The Dissentient

Atalanta press m2m across the field and have physicality to complement it, to combat this, you have to win your duels, protect the ball in dangerous areas in your own third and use their off the approach against them.

How you do that? - Drag their markers to create space elsewhere, - Disorient their backline for runners in behind, - Quick passing combinations to cut through the pressure.

Using two technical CB's is advisable but it will come to nothing if you don't dominate your duels first, that is why Araujo at CB and Eric ahead of Casado in the midfield, to hold their own while the likes of Lamine, Pedri, Balde.. can work their magic in tight spaces.

Lewandowski has to play a pivotal role, not as much in his back to goal(though it will be needed at times as the out ball) but to drag his marker and leave Raphinha and Lamine, 1v1 against their markers in space. Whoever plays in goal, Tek/Pena will have ample time...

otb, but they have to be smart in who they pick and when they do so. Absence of precision -> it's a direct route for Atalanta on goal, and we will hardly get enough time to regroup defensively. So far, it is about what Barca has to do otb, what about off of it?

Prior to that, as a reminder, under Flick we use one of these ways to progress the ball during the build-up: - CB's breaking lines via passing, - Balde's carries from deep, - Lewandowski as an outlet sometimes, etc, then quick third man combinations to progress thereafter.

Off the ball, it is expected for Flick to ditch his usual pressing shape(used against back 4 sides) and go m2m himself. This is where Eric's presence in midfield could prove to be an added help. With Lookman out, things should be relatively easier for us.

However, in the midfield/progression phase Atalanta could cause troubles with their wide rotations dragging markers all over the place and opening spaces that didn't previously exist, especially when our fullbacks have to go around chasing Atalanta's wingbacks.

It'd be therefore better for us to settle in a block after the initial press is beaten, in a 433 block and wait for Atalanta to play it out wide and then press thereafter using the sideline as an extra man. Win your duels, drag your markers and play quick with precision.

That's it from the preview, the game should be a very interesting one barring some unnecessary refereeing intervention or bad giveaways or sending offs. This will be a nice test for us would show how far we have come, if at all after the Sociedad game on a tactical level. ...

Btw, if you want to read more about how Barca can use Inter's positional rotations to dismantle Atalanta's M2M approach, read this excellent thread: https://x.com/Ruxiiii4/status/...