Gian Piero Gasperini admits Atalanta ‘have to reflect and make adjustments’ after the 5-0 defeat to Liverpool. ‘I’ve seen it in Serie A too, we don’t have the intensity we did in the past.’
La Dea were pummelled 5-0 in Bergamo by a Diogo Jota hat-trick, Sadio Mane and Mohamed Salah, practically all on the counter-attack, even from their own corner.
Gian Piero Gasperini admits Atalanta ‘have to reflect and make adjustments’ after the 5-0 defeat to Liverpool. ‘I’ve seen it in Serie A too, we don’t have the intensity we did in the past.’
La Dea were pummelled 5-0 in Bergamo by a Diogo Jota hat-trick, Sadio Mane and Mohamed Salah, practically all on the counter-attack, even from their own corner.
It was not dissimilar to the 5-1 loss they suffered at Manchester City last season, although they recovered to qualify in second place and eventually reached the quarter-finals.
“We have to reflect, because we lost badly in Manchester last season, but were confident we could change a few things and make a big difference,” the coach told Sky Sport Italia.
“Tonight, there really was a big gap and we have to reflect on the tactical and structural approach for matches like this, otherwise it becomes very difficult indeed.
“We had no fear of Liverpool, as we were coming off two good results, so there was no fear. We played Liverpool with the confidence we usually do, sure we could create them problems and hold out under pressure.
“Unfortunately, they blew us out of the water in terms of intensity. I’ve seen it before this season in Serie A too, we don’t have the intensity we did in the past and have to change our style a little bit to compensate for that.
“We struggle to maintain the pace we did in the past, in Serie A and the Champions League, so we need to make some modifications and change the way we play.”
Atalanta are now joint second in the Champions League group with Ajax, having fought back from 2-0 down to draw 2-2 with them last week.
“There was an alarm bell against Ajax, we got it back on track and probably deserved to win. Liverpool are on a whole other level. We need to learn from this and then see what we can do.
“There are some issues we’ve seen in Serie A too, so we’ll reflect. We are conceding too many goals, regardless of the value of the opponent, we don’t score as much and we definitely don’t run as much or as quickly.
“As I said, we learned from the City result, we had a beating against Inter a few years ago and found a solution after that. Hopefully this can be another teachable moment.
“Playing every week in the Champions League is tough when there’s a game every three days, then we have very tough fixtures in Serie A too, so it’s tough on all of us in those tournaments, like Juventus, Inter and Lazio. That’s something the teams in the Cups have to deal with and accept.”