Atalanta ‘need time’ under Sarri as Rowe and Kessie could debut | OneFootball

Atalanta visit Roma at the Stadio Olimpico at 19.45 UK time (20.45 CEST), and Franck Kessie and Jonathan Rowe could debut. Kamaldeen Sulemana and Isak Hien remain on the treatment table.

“I hope it will be a great game and an advertisement for football. These are teams with completely different tactical concepts, but both aiming for success, so we’ll see what happens,” said Atalanta director of sport Cristiano Giuntoli, speaking to Sky Sport Italia.

La Dea have scraped late wins over Sassuolo and Bologna, and secured a place in the Conference League by beating Hapoel Tel-Aviv in the play-offs.

Deadline day brought Rowe from Bologna for €40m plus add-ons, with free agent Kessie returning to Bergamo. “Franck made the choice with his heart, the rapport with Luca Percassi was decisive, and he embraced our project. We think Rowe can give us the quality in the final third that we are looking for.”

After nine years under current Roma coach Gian Piero Gasperini, Atalanta have gone in a very different direction with Maurizio Sarri.

“We believe it takes time, because we are changing from man-marking to zonal, so that is a completely different way of looking at football. The lads need to adapt, it will take a while, but we are confident that we can do well.”

“We trust that we did some good things on the transfer market, and we’ll have to show it on the field.”

Source: Football Italia

“Artificial intelligence was used to assist in creating this article based on reporting from the original source quoted.”