With the curtains came down on what is considered as a hectic winter transfer window, it is worth having a quick look at what to expect from several deals that were made in January. One of the clubs who enjoyed a prolific window was Atalanta as they secured five new players to improve their squad depth for their journey into the round of 16 of the Champions League.
Among the new players who arrived at Gewiss Stadium, Mattia Caldara stands out as he is a familiar face for the team, having been a key factor in Gian Piero Gasperini’s squad during the 2017/18 season. He was a crucial part in a young and talented team that helped the club qualified for Europa League the season after and also secured a move to Juventus and AC Milan later on. Raoul Bellanova is also a familiar name since he was a former AC Milan academy graduate and decided to move to Girondins Bordeaux for first-team football. Caldara and Bellanova’s arrivals will provide both depth and quality to the backline that has been consistent for the first half of this season.
But, what about the remaining three? What will young prospects such as Boško Šutalo and Lennart Czyborra provide for the team? And how will they, along with Adrien Tamèze, play a role in Gasperini’s squad? The following article will provide an insight on how the mentioned three players will fit in at Atalanta. Meanwhile, using statistics and footages, we will point out each of the player’s strengths, weaknesses and which aspects they can improve.
Boško Šutalo — NK Osijek
Only making his debut for the first-team since last season, Šutalo had already built reputation for himself and became one of the first choices when manager Ivica Kulešević picked his team. But there were reasons behind that decision of the Croatian manager, though. At Osijek, he was used as a right centre-back more often in the back-five that consisted of Mile Škorić and Ante Majstorović and took on the stopper role which saw him left his position often to involve in defensive duels.
Furthermore, being a right-footed player allowed him to be used as a left-sided centre-back in the same back-five. This helps him to adapt to the role quicker as it opens up the passing range for his preferred foot and an advantage that come along with this is he is able to find teammates who are in free state on both the right-hand and the left-hand sides of the pitch.
At the same time, Šutalo was also tested in the role of a right full-back when he was called up to the Croatia under-21 team. With the advantage of being versatiled, this will be one of the factors that Gasperini hopes to capitalise from the young defender besides from making the most of his ability as a centre-back.
Whenever he steps on the field, he shows his maturity and composure in every of his moves amid he is only 20 at the start of this year. It is very rare to see him being hesitated in executing what he intended at the first place, but would rather to read the situation thoroughly and make the best decision to either regain possession for his team or progress the ball forward. This encourages him to always be in front of the opposition’s attacker as it allows him to observe the situation better and be more active when interacting with the ball.
Along with that, one of his significant strengths that he also shown is anticipation. His reading of the game or situation is magnificent and allows him to intercept the ball without having to make tackles. As shown in the situation below against Dinamo Zagreb, he slowly read the pass from François Moubandje and stepped into the direction of the pass. He was able to do so knowing that if he badly-timed his run, Škorić would still be able to cover for him and fill in the gap that he created.
This is a familiar move for Šutalo as he tended to move from his position to intercept passes that head towards his direction. Also, by playing in a discipline defensive structure, this benefitted his trait since he is able to use the trait more often knowing there will be cover for him. In Atalanta’s back-five, he will receive similar coverage whenever he steps out of position from José Palomino and Rafael Tolói. Still, with Atalanta usually play with a high defensive line to support the high press, Šutalo’s trait might become a risk since he can break the offside trap that the centre-backs created and allow the opposition’s attackers to move into their half.
6.58 defensive duels per 90 minutes across all competitions seems like it is not a high number for a stopper like him, but it shows how active he involves in duels in order to regain possession for his side. Amid this number ranks second-lowest when compared to Atalanta’s centre-backs (including Simon Kjær), this is an aspect that he can improve when he is given more first-team minutes under Gasperini’s guidance.
But with 5.55 interceptions per 90 minutes and 8.1 interceptions per 30 opposition’s possession, he is the second-best centre-back on this aspect and only lose out to Palomino who registers 6.91 and 9.7 respectively. By having high interceptions stats, Šutalo is able to cover up the fact that he doesn’t dive into tackles very often, which is demonstrated through his number of tackles per 90 minutes in 0.27 (40% success rate).
Also, compared to his new colleagues at Atalanta, he committed the least fouls per 90 minutes with only 0.85 and had only received 3 yellow cards up until his last match for Osijek. This can be a huge improvement for Atalanta’s back-line given how aggressive they are this season (Kjær committed 1.8, Palomino commits 1.5, Toloi commits 1.23 and Berat Djimsiti commits 0.92 fouls per 90) and avoid the unnecessary free-kicks conceded around their 16-yard box.
Not only be at his best during the team’s defensive situations, he is able to contribute to the build-up phase by linking up with the remaining centre-backs to create a passing triangle among them. At Atalanta, he will continue to be encouraged to involve in the build-up phase with Palomino and Toloi given how heavily the team focus on playing out from the back.
Statistically speaking, he registers a decent number of passes per 90 minutes with 47.01 along with an accurate rate of 88.19%. Again, it is not a high number as many would have expected but this can change when Šutalo starts for the team as his passing ability can contribute for the build-up phase significantly. One point that can be seen from the young Croatian defender is that he never hesitates in making direct passes towards the advanced options. As the centre-backs circulating the ball among each other, Šutalo will scan the field constantly to look for teammates who are ready to receive the ball and gaps being opened by the opposition. Then, he will send a direct pass or a long ball (4.24 long balls per 90 minutes with an accurate rate of 58.97%) towards that teammate, though, direct passes seem to be his preferred option.
Against high pressing teams, this strategy of his can be very useful to start a quick attack as Šutalo can use direct passes to find pacey attackers such as Papu Gomez, Josip Iličić, Luis Muriel or Duvan Zapata. Furthermore, those direct passes will help Atalanta beat the opposition’s pressing lanes, similar to how he did against Osijek’s recent friendly against Lokomotiv Moscow.
With the away side’s front three positioned themselves just in front of Lokomotiv’s high defensive line, they were able to capitalise the space behind their back of the midfielders. This gave them an advantage of being able to position in a good position to receive the ball and then turned it into a quick attack with the help of Šutalo’s direct pass.
On the other hand, his back passes can also be useful for Atalanta when they play out from the back against high pressing teams. For several teams, a back pass is the trigger for them to start the press and usually their striker will close the goalkeeper down and prevent him from making short passes. Šutalo solves this problem by still making a back pass, but immediately position himself in a good position and be ready to receive the return pass. If he becomes unavailable then he would still give the goalkeeper enough time to find one of the teammates up front who is ready to pick up the ball.
Besides from the option of making passes during the build-up phase, Šutalo is also able to bring the ball out of defence through his dribbles. He tends to dribble quite often whenever he spots the opportunity to break through the opposition’s pressing lanes, which allows his teammates to move into unoccupied gaps being created by the opponent’s players. There, he will link up with the wing-back and send through balls into his overlap to start the team’s attack.
This strategy will fit perfectly with attacking full-backs such as Hans Hateboer, Robin Gosens or Timothy Castagne as they can pick out a good position inside the final third and offer to pick up the ball for their overlapping run from Šutalo. His dribbling trait is also one of the reasons that encourages Igor Bišćan to use him as a right-back when he joins up with the Croatia under-21 team. When occupying the role, he acts the opposite way to when he plays as a centre-back. By positioning wide and always ready to pick up the ball, he becomes a viable passing option for centre-backs Josko Gvardiol and Branimir Kalaica to lay the ball towards.
Surprisingly, from his centre-back position at Osijek, he registered 2.72 dribbles per 90 minutes with a success rate at 64%. That number easily makes him the best dribbling centre-back compared to his colleagues at Atalanta and he leads them by miles since none of the mentioned names registered their average dribbles per 90 minutes higher than 1. Also, he had 1.69 progressive runs per 90 minutes, and combine it with his dribbles per 90 minutes, it might seems that he would fit Chris Wilder’s tactics at Sheffield United as his numbers remains the highest when comparing with Chris Basham and Jack O’Connell on the same two aspects amid Šutalo playing less minutes compared to the mentioned duo.
