Gian Piero Gasperini insists the Europa League is Atalanta’s priority “even if it’ll take something out of us in the League”.
The Orobici incredibly finished fourth in Serie A this season, despite losing four of their first five games, a period in which the Coach was in danger of being sacked.
“I never thought about the sack,” Gasperini insisted, speaking to Gazzetta dello Sport.
Gian Piero Gasperini insists the Europa League is Atalanta’s priority “even if it’ll take something out of us in the League”.
The Orobici incredibly finished fourth in Serie A this season, despite losing four of their first five games, a period in which the Coach was in danger of being sacked.
“I never thought about the sack,” Gasperini insisted, speaking to Gazzetta dello Sport.
“I knew I was suffering with a mix of bad luck and incidents. The criticism of me was fierce, but at one point last year this team took six points in 14 games.
“After six games we had six points, and we were in line for our objective of calmly staying up. It puzzled me that the win over Crotone, which took us to six points, didn’t rationalise the city.
“The turning point was the win over Napoli in Week 7, but some of the young players had already been launched the week before with Crotone, for example [Andrea] Petagna.
“The Europa League? I don’t care about the technical aspect, I’m worried about injuries: it was different for Sassuolo this year.
“We don’t have squads like Napoli and Juve, and we have to adjust. We need to have more players of a certain level so they can stand in for one another.
“For the club it will be a big effort, because saying ‘more starters’ doesn’t mean a group of 30 players.
“For me, the Europa League will be a priority. We want to give a good account of ourselves.
“We want to play to the best of our ability, play our football, even if Europe will take something out of us in the League.”
Gasperini also looked back on the season which has just finished, naming his best players and Coaches of the year.
“The best player was Mertens, who would do really well in my football. The best youngster is all of Atalanta’s.
“For the best coach I’d say [Massimiliano] Allegri, even if a prize should also be awarded to [Maurizio] Sarri [of Napoli].
“Allegri changed Juventus in every aspect, he convinced [Mario] Mandzukic to play that role [on the left].
“The best team? Juve, without a doubt.”