{"id":4678,"date":"2016-11-23T13:30:17","date_gmt":"2016-11-23T13:30:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thehighertempopress.com\/?p=4678"},"modified":"2017-02-08T13:25:10","modified_gmt":"2017-02-08T13:25:10","slug":"fm16-atalanta-rise-la-dea-january-2016-part-one","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thehighertempopress.com\/2016\/11\/fm16-atalanta-rise-la-dea-january-2016-part-one\/","title":{"rendered":"#FM16 : Atalanta : The Rise of La Dea : January 2016 Part One"},"content":{"rendered":"

Like a student frittering away\u00a0their December days watching\u00a0all three Home Alone movies\u00a0in a single sitting, the spectre of January was causing me sleepless nights as we hurtled through the all-to-quick winter break.<\/p>\n

In a single month we faced four of Italy’s biggest sides; champions elect Juventus, European competition chasing Inter Milan and Fiorentina, and a Napoli side seeking revenge for their 4-1 defeat at the Atleti Azzurri d’Italia earlier in the season.<\/p>\n

A trip to Verona to face the Flying Donkeys of Chievo was anything but\u00a0straightforward while\u00a0the very winnable cup quarter final against Serie B side Ternana completed a busy month (hence January being a two parter!).<\/p>\n

\"fixtures\"<\/a><\/p>\n

With January came the opening of the transfer window. \u00a0I felt that the new found\u00a0prominence\u00a0of some of the younger players (see previous post\u00a0for profiles) meant that some squad players were now surplus to requirements and I sought to move them on to pastures new.<\/p>\n

Tony Pulis liked what he got from Carlos Carmona in the summer window so much that he\u00a0returned to Bergamo for a second time, this time to seal a \u00a3575k deal for\u00a0Mauricio Pinilla<\/strong>. \u00a0While Pinilla was a more than able rotation option\u00a0for Paloschi, his contract was up in the summer and was wanting ridiculous wages for a 32 year old back up.<\/p>\n

Defender\u00a0Andrea Masiello<\/strong>\u00a0was also shipped out – to Serie B Cesena – for a very welcome \u00a3450k having not kicked a ball in anger since the opening day.<\/p>\n

\"transfers-out\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"masiello\"<\/a> \"pinilla\"<\/a><\/p>\n

06.01.2016 – Serie A – Inter Milan (H)<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n

This game, along with the Fiorentina game later in the month,\u00a0would allow either team to put a serious dent in the other’s European charge. \u00a0I hoped\u00a0to\u00a0make the most of home advantage and put the skids on the Nerazzurri.<\/p>\n

Their club policy flew in the face of ours – Atalanta develop players, sell high and reinvest. \u00a0Inter pump money in, throw enough shit and hope it sticks. \u00a0Further to this, I’ve always found them ridiculously overpowered in previous FMs (compared to the circus they normally run IRL). \u00a0A victory would be sweeter than the sweetest\u00a0gelato<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\"inter-line-up\"<\/a><\/p>\n

My my, that\u00a0gelato<\/em>\u00a0tastes good. \u00a0Admittedly we made the most of the bizarre decision by Frank de Boer to play keeper Samir Handanovic, who was struggling pre-game with a wrist injury.<\/p>\n

FdB then trumped that decision by using one of his available changes to replace his keeper\u00a0with two minutes to go when Inter were pushing for an equaliser. \u00a0Perhaps the real life Inter circus has been applied to the FM version after all.<\/p>\n

\"handanovic\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I became aware that something was up with Handanovic when\u00a0G\u00f3mez<\/strong>\u00a0fired a weak shot past the Slovenian keeper on 34 minutes. \u00a0Five minutes later, naturalised Italian \u00c9der had equalised before\u00a0Tino Susic<\/strong>\u00a0capped a brilliant performance with a goal, firing in the winner after Handanovic had pushed out Paloschi’s effort to the Bosnian’s feet.<\/p>\n

\"inter-stats\" \"inter-ratings\"<\/p>\n

A huge win that saw us leapfrog Inter into second. \u00a0Would we cement that position with a win \u00a0at the Juventus stadium? \u00a0Probably not.<\/p>\n

Also, after the game, another squad player bid\u00a0arrivederci\u00a0<\/em>to La Dea\u00a0– target man\u00a0Matteo Ardemagni\u00a0<\/strong>(no, I wasn’t sure who he was either) left for Frosinone in Serie B for \u00a3225k. \u00a0No one batted an eyelid.<\/p>\n

\"ardemagni-transfer\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"ardemagni\"<\/a><\/p>\n

10.01.16 – Serie A – Juventus (A)<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Our unbeaten run stood at 16 games. \u00a0The Old Lady’s run\u00a0beat that by two games – they had only dropped six points all season, drawing three games.<\/p>\n