As mentioned, one of the factors that allows him to adapt to the right-back position is his dribbling ability. Another factor which also benefits him is his pace. While having a good body build for a centre-back (1m88–6.16ft for his height and 80kg — 176lbs for his weight), he also has good pace in order to make overlapping runs down the right-hand side.
Not only making the most of this advantage during the team’s offensive situations, he also maximises it when helping his teammates defending. Again, playing in a discipline-oriented defensive line forced the players to maintain their positions and moved forward and backward as a line. But in a few scenarios where the opposition used lofted passes in an attempt to attack the space behind the defenders’ back, Šutalo was able to track back along with the ball and closed down the attacker before he could receive the pass, similar to the shot below.
Again, at the age of just 20 years old, Šutalo already shown he has both ability and potential to advance further in his career. Making a step up from Osijek to Atalanta might be a huge one, but the Italian club can offer him a good development platform where he can get first-team football while training with quality players that he can learn a lot from.
Being considered as a replacement for Roger Ibañez, who moved to AS Roma on loan, Šutalo provides a good rotational option whenever Palomino, Toloi or Caldara in need of a rest and it won’t be a matter of time until he is familiar with Gasperini’s tactics. Still, it is a shame that we won’t see him in action until the end of February as he is still recovering from an ankle injury. But having seen his actions when he was plying his trade for Osijek, his return will be worth the wait as he aims to compete for a first-team spot in Gasperini’s squad.
Lennart Czyborra — Heracles Almelo
Currently playing crucial roles in Gasperini’s 3–5–2/3–4–1–2 formation and have been consistent over the last couple of seasons, it is hard to argue that Gosens and Hateboer are proving that the money that Atalanta paid for their service were worth it. But while Hateboer has, not one, but two competitors for the right wing-back spot in Castagne and Bellanova, Gosens is making the spot on the opposite wing his own by starting 20 out of 23 matches in Serie A this season.
It is imminent that Atalanta have to find a backup option for the German left-back to allow him to take a rest and avoid fatigue. Amid that they can still use Castagne as a left wing-back, they want to find a suitable successor for him in case Gosens’ performance catches the eyes of many big clubs around Europe. And they went back to the club that they bought Gosens from for another German left-back in Lennart Czyborra.
Czyborra’s path to the Netherlands is a bit different to Gosens as he moved to Heracles in the 2018 summer after going through well-known academies such as Hertha Berlin, Union Berlin and Schalke 04. He immediately became a starter at the left-back spot for the Dutch club and finished his first season with 20 matches in the Eredivisie under his belt. Before leaving for Atalanta this winter, Czyborra had started every single match for Heracles this season and even made the bench in Atalanta’s latest win against Fiorentina.
On the field, he mainly occupies the left-back position in Frank Wormuth’s 4–4–2 formation while it can also be seen as a 4–2–3–1 when Mauro Júnior drops into an attacking midfielder and leaves Cyriel Dessers as the lone striker up front. In his position, Cyborra tended to move forward during the build-up phase but also stayed back on several occasions to link up with centre-backs Dario Van den Buijs and Mats Knoester.
Besides from being at his best when playing in his preferred position, he also showed his versatility during his early years at Schalke U19. He was used as an inverted wing-back on the right-hand side since the position was opposited to his preferred left foot during Schalke’s U19 match against Arminia Bielefield U19 back in November 2017. Furthermore, Czyborra had also played as a centre-back from August to September 2016 and had been used in the middle of the park when the team played Viktoria Köln U19 back in October 2016.
As mentioned earlier, Czyborra occupies the role of an attacking left-back along with the responsibility to make overlapping runs and open up the wide space. Usually, he will position himself near the byline in order to stretch the opposition’s defensive structure while leaving the half-space for the left-winger, Dabney dos Santos, to occupy. From his own half, he slowly enters the opposition’s half and makes fake runs to signal to the ball carrier that he is looking for a pass into his run.
