Giacomo Raspadori raring to go at Atalanta after €22 million Atletico Madrid exit | OneFootball

Fresh off the back of five wins in their last six games, Atalanta are looking to maintain the past month’s momentum to stay amongst Serie A’s European places.

A key new and exciting aspect of La Dea’s squad could be Giacomo ‘Jack’ Raspadori, as he returns to the familiarity of his homeland for his new team’s face-off with Pisa tonight.

Raspadori will no doubt be looking forward to potential involvement, most likely from the bench, following a bleak dry spell in Madrid. After struggling under Diego Simeone, he’ll also be hoping to benefit from Raffaele Palladino’s new manager bounce while zeroing back in on goal-scoring form that recently peaked out at 2024/25’s six league goals at Napoli.

Regarding Palladino and his arrival, Atalanta’s points average has risen significantly (from 1.18 to 2) compared to the Ivan Juric era. However, keeping that form up will be no easy feat, as they look back over their shoulders at the significant ground lost in the first half of the season. As the Gazzetta dello Sport’s Matthew Pierelli suggests, there’s no room for missteps on the European trail.

As previously mentioned, Atalanta’s foes tonight are Pisa away at the Cetilar Arena, and they’re a team that has scored just one goal at home. This came against Cremonese, in their only win of the season. That said, I Torri often manage to put in a good performance against the big teams.

Plus, with the potential for appearances from transfer reinforcements of their own in Rafiu Durosinmi and Rosen Bozhinov, they could be a difficult opponent.

For Atalanta’s new number 18, though, his involvement from the fringes this evening will be a welcome boost. Especially given a potentially special reunion with Gianluca Scamacca. He returns to start after missing the clash with Bologna and minutes off the bench against Torino, and could play a key role in Raspadori hitting his best form.

The pair previously played alongside each other for Gennaro Gattuso’s Sassuolo team of 2021/22. There, ‘Jack’ proved himself as a real wildcard, and provoked a switch to Napoli with a personal career high of 10 goals and five assists in 36 Serie A matches.

GIFN | Max Bradfield