Having already dispatched Atalanta 5-0 to put them five points clear in Group D, injury troubles to wrestle with and an early kick-off on Saturday, Liverpool unsurprisingly didn’t put out their strongest team.
Jurgen Klopp made five changes to the team that beat Leicester, albeit keeping with their usual 4-3-3 formation. Out went Andy Robertson, Fabinho, Naby Keïta, Roberto Firmino and Diogo Jota; in came Kostas Tsimikas, Rhys Williams, Neco Williams, Divock Origi and Mohamed Salah.
Gian Piero Gasperini set up Atalanta in their typical 3-4-1-2 formation, however he chose not to field any natural strikers, with Alejandro Gomez and Josip Ilicic pushed into the forward roles and Matteo Pessina in behind them.
With their first meeting a complete disaster, Gasperini made several changes to Atalanta’s set-up. In the home leg, Atalanta had left Trent Alexander-Arnold and Robertson free, giving the full-backs time to pick out passes into the attack. Neco Williams and Tsimikas may not be as dangerous as Liverpool’s world class starting pair, but Atalanta still didn’t want to make the same mistake twice. They got Robin Gosens and Hans Hateboer pushing up early so they could quickly get close to Liverpool’s full-backs as Atalanta pressed, ensuring there was no short ball out.
This pressure made it difficult for Liverpool to pass the ball out. At several points Atalanta won the ball back in Liverpool’s half and quickly countered.
This was a risky choice for Atalanta as they left their back three alone against Liverpool’s forward trio, however this time Liverpool didn’t have as much time to pick out good passes into those attackers. The Reds were forced into going long however these weren’t the pinpoint passes of Virgil van Dijk or Alexander-Arnold, but instead the hurried passes of youngsters under pressure, and so Atalanta were able to deal with them pretty easily. They were also helped by Remo Freuler and Marten de Roon being quick to drop off whenever Liverpool went long, ensuring Origi didn’t have the space to act as a target man.
With their man-orientated marking set-up having been so easily manipulated in their thrashing, Atalanta also made changes when Liverpool did manage to advance into their half. Rather than sticking quite as tight to their man, Atalanta instead focussed on simply getting men back, holding their positions far more than they had in Bergamo. This meant that Curtis Jones and James Milner were able to get more time on the ball in deeper areas, as Freuler and De Roon stayed back to screen the defence, ensuring the defenders weren’t pulled out of the backline – these were significantly less useful positions than the gaps left in defence in the previous game though.
It wasn’t just in defence that Atalanta made changes though. Their attack in the home game had pretty much just been a few dribbles from Gomez that caused Georginio Wijnaldum to haul him down. This time around though they went for a strikerless set-up that saw them outnumber Liverpool five-to-three in the midfield. Jones and Milner would be pulled forward to match up against Freuler and De Roon, leaving Wijnaldum alone against Gomez, Ilicic and Pessina. Gomez and Ilicic would frequently drop into pockets of space to pick up the ball in the inside channels, either side of Wijnaldum, while Pessina would occupy the Dutchman.
Gomez was rarely able to get on the ball in the previous match, and when he did he was quickly bundled over. This time around Atalanta were able to win him space and the Argentinian doesn’t require much to punish the opposition. This also caused problems for Liverpool’s backline, who were left unsure whether or not to step out and aid Wijnaldum by following the forwards, risking leaving gaps in defence.
Atalanta’s star man punished Liverpool twice. He first picked up the ball on the left and swung in a perfect cross for Ilicic to finish. He had picked up the ball in a similar position twice just seconds before this, yet each time he refused to cross, waiting for a clearer opportunity to open up. On this third attempt, Pessina dropping off pulled Rhys Williams out of the backline, causing Tsimikas to step across a little to plug the gap and Gomez whipped the ball just out of the Greek’s reach to Ilicic.
For the second goal, he picked up the ball just outside the area and crossed to the back post, where Ilicic and Hateboer made runs either side of substitute Robertson. Initially correctly following the run of Ilicic inside, Robertson was left back-pedalling to meet the aerial challenge of the already taller Hateboer and he unsurprisingly lost out. Rhys Williams stepped up to pick up Gosens but then neglected to drop off as he should with his defensive line or at least following Gosens attacking the box, leaving the German free to finish.
Klopp threw on lots of first-teamers in an attempt to rescue the game but failed to change much in terms of strategy, with the game likely already gone anyway as Atalanta shut up shop. This was best shown by Neco Williams finally getting some time on the ball to whip in crosses late on, only to be left aiming at a box full of Atalanta defenders.
It’s difficult to judge this performance due to Liverpool’s willingness to ditch the match in favour of resting players for the weekend, however it was still a hugely impressive turnaround by Atalanta. Gasperini saw how badly his first plan failed and managed to adapt both his attack and defence to correct it, winning Atalanta three points.
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