When playing against low-block teams or a discipline-oriented defensive structure, Czyborra’s trait can be useful as he tends to position himself in between the defensive lines and encourage a long pass which allows Atalanta to beat a couple of the opposition’s pressing lanes, similar to the situation against Emmen below. There, it is possible for Atalanta to start a quick attack with the advanced options up front down the left-hand side of Czyborra.
One thing that can be noticed when Czyborra is on the ball is that he usually makes the most out of his acceleration and pace. He is quick when he dribbles and makes progressive runs into the final third and leaves his marker behind him. As a result, it is often to see the German left-back draws fouls from the opposition’s players and brings back free-kicks inside the final third for his side.
Since he opts to dribble more often whenever he has the ball, it is no surprise to see him registered a high number of offensive duels per 90 minutes with 7.16 along with the winning percentage of 45.56%, the highest number compared to the remaining four Atalanta’s wing-backs (including Bellanova). Furthermore, he also had an average of 4.10 dribbles per 90 minutes to his name across all competitions this season, a number which clearly highlights his trait of preferring to dribble and find his way out of trouble.
But in order to maintain a high dribbling successful rate, it is important for Czyborra to scan the field for potential gaps in which he can sprint into and whether there are any defenders standing in his way. In the situation below against Sparta Rotterdam, he did exactly that by noticing the significant gap behind the opposition’s defenders. Amid the option of dribbling into the area by himself was viable, he knew that decision would come along with him attracting the attention of the defenders. That was why he opted to make a one-two with his teammate, Mohammed Osman, in the central area as most of the defenders were focused on the Syrian central midfielder, which allowed him to receive the through ball from Osman and sprinted towards the 16-yard box.
Inside the final third, he has proven to be a good crosser and had created many chances for his teammates, in which one of them was converted into a goal by Dessers in their 6–1 win over VVV-Venlo this season. This is one of Czyborra’s three assists that he got during the first half of the season as he aims to increase this number whenever he receives the chance to play for Atalanta.
Still, while racking up an average of 3.9 crosses per 90 minutes this season, his accurate rate is not too high as it only stands at 25%. Although registering a high volume of crosses per match, most of those crosses did not usually find its destination since they were blocked or went wide. This is an aspect that Czyborra can certainly improve as he needs to take more time aiming the destination of his crosses rather than just floating the ball into the box, especially given how good Atalanta’s wing-backs in terms of crossing when they register a similar volume of crosses but have a higher accuracy (Hateboer registers 44.59% successful crosses, Gosens has 37.97% and Castagne has 37.93%).
Not only can he creating chances for his teammates down the left-hand side of the pitch, but he can also attempt to find goals for himself. While he was not a constant scoring threat at Heracles since he only had 0.3 shots per 90 minutes, the German left-back already had two spectacle goals under his belt. His second goal for the club came from their 4–0 win against PEC Zwolle where he received the cross from Silvester van der Water with a one-touch volley towards the bottom right corner.
But it was his first goal against Groningen that really caught the eyes. From outside of the box, Czyborra picked up the long ball from Alexander Merkel and attempted an ambitious long shot from the edge of the box. It eventually left Sergio Padt stood still in his position and won three points for Heracles. Czyborra’s two goals at Heracles show that he has the ability to score goals, and given the number that Gosens (8 goals) and Castagne (3) have this season, Czyborra’s first goal for Atalanta will come in the foreseeable future.
In terms of his defending ability, he shows an energetic attitude when supporting his teammates in regaining possession and, at times, a bit aggressive. Czyborra tends to make good use of his pace to catch up with the opposition’s attacker and tries to get into the passing direction and intercept the ball. This trait of his significantly reduces the fouls that he concedes for his side amid that he is aggressive when he attempts to win the ball back.
