Gian Piero Gasperini gives updates on Luis Muriel and Jeremie Boga, but warns Atalanta not to take Salernitana for granted ahead of their showdown with Juventus.
There is a packed fixture list coming up for La Dea, who host Salernitana on Sunday at 17.00 GMT, then play Spezia in the Coppa Italia Round of 16 on January 19 before a head-to-head with Juventus in Turin on January 22.
With Marten de Roon, Merih Demiral and Teun Koopmeiners all one yellow card away from suspension, could they be rested to avoid missing Juve?
“I am not thinking about Juventus, nor the Coppa Italia, as Salernitana already give me plenty to think about,” said Gasperini in his press conference.
“They achieved something extraordinary last season to stay in Serie A and are in a much better situation this year, so they will certainly be a tough opponent.”
There have been injury concerns all season, especially in attack, where Muriel again looks set to miss out.
“If he can get over this pain in his heel, then he’ll be back in the squad, but he didn’t train today.”
Boga was meant to be on the way out over the summer and again in the current transfer window, but has instead suddenly rediscovered some of the form he had at Sassuolo.
“It was an important contribution to the goals in Bologna. You expect that kind of thing from him, he has these characteristics of taking men on. Hopefully, he can become even more effective.”
Atalanta are currently in joint fifth place along with Lazio and Roma, so hope to get right back into the race for a Champions League spot.
“I think the table is a fair reflection of the season so far. We have a few points ahead of those trailing us and the gap isn’t too big to the teams in front. We have the fifth best defence in the league and the sixth most prolific attack, so we’re pretty much on track.”
The coach was asked if he could scrap some of his trademark passing football for an occasional long ball approach.
“It is an alternative, but we must be careful to use and not abuse that sort of thing.”
Atalanta will be wearing black armbands tomorrow to honour Gaudenzio Bernasconi, who died at the age of 90 this week, a key member of the team from 1952 to 54 before moving on to Sampdoria.