The second – more precise – look at Atalanta should reduce the worries of the Leverkusen a bit. Because Atalanta 2021/22 is no longer the one from previous seasons.
Robin Gosens said goodbye to Milan
After last weekend’s 1-0 defeat at AS Roma, coach Gian Piero Gasperini’s team have dropped to sixth place in the table in Italy – the gap to the Champions League positions is considerable.
The shine has been lost, especially offensively. Which is no wonder, considering the personnel situation at Atalanta: In winter, Robin Gosens, who scored eleven goals last season, moved on to league rivals Inter Milan.
Top goal-getters don’t play
At the same time, Bergamo lost by far its most dangerous striker in Duvan Zapata. The Colombian has been out for several weeks with a hamstring tear – he will also miss both matches against Leverkusen.
And then there is Josip Ilicic. Slovenian playmaker Atalantas has been suffering from depression for around two years and is unable to play at the moment either. Close observers of the club say that he could not cope with the shocking corona outbreak in Bergamo and the surrounding area, which caused a large number of deaths at the time.
Recently lost the connection
Atalanta has not yet been able to replace these failures on an equal footing – this can be seen from the most recent results alone: Only one win in five league games, Atalanta lost three times. Among other things, you conceded a 1: 2 at home against basement child Cagliari. And against Florence they lost at home in the Italian Cup (2:3). Added to this was the early elimination in the Champions League.
Nevertheless, the Lombards recently extended the contract with coach Gasperini until June 2024. The 63-year-old has been training the club since June 2016 – a consistency that is rare in professional football. Gasperini almost always led ‘La Dea’ (‘The Goddess’) to the Champions League, setting a club record in the 2019/20 season with an unprecedented 78 points.