The numbers also backs this statement, as he only makes 0.25 tackles and commits 0.72 fouls per 90 minutes. Rather than diving into tackles, it is clear to see that Czyborra is looking to intercept passes and stays on his feet in most of his defensive duels. With 7.25 defensive duels per 90 minutes, won 62.57% of them and registers 5.47 interceptions per 90 minutes, he can play a crucial part when Atalanta press high up the pitch as he can track down the opposition’s winger and wing-back while providing support whenever one of the centre-backs decides to step out from his position.
Still, amid that he is decent with his defensive ability, he still shows one major setback which can become a risk for his side. Being indirectly involves in a defensive duel, Czyborra lacks anticipation to read the situation happens in front of him well enough. As shown in the situation below against Emmen, the German left-back positioned himself in a good position to keep the ball carrier in his sight but was not able to anticipate the through ball that came through the space between him and one of Emmen’s players.
Anticipating the situation incorrectly also leads to making the wrong decisions. In this case, Czyborra decided not to act immediately when the ball left the ball carrier’s feet as he did not know that there was a player behind his back. This allowed Luciano Slagveer to receive the through ball and had both time and space to execute what he wanted, while Czyborra had to recover from his position and it took some time for him to track back into the box.
There are a lot of similarities between Gosens and Czyborra as they both come from Germany and have moved to Atalanta from Heracles Almelo. They also share a similar style of play in being an attacking left-back who can creating chances for their teammates and for themselves while still being able to fulfil their defensive responsibilities. It won’t be a problem for Czyborra to settle down at his new club with the help of his fellow countryman and a player who has walked down the path that he is walking now.
It might take some times for Czyborra to be able to make that left wing-back spot his own like Gosens is doing now. But his arrival provides the club with a good rotational choice whenever Gosens is feeling tired, he can make the step up to replace the former Vitesse player while maintaining a decent level of performance. Still at a relatively young age, Czyborra has a long way to go and Atalanta will be the club that allow him to maximise his ability and potential.
Adrien Tameze — OGC Nice
Tameze is the last deal that Atalanta secured this winter transfer window as they brought him to Gewiss Stadium on a loan on Deadline Day. His arrival brings cover for an excellent midfielder quartet of Ruslan Malinovskiy, Remo Freuler, Marten de Roon and Mario Pašalić as he can step up to replace one of the four mentioned names. In fact, he did have a couple of minutes last weekend in his debut for Atalanta in their 2–1 win over Fiorentina, replacing Gomez in the role of an attacking midfielder.
After the first two seasons starting for Nice in the domestic league and their 2017/18 Europa League campaign, he has not been used very often this season by Patrick Vieira after he fell down the picking order. Still, he managed to make six starts for the club this season in the role of a central midfielder alongside Adam Ounas and received support from Wylan Cyprien, who played behind him as a defensive midfielder.
In his first two seasons with the club, though, he was used in the defensive midfielder role more often as he took on the responsibility of linking up with the defenders during the build-up phase. With Malang Sarr now played as a left-back, it is possible to create a three-man build-up with Sarr staying behind along with Dante and Christopher Herelle to form a passing triangle among them.
Tameze stepped into it by positioning himself behind the first pressing lane and acted as the link between the attacking players with the defenders. He would offer to pick the ball up and bring it out of defence through his dribbles or direct passes aimed towards the advanced options.
When he positioned himself in the area, he tended to orient his body towards the opposition’s half and ready to progress the ball forward right after he received the pass from the three centre-backs or, in this case, was Cyprien. This reduced the team’s build-up time since Tameze’s body orientation allowed the transitioning period to occur swiftly and Nice were able to hit the opposition when they tracked back and formed their defensive structure.
On average, he registered 6.07 dribbles per 90 minutes with a success rate of 64.35%. Amid this is a high and positive number for a dynamic midfielder like him, it is important to keep in account that those numbers are registered in only ten matches that he played this season, which included a couple of minutes cameo in Atalanta’s 2–1 win over Fiorentina. Still, if Tameze is able to maintain his trait, this will benefit his side during the offensive transitioning phase since he takes on the responsibility of progressing the ball forward and attracts the attention of the defenders to open up space for his teammates to move into.
