Atalanta’s early-season problem is not difficult to identify: five Serie A goals in five rounds leave Maurizio Sarri with little room to broaden the team’s ambitions. Only on the opening day, against Sassuolo, have the Bergamo side managed to score twice in one match. The rest of the campaign has carried the feeling of an attack still searching for its rhythm.
The international break offers Sarri time to consider how that rhythm can be found, although it is hardly an uninterrupted working week. