Gian Piero Gasperini is expected to leave Atalanta’s top scorer Mateo Retegui on the bench for tonight’s game against AC Milan, a report claims.
This morning’s edition of La Gazzetta dello Sport (seen below) begin a team news update on Atalanta by stating that there is no fixed rule in Gasperini’s choices of formation, and therefore the players he will pick.
Precedents and habits – which obviously arise from precise convictions – can simply help to predict, but they do not provide certainties. Tonight it is more likely that the coach will face Milan’s four-man defence with two strikers and an attacking midfielder, rather than with the De Ketelaere-Retegui-Lookman trio.
The paper recalls that for the two Atalanta-Milan games that were probably the most significant of his management, Gasperini chose not to have a natural centre-forward. In January 2019, the 5-0 against Stefano Pioli’s sidehe played Josip Ilicic and Papu Gomez, plus Ruslan Malinovskyi in behind.
In last season’s 3-2sealed thanks to a 95th-minute backheel from Luis Muriel, it was De Ketelaere and Lookman as could be the case tonight. Teun Koopmeiners acted behind them, and he scored three times against Milan last season.
Mario Pasalic should be asked to play the Dutchman’s role rather than Lazar Samardzic (too attacking) or Marco Brescianini. However, what all this means is that Retegui – the top scorer in Serie A with 12 goals already – should begin the game on the bench.
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