Lecce-Atalanta, Gasperini conference: “I don’t look at the standings”

For the ranking, but also for the future. Tomorrow in Lecce Atalanta is looking first and foremost for a restart after the defeat against Napoli, “and it will not be easy – says Gian Piero Gasperini – because Baroni’s is a dynamic team, which has put important opponents in difficulty and when he lost he has always made of measure, as with Juve. But with Napoli I saw an Atalanta who had everything: technique, intensity, rhythm and also progress from the point of view of quality, of the ball game on the ground in speed, and against a team leader in all this: from Saturday I am even more convinced that this is our path “.

answers

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But tomorrow’s 90 minutes, the Nerazzurri coach explained, are a good opportunity to read answers that go beyond the outcome of this championship. “There are two days left before the long break for the World Cup: in these two abundant months I have seen many players grow, it is also the time to give the club a way to make assessments for the future. The ranking is the only thing I don’t look at today, in the sense that our final placement is not a priority: my yardstick, even if different from that of many, is not talking about Atalanta from the Champions League, from Europe or otherwise. I say this not because I am not interested in achieving results – we always do maximum, and this is what reality says – but because I have to put the club in a position to have a good future. And therefore I have to give alternatives so that it can make its choices and operate well. ”

turnover

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In a nutshell, not only because the midweek round is played every 4 days, Gasp also announces a bit of turnover for tomorrow: “Even if I don’t call it that, since so far – some more and some less – everyone has played, in the end they always go to 16. And I am happy with all the players I train, I trust everyone, even if unfortunately the space I can give is that. Interesting. More precise evaluations on the growth of young people can only be done in the race, so I’ll make some changes because I’m curious to see them too, like Ruggeri, who is the one who has played a little less. They should be valued, even if they are already having a nice evolution: for example I liked Hojlund very much against Napoli, my evaluation is not based only on the wrong goals “.

certainties

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The certainty is Zapata (“He plays for sure”), there will also be room for Malinovskyi, “who has always played anyway: I have to decide whether to play him from the start or in the race, I’m also trying him as an attacking midfielder, also because Lookman is doing very good”. And the certainty is also that in the starting group today there will be Palomino, rehabilitated after the suspension for the doping affair: “We still have to wait (there may be an appeal from the Anti-Doping Prosecutor), but in the meantime this is a great joy for him and for us. He trained on his own, he did the gym, ran and everything he was allowed, but both yesterday and this morning I saw him with a great desire: you don’t forget to play … He comes with us above all because it is right that he is part of the group, ‘inside’ the locker room, and can resent him. But in theory he would also be ready to play a piece “.