Atalanta learn to adapt and get off to their fastest Serie A start yet

Atalanta are not getting ahead of themselves, but eight games into the new Serie A season, nobody has got ahead of them yet either. Six wins and two draws place them joint top of the table, level on points with Napoli. The Bergamo club have not trailed in any match so far.

“First place in the table is like the pink jersey in the Giro d’Italia,” said their manager, Gian Piero Gasperini last month, referencing the garment passed after each stage of Italy’s iconic cycling race to the leading rider overall. “You don’t know if you’re going to win the whole thing, but it’s not like a lot of people get to wear it, either.”

People have got used to seeing Atalanta jostling for position among the leading pack since Gasperini took over as manager six years ago. He steered them to third place and their first ever Champions League qualification in 2018-19, then landed them in the exact same spot in both of the next two seasons. Never in the club’s history, though, have they made as fast a start as this one. Ironically, the club’s best-ever manager is getting his best results yet after abandoning the tactics he believes in.

Gasperini’s previous successes were built on a courageous brand of football, daring his players to press high, play the ball short and engage in one-on-one duels all over the pitch. Atalanta scored 98 Serie A goals in 2019-20 and 90 the season after. “If you want to win you need to score goals,” he said last month. “There is no other possibility.”

After slipping to eighth last season, however, and scoring only 65 times, he was forced to reconsider his approach. Gasperini had been frustrated at the club’s failure to strengthen the attack last summer, bemoaning a lapse into complacency. In his opinion, positive