Why is Atlanta so fierce?
If you ask which team is the strongest in the Champions League this season, people may give a lot of answers. But if you want to ask the Champions League this season, the best passers-by, which team has played the most crazy, many people should mention the same name-
Gasperini coaches Atlanta.
Serie A have scored at least 5 goals in a single game this season
Just like in the Serie A arena, Atlanta is not the strongest, but it must be the crazy. “True Blue and Black” slammed 70 goals in 25 rounds, scored at least 5 times in 5 single games, 7-0, 7-1, 7-2 each. This group of people had red eyes all day long. When they hit hi, they even refused to accept the six relatives. The scene was vivid and the kicks were extremely fierce, becoming a unique scenery in Europe.
And if you carefully analyze and interpret Atlanta’s playing method, you will find that they are really a very extreme and strange team, and it is difficult for you to fall in love with this impermanence, all-people, passionate and bold style.
Starter of the first leg against Valencia
Basic formation
Atlanta plays 3-4-1-2, and uses a more active striker combination in the Champions League, allowing Duwan Zapata to sit on the bench, two core players with excellent ball-handling ability, Gomez and Erie Cicci is at the forefront, using a retreat organization to direct the collective attack group behind him. You may be familiar with a single forward without front, but what about a double forward without front?
In the entire formation, players have great freedom of movement, especially the freedom to attack forward. The retreat of the two forwards and the two midfielders made the team’s formation transition quite smooth. Under the premise of multiplayer offense, the team can play a lot of wonderful side-to-center, midway cooperation, and make a fuss around the two cores of Gomez and Ilicic.
Ilicic is critical in Atlanta’s system
One of the features: the furious swarm defense
On the defensive end, in addition to retreating from their own half of the court, Atlanta uses a strange and strict man-to-man oppression. Players usually do not leave the responsibility of man-to-man to teammates. What does that mean? For example, if the three centre-backs have double forwards against the opponent, and the other side retreats to the midfield with the right forward, then the corresponding Atlanta’s left centre-back will follow up instead of giving it to a midfield teammate to defend.
In the picture below, the yellow circle is Atlanta centre-back Marcello, and even if Dibara retreats to the midfield, he always follows.
Strict man-to-man
Of course, there will still be this classic “seducer” oppression strategy: Atlanta took a strict man-to-man tag, deliberately let out Voss who ran to the side to seduce the goalkeeper Westleyson to pass him. As a result, after receiving the ball, Voss found that there were no passing options. Gomez easily determined the only return route, and the ball was successfully intercepted.
Tempted the goalkeeper to pass to Voss, then strangled the ball
In addition to strict man-to-man tagging, there is another unique feature of Gasperini’s oppression system, that is, players follow the ball, and players close to the ball can leave the defenders to snatch, not so much attention to position and The main purpose of protecting the overall defensive position is to quickly drive the opportunity to switch attacks.
Several defensive players all went after the ball-man
This defensive style is a bit similar to the peak Chilean team. Hidden dangers are also very obvious: walking away from people will inevitably have to bear the risk of insufficient personal defense ability of the back line players; for the ball to surround, there is naturally a threat of insufficient tacit understanding or the opponent’s fast ball, because this means that the other person is attracted If you have two or three people, there will be a lot of space in other places.
Therefore, Atlanta’s defense is certainly not very good, and will often give opponents some easy scoring opportunities. However, once you are eaten or rounded up by Atlanta in the midfield, it is a good show …
A group of lunatics
Feature two: Crazy surging like a wolf and tiger
Gasperini’s use of this defensive mode is naturally closely related to the corresponding offensive mode. After breaking the ball to form a transition, the Atlanta player has an amazing degree of freedom of forward insertion, almost with an attitude that he doesn’t care about the opponent’s possible interception and counter-conversion. This is true for the centre back, so is the midfielder, let alone the two wingbacks.
on! on! on!
For example, for this ball, center defender Toloy points to Ilicic, and then he directly participates in the offensive cooperation and passes forward to Hartbauer. Seeing that Hartbauer’s passing was not very good, he hesitated, but then saw that his teammates could receive the ball, and immediately resolutely inserted! This is the central defender! And it’s not the kind of situation where the whole team is under the control of the opponent’s ball at halftime! What should I do when I’m behind? Atlanta players don’t care so much, this opportunity is over!
