Defeated again at home by Hellas Verona (1-2) on Monday in Serie A, Atalanta confirms its very bad pass. The lights are no longer green and the threat of a season without Europe hovers over the head of Gian Piero Gasperini, whose system is called into question for the first time in a long time.
Nothing is going well in Bergamo. Atalanta is simply losing everything. Unable to win in Serie A since March 20 with 3 defeats in a row, and remaining more generally on a black streak of only 2 wins in their last 12 league outings, Gian Piero Gasperini’s men have also seen their European journey take end in the quarter-finals of the Europa League against RB Leipzig (1-1, 0-2). After their last setback to date, against Hellas Verona (1-2) at the Gewiss Stadium, the Bergamasques are in 8th place in the standings, five units behind the last qualifier for Europe.
If 7th place could offer the last European ticket to Italy depending on the identity of the Italian Cup winner, the possibility of Atalanta not taking part in the next Champions League campaign for the first times since 2018 seems very large. A non-qualification for Europe would be synonymous with total failure and a thunderclap in Lombardy for a club which has been used to European games since 2016, and which has not finished outside the top 7 since the 2015-2016 financial year.
The Gasperini method is running out of steam
This disaster scenario would also be a great first for Gian Piero Gasperini. Because since the arrival of the Italian technician on the bench of Atalanta, in the summer of 2016, the Dea has always been European, therefore. This bad patch, Bergamo does not owe it to chance or bad luck. In recent weeks, the Gasperini model seems to have run out of steam and taken the lead in the wing. Usually so sharp, killer and formidable offensively, the Orobici are less spectacular, both in the game, less fluid, than in the finish, less clinical, they who lost 6 games in the second half of the season for the first time since 2015-16.
A fact verified in the statistics. In the second half of the season, Atalanta scored 28 goals in 20 games played in all competitions, failing to find the net 6 times elsewhere. In comparison, Duvan Zapata, Ruslan Malinovskyi and their partners had remained silent only during 2 meetings during the first part of the season (25 games), scoring no less than 49 goals in the process. In the last 10 games, the Bergamasque club has only shaken the net 9 times. A very low average for a collective used to exploding the counters and which remains the co-7th best attack in Italy.
Limit the damage
“We are in a moral fall. We have to think about finishing the season well, because we owe it to our fans and all the people who support us anyway. The boys are committed, I have nothing to reproach the team. We’re not too lucky either. In the first half, it could have been different, but at the moment playing such open games against opponents of great athletic and technical value is difficult for us and we often come out of it defeated.confided Gian Piero Gasperini at the microphone of DAZNafter the defeat against Hellas Verona on Monday.
The words are strong and give the impression that even the former coach of Genoa, Inter or Palermo is powerless and struggling to find solutions in the face of this period of crisis. The objective will therefore be to grab the wagon for European places at the end of the season, with a rather affordable calendar where AC Milan will be the only team in the first part of the table to face the Dea. Without the European Cup next season at the Gewiss Stadium, it could also be difficult for the Lombard management to retain several driving forces in the team, most of whom are no longer young.
“The end of a cycle? It’s a condition the club will check when the time comes. The team has come a long way in Europe, both in the Champions League and in the Europa League where we reached the quarter-finals. In the league, we expressed ourselves well until December and then we failed to meet expectations, also in terms of the quality of play offered. There were many elements, all decisive. When the time comes, we will analyze them. We have to end the season in the most dignified way possible.”, also added Gasperini at a press conference on Monday. The time is not yet for panic but the alarm signals are multiplying at Atalanta …