Furthermore, it is worth noticing his positioning whenever he receives passes from his teammates. The French midfielder tends to find unoccupied gaps across the field and locates himself inside those areas while still able to offer a viable passing option for the ball carrier. Again, he also prefers to stay behind the opposition’s pressing lane(s), similar to the situation below against Nîmes Olympique, and is prepared to receive a direct pass from the defenders.
When he is on the ball, he boasts good vision to pick out teammates who are in a good position to continue progressing the ball forward or even start an attack. While being a good dribbler, Tameze does not look to take on the situation by himself and find a way out of the trouble. But instead, he wants to slow the tempo of the situation down by stopping the ball for a few seconds and scans for a potential receiver of his pass.
His trait can be made the best out of when playing against high pressing teams and during quick attacks as he can send lofted through balls over the top of the opposition’s defenders. This will encourage his teammates to attack the space behind the defenders’ back to pick up the through ball, as shown in the situation below against Olympique Marseille. He creates an average of 1.11 smart passes per 90 minutes with an accurate rate of 62.5%. Along with that, Tameze also registers 4.17 passes towards the final third and 1.95 passes into the penalty area all per 90 minutes. While it is a decent set of numbers since he takes on a more dynamic role compared to last season, there is possibility that the French midfielder can improve his records during his time with Atalanta.
On the opposite side of the pitch, he constantly involves in the team’s defensive situations by joining along with his colleagues to form the first defensive line to prevent the attack and the second pressing lane to support the attackers during the press. If the opposition bypass the first lane, the midfielders will move up and attempt to regain possession as soon as possible while looking for an opportunity to launch a counter-attack.
For Tameze, as he looks to involve in defensive duels more often (he registers an average of 6.12 defensive duels per 90 minutes), he lacks a bit of physicality to win the duels which can result in the team losing the pressing situation to the opposition. He copes with the problem by choosing a smarter way to win the ball back for his side by making the most of his anticipation ability. Whenever he actively involves in a duel, Tameze will look to get ahead of the attacker and predict the direction of the pass. This will allow him to recover possession without diving into tackles and stay on his feet to intercept passes. Indeed, as he registers 0.42 tackles per 90 minutes with a winning rate of 66.67% along with 3.34 interceptions per 90 minutes and 5.37 interceptions per 30 opposition’s possession, numbers that highlights his trait of avoiding diving into tackles.
Tameze arrives at Atalanta joining a group of midfielder who have been performing at their best for the last couple of seasons. In Pašalić, de Roon and Freuler, they have proven their roles in Gasperini’s squad and have been three of the key players who contribute heavily to the success of the club. Malinovskiy is slowly building his place in the squad but he can step up to be one of the first choices in case one of the three mentioned names dropped their form or, specifically, Pašalić returns to Chelsea at the end of the season.
It is a prospect that Atalanta have taken into account and it can be the reason why they have signed Tameze on loan with an obligation to buy. They want to assess his performance at the club first before signing him on a permanent basis as he hasn’t been playing very often for Nice this season. Still, with the experience that he has had in the first two seasons with the French club, he can become a good backup choice for Gasperini and will be able to provide decent performances whenever he steps onto the field.
Conclusion
In the last few seasons, Atalanta have been a smart club in the transfer window as they secured exciting deals to either improve their squad depth for their journey to aim for the stars or replacing key players who have left the club. They tend to move one step ahead of other clubs in recruiting young prospects like Šutalo or Czyborra and provide them with a good environment in which they can develop themselves while still able to experience first-team football on a constant basis.
Along with that, they have secured the service of experienced players who have been playing in European competitions to help them compete in the Europa League in the previous season and the Champions League this season. Ten years ago when they secured promotion to Serie A, many would not have expected such a significant rise from a relegation-battling team to a European contender of Atalanta. But with a mastermind on the sideline in Gasperini, smart recruitments to allow them to secure good players for a reasonable price tag and a good academy that has seen many young prospects step up and become a key player for Atalanta like Caldara, they already have a long-term project in mind since that day and it has started to blossom for the club.