The wing guard and the central defender rushed inward one after another
This is the first round of the game against Valencia, Atlanta’s first goal. Hartbauer and his opponent scrambled for the landing point to rush down the ball and continue to rush! Centre back Palomino steals the ball, points the ball, and then dashes into the penalty area! As a result, when Gomez received the ball, there was no Atlanta in the center. There were actually three response points in the penalty area!
Except that Ilicic was the attacker, Palomino and Hartbauer all rushed in! The two had the physique of a defender and suddenly came without warning (unlike regular attackers). How can this be prevented? In the end, the ball came to the back. Hartbauer took advantage of the confrontation and succeeded in grabbing the goal.
Atlanta’s All Soldiers Are Stunning
The picture above shows the contribution of the Serie A teams’ expected number of goals this season. The lighter the color of the color block, the higher the ranking of the contribution, and the height of the color block represents the corresponding value. The second from the left is Atlanta (ATA in the picture). You can clearly see that from the team’s contribution to the first to fifth, the corresponding numerical distribution is very even, and the contribution value is also close; in contrast, the international Milan (INT in the picture) is obviously more dependent on the output of the first two, that is, Lukaku and Lautaro.
You can say that the two Atlanta wing guards use impact and confrontation advantages to eat the opponent’s back point is an important means of attack, but in the Atlanta game, many times you really do n’t expect who is going to the opposite hinterland. .
Feature three: dual-core dual front with super output
First look at a picture, the horizontal axis represents the expected number of goals per 90 minutes, and the vertical axis represents the expected number of assists per 90 minutes. Only some players who have played more than 1,000 minutes in Serie A this season are selected.
The expected goal takes into account the probability of scoring for each shot, and the expected assist takes into account the probability of forming an assist per pass, which is a more comprehensive measure of the quality of shots and passes than pure goal and assist data. The more the lower right corner in the picture, the more emphasis is placed on goals, such as Cristiano Ronaldo, Inmobile, Dzeko and other forwards; the upper left corner is more favored on assists, such as Rome’s Pellegrini and Lazio’s Alberto. Along the trend towards the upper right, the goals and assists are relatively balanced.
Atlanta’s players on this list all belong to this line, of which Gomez is the average level, and Ilicic and Zapata are in the area with a large lead in the upper right corner. Muriel didn’t make the list because he didn’t have enough playing time, but his output was also amazing.
Gomez confrontation is solid
The most prominent nature is the team’s dual-core. Gomez has exquisite skills and has a solid confrontation ability. He can complete many tasks such as getting the ball, breaking, tandem, and ending in the frontcourt. In Serie A this season, he has averaged 2.7 threatening passes (3rd in Serie A) and 1.8 passes (Serie A 28th).
Ilicic breaks through the points continuously
Ilicic’s offensive output is even more terrible. He has averaged 2.5 threatening passes and 2.6 passes in Serie A this season, both ranking fifth in Serie A and averaging 3.6 shots per game in eighth. Although he is tall, he is very skilled at the foot, is very clever in kicking, has balanced feet, strong shooting ability, and the rhythm of the ball is even better.
It’s like making breakthroughs in Valencia and looking unhappy, but he can always get stuck at your uncomfortable points, and the rhythm is under his control. Atlanta’s pack of wolf offensives required him and Gomez to command and dispatch. Because of them, Atlanta is not blindly seeking hard, but has a clear combination on the basis of the soldiers’ pressure, which is “organized chaos.”
Skillful dual-core connection
On the front, Zapata’s impact and confrontation and Muriel’s speed provided a wealth of offensive means, the attack capabilities of the two wing guards, and the forward threats of Fruul and Passalic, including Substitute Marinowski’s long-range shot with a reliable foot … Originally, the play was extreme and fierce, and the method was so rich, it was not easy to resist it.
Conclusion
Strange formations and personnel deployments, aggressive and wild kicks, distinctive and diverse arsenal player configurations, and a game mentality that has always been in the end. This is the unique Atlanta under Gasparini. They are certainly not the strongest one, but how can this daring boldness and even presumptuousness not be immersed and enchant them?