Positive: two of those games were against relative minnows in Palermo and Empoli (Napoli were the third). \u00a0Negative: all three games were away from the Juventus Stadium. \u00a0Double Negative: they’d won every game at home to date and were yet to concede a goal. \u00a0Merda.<\/i><\/p>\n

\"juve-home\"<\/a><\/p>\n

With the 5-3-2 consigned to the history books, we lined up in our more defensive 4-2-1-3 formation, hoping to crowd Juve out.<\/p>\n

\"juve-line-up\"<\/p>\n

Juventus’ run of not conceding at home carried on. \u00a0However, Max Allegri’s side’s\u00a0100% home record did not.<\/p>\n

We held them to a 0-0 draw with a backs to the wall performance – despite losing Jonas Svensson after eight minutes (back up left back David Brivio had to fill in at right back) and Gabriel Paletta’s stupid dismissal for a shirt pull on Gonzalo Higuain just after the hour mark. \u00a0Judging by Higuain’s more, ahem,\u00a0portly build these days, Paletta must surely be commended for being able to pull enough shirt material away from the Argentine’s gut to warrant a booking.<\/p>\n

Juve’s inability to break us down saw the red mist descend on the Old Lady and they picked up a flurry of bookings in the later stages – left back Alex Sandro made it 10-a-side by picking up a straight red for a two footed lunge at D’Alessandro, just five minutes after Paletta was\u00a0hitting the showers.<\/p>\n

\"juve-stats\" \"juve-ratings\"<\/p>\n

Let’s not kid ourselves, Juve will still run away with the league, but this result not only gives us belief that we can mix it with the best but is also a bonus point that I wasn’t counting when forecasting the rest of the season.<\/p>\n

17.01.16 – Serie A – Cheivo Verona (A)<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

With an unexpected four points from the previous two games, we\u00a0could now ill afford to drop points\u00a0against Chievo Verona. \u00a0They were hovering around lower mid table in 14th and represented the sort of horrible West Brom-esque banana skin\u00a0that could easily be slipped up on.<\/p>\n

The previous game between the two sides, the first game of our\u00a0Serie A season, descended into a booting match with referee Irrati dishing out 11 bookings – with 7 going to Chievo.<\/p>\n

With first choice defenders Svensson (injured) and Paletta (suspended) out, I played two covering midfielders to shore up the gap in front of a defence\u00a0that was low on both cohesion and match fitness.<\/p>\n

\"chievo-line-up\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Any pre match nerves were immediately allayed as\u00a0Paloschi<\/strong>\u00a0volleyed us in front from a D’Alessandro cross after 41 seconds. \u00a0Chievo then tried to boot us off the field once again until they came a cropper with their physical ways and conceded a penalty. \u00a0Jasmin Kurtic<\/strong>\u00a0put clear daylight between the sides with five minutes left.<\/p>\n

I was later\u00a0thanking the good dude for that penalty as Riccardo Meggiorini seized on a hopeless Bellini back pass to reduce the arrears for Chievo minutes later.<\/p>\n

\"chievo-stats\" \"chievo-ratings\"<\/p>\n

Half way through the month from hell and we sat clutching our\u00a07 points from a possible 9 in amazement – though we were back down in 3rd on goal difference behind Fiorentina.<\/p>\n

By this point, I’d signed a new deal with the club and\u00a0extended\u00a0my stay at La Dea’s heaving bosom\u00a0to June 2018.<\/p>\n

On a side note, I wasn’t the only one with golden balls in Bergamo\u00a0– outstanding left back Ludwig Augustinsson had only gone and picked up the European Golden Boy Award for his series of stonking performances in 2016.<\/p>\n

\"golden-boy\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I knew scouting players properly would pay off.<\/p>\n

Be sure to\u00a0look out for more Atalanta updates, and my plans for FM17, on my personal page\u00a0SeenThemGivenFM\u00a0and on Twitter\u00a0@SeenThemGivenFM.<\/p>\n

STGFM<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Like a student frittering away\u00a0their December days watching\u00a0all three Home Alone movies\u00a0in a single sitting, the spectre of January was causing me sleepless nights as we hurtled through the all-to-quick winter break. In a single month we faced four of Italy’s biggest sides; champions elect Juventus, European competition chasing Inter Milan and Fiorentina, and a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":4683,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[89],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n#FM16 : Atalanta : The Rise of La Dea : January 2016 Part One - The Higher Tempo Press<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.thehighertempopress.com\/2016\/11\/fm16-atalanta-rise-la-dea-january-2016-part-one\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"#FM16 : Atalanta : The Rise of La Dea : January 2016 Part One - The Higher Tempo Press\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Like a student frittering away\u00a0their December days watching\u00a0all three Home Alone movies\u00a0in a single sitting, the spectre of January was causing me sleepless nights as we hurtled through the all-to-quick winter break. 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