Gian Piero Gasperini praises Charles De Ketelaere for a great start to his Atalanta career, noting he can play as a centre-forward and explaining some of his Milan problems. ‘I heard he was sluggish and indolent.’
La Dea made their return to European football after missing out on qualification last season and started strong with a 2-0 victory on home turf against Champions of Poland Rakow.
There were plenty of scoring opportunities and a goal-line clearance, but the result was decided by headers from Charles De Ketelaere and Ederson.
It was put to the coach that De Ketelaere could be revitalised in much the same way that he did with Josip Ilicic.
“De Ketelaere has some very similar characteristics to Josip, but he is still young and has great margin for improvement,” Gasperini told Sky Sport Italia.
“I am happy with his character and work-rate too. I heard people say he was a bit sluggish and indolent, but the truth I feel is that he has this muscular structure that means he needs to play regularly to get into shape. Sometimes the body language can make it look like laziness, whereas it’s just trying to find that rhythm.”
Considering De Ketelaere never had a regular run in the Milan starting XI, that could partially explain his difficulties.
With Gianluca Scamacca out for a month with a muscular injury and El Bilal Toure probably not ready until 2024, having De Ketelaere as a centre-forward option could be valuable.
“He has good feet, solid foundations, he played as a centre-forward in the second half and is versatile. In an emergency situation, he can also be a centre-forward, even if it’s not quite his role, but it could become it.
“Obviously, it would be a very different potential with Scamacca and Toure. At one stage tonight, we used Mario Pasalic upfront. Losing two players like that leaves us rather short-staffed in attack.”
It was noted that Davide Zappacosta and Matteo Ruggeri remain the most reliable wing-backs, despite signing new players for those positions over the summer.
“At this moment, we are trying to get Emil Holm back into shape after he was out at Spezia for many months. Hans Hateboer is returning from a cruciate ligament injury. Mitchel Bakker has more than a few problems settling in to the new team.”
Atalanta received a booster after the 3-2 Serie A defeat to Fiorentina at the weekend, though Gasperini is still far from satisfied.
“This is a squad that cares and works hard, it has a soul. We lacked quality in the first half, but must also consider that it is never easy in Europe. We need to improve the quality level, as against tougher opponents that is what we will require to break through.”
Elsewhere in the group, Sporting CP came back from a goal down for their 2-1 win away to Sturm Graz.