Serie A 2018/19: Atalanta vs Lazio

Atalanta have overcome a tough start to the season and now look back to their intense best. The 1-0 win against Lazio sent them into sixth, just two points off Serie As fourth Champions League place. In this tactical analysis Ill look at the key tactical trends from their clash with Lazio.

Teams

Gian Piero Gasperini fielded a 3-4-1-2 as usual with the devastating front-three of Ilicic, Gomez and Zapata. Simone Inzaghi used a 3-5-1-1 as he always does where the interesting inclusion was Joaquin Correa just behind Ciro Immobile.

The graphic is courtesy of sofascore.com

Atalantas collective man-marking

Atalanta defended as they always do, in a very man-orientated manner. This means virtually every Lazio player is marked/could be marked at all times. Atalantas pressing is very aggressive and tough to withstand. This was the case against Lazio too.

We can see the aggressive nature of this style of defending in the image below. Central midfielder Remo Freuler (yellow) steps out to press Lazios right-sided centre-back, Wallace, while Gomez marks Badeln in the middle. In the centre circle, we can also see De Roon marking Milinkovic-Savic. As a chain reaction to Freulers movement, left-sided centre-back Gianluca Mancini (white) steps onto Parolo, the Lazio player free after Freuler moved towards Wallace. So thats one of the central defenders defending just twenty meters from the opponents defenders.

Below is another example of Atalantas collective man-marking. Here, Gomez presses Wallace while the other two forwards, the midfielders and the left wing-back Gosens pick up a man each.

The below image highlights how sometimes the playe