AMAZING Gian Piero Gasperini Tactic

This tactic has been amazing for me. We scored 129 goals domestically in 20 goals in 8 games in the UEFA Champions League phase alone!

Gian Piero Gasperini is a former Italian football player, now a manager. Recently, he became well known for the results he brought to Atalanta through his tactical setup.

But, along the way, Gian Piero Gasperini has managed a few teams in Italy, influencing the playing and managerial style of coaches like Thiago Motta.

He managed to lead Genoa to a 5th place finish in the 2008-2009 season, the highest placement for the team in 19 years.

The great Jose Mourinho admitted at the time that Gian Piero Gasperini put him in great difficulty when he was managing Inter Milan.

However, after a stretch of bad runs for the Italian manager, while managing Inter Milan, Palermo and then Genoa again, his time to shine came after he took over Atalanta.

He turned the Italian club from a team fighting to avoid relegation to one fighting for top 4 finishes and for qualifying into European competitions.

But the best result yet for Gian Piero Gasperini and Atalanta came a few weeks ago.

A tactical setup, executed beautifully by his team, brought the club the UEFA Europa League title, after they managed to win against Bayer Leverkusen 3-0, ending the German champions run of matches without defeat.

Indeed, there was one man who scored all 3 goals – who is worth of his own story telling – but how Gian Piero Gasperini setup the team was a masterclass.

That setup, mainly, and influenced by other games the team had in the European competition are the basis for this video.

The relentless pressing, amazing positioning and attacking incisiveness are what we are trying to recreate in the game.

The setup is one of 3-4-2-1. With a sweeper keeper in goal. It wasn’t visible much in the final, but the goalkeeper is requested to become a passing option when Atalanta starts the build up from the back.

In front of him, a back three that is meant to shield the goal at all costs. Two wide center backs on defend duty and one ball playing defender on defend duty.

The ball playing defender is meant to stay behind when in possession, while his wide teammates can go further forward, but in a way that does not jeopardize the defence.

In front of them, two wing backs on attack duty. In the match against Bayer Leverkusen, Davide Zappacosta and Matteo Ruggeri have dominated the flanks up and down.

The players you are going to use here must be able to defend properly but also to keep possession of the ball and make their own way up the attack, when needed. Providing the width of the tactical setup.

Stay wider as player instructions for both.

A defensive midfielder and a segundo volante on support duty make up the midfield. The defensive midfielder can be on defend duty as well, but Ederson did end up in dangerous attacking situations at times, so I left in on support.

His primary objective, though, is to protect the defence when not in possession. Take fewer risks as player instruction for him.

Teun Koopmeiners on the other hand, arrived late in the opposition’s attacking third. Thus get further forward for him.

In front of them, a trio made up by an attacking midfielder on support, a trequartista and an advanced forward.

The attacking midfielder is meant to link up the midfield with the attack. In the match against Bayer Leverkusen, Charles De Ketelaere seemed to be off most of the times. But this was due to the role he was playing.

This became clearer to me when Mario Pašalić played in the exact same way as Charles De Ketelaere did.

This player is meant to focus on the passing game, finding the best channels and take advantage of them with dangerous through balls. For this reason, take more risks as player instruction.

High first touch, passing, technique and vision are important for this player in my opinion.

The trequartista though, has a different objective in this setup. Besides clearly being the best player on the pitch that night, Ademola Lookman has totally dominated the Bayer Leverkusen’s defence with his movement on and off the ball.

He played a role that set him up to start from a wider position, but he cut inside most of the times. There were moments when he was the main passing option in attack for his teammates.

For this reason, the trequartista role. Stay wider s player instruction for him.

And the advanced forward is there to either flick passes on or finish the chances created by his teammates.

But…the secret ingredient of this tactical setup is the relentless pressing. And this can be achieved in the game, to a certain degree, by telling the players to mark tighter.

Going with recreating the UEFA Europa League tactic, all the players besides the goalkeeper are told to mark tighter.

To harry their opponents and not give them time on the ball. Force the mistake.

Of course, this comes with its own risk as your players might be dragged out of position or they could be easily overrun by a more skilled opponent.

So, use it wisely.

As mentality, positive. I also went with attacking at times, when we dominated our opposition.

In possession fairly wide attacking width, pass into space and play out of defence. Standard passing directness and a slightly higher tempo. And mixed crosses.

In transition counter-press, counter and distribute the ball to the defence through short kicks. We are not telling the goalkeeper to pass the ball quickly. It is an option left for him to decide on.

Out of possession, high press, a higher defensive line, trigger press more often and prevent the goalkeeper short distribution.

You can also tick on the trap outside option, to make the defence narrow. For me, it worked with it untouched, as I like to let the players decide this.

A very aggressive setup, that might not work against all teams, especially the top ones or if you don’t have the proper players to use it with.

But a very tactic and explosive tactic also. Domestically, we dominated the league, finishing unbeaten in the regular season. And we also won the treble.

The best result came, though, in the UEFA Champions League. Where we have reached the final, for the first time in my building a nation save in Romania.

AC Milan were better than us in the final, but along the way we won and sometimes emphatically, against teams like Liverpool – 6-1 on aggregate; Manchester United – 7-2 on aggregate; or Ajax 5-1 in the League phase.

This tactic, as said earlier, was fun and dominating. Just like how Atalanta played in the UEFA Europa League final.

I am glad that Gian Piero Gasperini has finally received the recognition he deserved, after all the work he did at Atalanta.

And I am confident that this does not stop here.