Matteo Pessina scout report: How Atalanta’s Euro 2020 champion can play a crucial role in Gasperini’s tactics next season

Despite participating only in a few of Italy’s games on Euro 2020, Matteo Pessina’s performance was very important in their road to the title. His solid displays helped the team against tough opponents and while he was benched in the final against England, he still deserves to be praised for his contribution.

The 24-year-old arrived at Atalanta in 2017 but lacked the experience to get regular playing time. The club’s plan for him was different. While they still had Alejandro Gómez in the attacking midfield position, they wanted Pessina to gain more experience which led to him being loaned both at Spezia and Verona over time.

Once he became a regular starter at Verona in 2019/20 and Gian Piero Gasperini’s relationship with Papu Gómez started to fall off, the only logical move was starting to integrate him to Atalanta’s first team and giving him the chance to prove himself.

He was regularly relied on in the 2020/21 season and helped La Dea to reach third place in Serie A and earn a Champions League spot for a second consecutive year, although his average playing time in the league was 59.17 minutes per game. Pessina fit the manager’s tactics and allowed Atalanta to employ the attack-minded and entertaining football even in the absence of their talisman Gómez.

While the Italian didn’t have the same impact in front of the goal and he wasn’t so efficient in his goal contribution, he managed to help the team in many different ways.

In this scout report in the form of tactical analysis, we will examine how important is Pessina for Atalanta and is he the right person to help them fulfil their ambitions

Matteo Pessina vs Papu Gómez – data comparison

Before explaining what Pessina adds to Atalanta’s performance, we compared his 2020/21 average data to his predecessor Gómez’s, to examine whether they had the same impact in certain areas, although the differences in their roles should be considered.

Starting with their attacking contribution, we see that the Argentine was more efficient in his forward actions than Pessina. While this could be a result of Pessina often being deployed in a deeper position, the differences are quite noticeable. Gómez’s experience in the attacking midfield position and his skills on the ball have resulted in an average of 4.65 dribble attempts per 90 and 3.51 progressive runs per 90, compared to much lower numbers for Pessina (2.88 dribbles and 0.78 progressive runs). This shows Gómez’s ability to carry the ball to the advanced areas through individual skill. Pessina on the other side contributes to ball progression better with his positioning and passing range, rather than with his control and movement with the ball. The Argentine also had more efforts on the goal but this might be a result of him sticking to a more advanced position.