is their defense that has appeared to be their biggest strength so far this campaign.
After being banned from Europe and the suspension of Paul Pogba, Juventus started the season in strong form. Dušan Vlahović returned to scoring form and being partnered next to Federico Chiesa has given Massimiliano Allegri a strong strike force in his 3-5-2 arrangement. But baffling mistakes away to Sassuolo was a harsh reminder of the work needed. Allegri has more time on the training pitch with this team and plenty of issues to usher out of their play.
Despite heavily investing in two forwards, Scamacca and El Bilal Touré, both players were unavailable (Touré’s injury is a lot more serious.) Four changes were made from the 1-0 win against Hellas Verona; Juan Musso, Giorgio Scalvini, Davide Zappacosta and Charles De Ketelaere all came back into their trademark 3-4-2-1 formation.
Vlahović was declared unavailable by Allegri before the team sheet was announced on Sunday evening. Moise Kean took his place up front, whilst Federico Gatti replaced Daniele Rugani in the backline, which was the only other change for Juventus, from their 1-0 win over Lecce in midweek.
Atalanta stuck on the outside
Filtering the center space onto the outside is commonplace when a Gasperini team has the ball, but days of halfspace domination are truly gone for Atalanta.
More recently, Teun Koopmeiners has been involved as part of the front three and remained deep as De Ketelaere and Ademola Lookman push further forward. Koopmeiners was part of the deeper buildup unit, but was instructed to stick to the wider left channel as Atalanta played the ball out; even behind Matteo Ruggeri in this phase. Éderson often appeared as the single pivot, as Marten de Roon dropped between Rafael Tolói and Berat Djimsiti. Perhaps moving Koopmeiners out wide could have dragged Nicolò Fagioli or Federico Gatti, out of Juve’s 5-3-2 passive block, but they stuck to their lines off the ball and Atalanta remained in a stale position.
4th minute: Buildup phase from Atalanta, which led to their only route towards the final third. Lookman moved into Cambiaso’s blindside as the hosts could only take the ball forward within the outer channel.
Atalanta constantly had the ball in front of the Juve strikers and wide center-midfielders, but moving the ball back inside was a major issue for the hosts. They moved the ball at a very slow tempo, Éderson the only midfielder who tried to switch play towards either side. With two players constantly on the outside, Juventus shielded the ball back inside with ease, as Atalanta could only connect to the third man run through a dinked ball in front of the runner – Juventus were very comfortable defending against these passes.
The best chances Atalanta had at progressing would come from Ademola Lookman or De Ketelaere making runs in-between the Juventus wing-back and wide center-back, Lookman was the more comfortable when he had the ball in pockets of space. However, taking your forwards out of the channels means that you often lack a focal point, in the box for the next stage of the attack.
Limited halfspace action now comes from Atalanta, only adding to the circulation.
Crosses from the wider areas were Atalanta’s best hope in generating a shot at goal. Their only notable opportunity would arrive from a cross, wing-back to wing-back. Ruggeri’s high ball went over the crowded box and found Davide Zappacosta free at the back post. His first shot hit a static Danilo, and his second was scuffed wide at the near post.
Juve’s buildup was even more shallow
After twenty minutes of Atalanta control, Juventus started to engage more on the ball. Danilo and Gatti established more flexible positioning throughout: Gati held the ball in the wider channel, just inside his half, whilst Danilo situationally moved into an inverted position next to Manuel Locatelli, who could also drop into the defensive line between phases.
34th minute: A chance for Juve to progress the ball forward, but as Juve midfielders had constantly dropped towards the ball, Gatti was left with very limited options on the ball and the midfielders could only be engaged if the tempo was dropped and circulation could continue.
Within the midfield, as Juventus built, one player moving forward was met with one player dropping as Fagioli and Adrien Rabiot curved in and out to create passing angles. However, this failed to pull the Atalanta defensive block apart unless one of the forwards would be connected high up in the move. Juve also attempted to connect through Rabiot’s aerial ability, but they still struggled to break into sequences from this manoeuvre.
Going direct to Chiesa was the more viable option if they wanted to break out of the middle third. Chiesa moved out of his central spot and into a deeper-left position, a move which did leave him isolated with Rafael Tolói. His feints and flicks are always a danger, especially when there is space for him to build momentum when he runs, but this came few and far between, with a lack of connectivity around him to make passing sequences click.
Danilo’s inverted position resulted in Andrea Cambiaso moving closer to the defensive line, whilst spacing between the midfield became more distorted, especially when they had to make more of the attacking movements in comparison to the deep wing-backs. This constantly left Danilo and Locatelli in the same line, and one of Fagioli or Rabiot dropped towards the ball to support, whilst the other moved further forward to try and support the strikers.
Neither Atalanta nor Juventus had the transitional ability to counteract each other’s flat buildup structures. As a result, very limited shots were taken from both teams and a dull affair had taken shape.
Half chances bear no fruits
Gasperini made some tweaks to his frontline at halftime, as Atalanta regained the same control as they did in the first quarter of the game. Koopmeiners went from hugging the touchline on the left side to the right side, but his movement once the ball left his feet was a lot more lateral. As a result, more rotations were made with De Ketelaere, who was now positioned more on the right side.
Tolói also contributed more towards the final third, as he angled more runs inside of Zappacosta and Atalanta was able to put more pressure on Juventus within the final third. Vertical runs from De Ketelaere left him more isolated with Danilo down the wider channel, with Tolói inside to support circulation and the movement from the touchline to center by Koopmeiners dragged Juventus’ defensive block more inward. Better dynamics from Atalanta, but despite getting the ball higher up the field, creativity was still very limited.
54th minute: Change of dynamics in Atalanta’s buildup that got them further up the field. Koopmeiners received the ball in more space and De Ketelaere moved into wider areas against Danilo.
Juventus freed up pressure through backline rotations on the ball, but never got near the final third unless Chiesa was engaged in the action. Their first, and only, second-half shot came in the 51st minute, eleven were attempted for the hosts, but they would require more tweaks to do so. Luis Muriel replaced Ademola Lookman, his free-kick smacking the inside of the crossbar would be the only time they tested Wojciech Szczęsny between the posts, his glove denying Atalanta a stunning opener.
As the game progressed into the later stages, De Ketelaere began to move laterally towards the left side for quick engagements with the ball. Luis Muriel also moved out of a central position and into a deep-left area and fellow substitute, Mitchel Bakker, provided more high pressure as he moved around Timothy Weah, who was now covering the right wing-back position.
Two opportunities arrived for Koopmeiners from this area. Muriel attempted a ranged effort, spilt by Szczęsny and into a dangerous area for the rebound. An awkward arrival at his feet, but a golden location for a shot, Koopmeiners put the ball over the crossbar. The Dutchman would have another attempt at the death of the game after Muriel produced an excellent channel pass towards Bakker. Koopmeiners received the ball, but having to control led to the space closing up in front of him.
Takeaways
Shots from Zappacosta and Koopmeiners should have bagged the points for Atalanta, but victory would have been much more likely if Atalanta had better routes within their control, as opposed to two close attempts from a wide cross and a rebounded effort from a long shot. Attempts to drag Juventus out only started to play into effect late on and once Allegri changed that right side into more defensively suspect players. Another clean sheet, but it should have been a lot more.
Juventus continue to concede plenty of shots and look empty in chance creation, but their league position will always tell a different story, as it usually does under Allegri. Events off the field will truly tell the trajectory that Juventus are on, but as for now, football under Allegri is in limbo, waiting for something to happen.
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