Atalanta head coach Gian Piero Gasperini has shared his thoughts on the 0-0 draw against Cagliari as the team continue poor form in the absence of Ademola Lookman......CONTINUE READING THE ARTICLE FROM THE SOURCE>>>>>
Ademola Lookman has been Atalanta’s best player since arriving at the club in the summer of 2022, winning the club’s first trophy in 61 years with a hat trick in the Europa League final last season.
He got injured ahead of the UEFA Champions League final group game against Barcelona and has thrown the team into strings of poor performance ms and results since then.
Gasperini speaks on Atalanta’s draw
Gasperini has faced a depleted squad due to injuries. As noted by Football Italia, the manager admits the injuries affect how the team plays, particularly team rotation.
“We could have got the points in this way, we have a bit of a numerical difficulty in attack at this time. We find it harder to win games, especially at home, despite dominating for a long time, then we get this result,” he told DAZN.
“The quality of the game was very good, we have to acknowledge that we are like this sometimes, we struggle to materialise in this type of game. We came out of this month in this way, and we’re struggling a little more, but the team will slowly but surely finish the second half of the season well.”
The manager admitted the rotation was to rest key players ahead of the UEFA Champions League knockout playoffs second leg after losing the first leg 2-1 to Club Brugge.
Lookman was initially expected to be named in the squad for Cagliari but was excluded as the team is cautious to avoid their best player suffering a relapse.
The reigning African Footballer of the Year has scored 14 goals and provided seven assists in 25 games this season, and only bettered by Mateo Retegui.
Lookman celebrates Atalanta’s win
Legit.ng reported that Lookman celebrated Atalanta’s win on social media after the team won their first game since the Nigerian forward suffered a knee injury in January.
The Super Eagles star shared the team’s victory on his Instagram page and captioned it back to winning ways, keeping tabs on his teammates despite being injured.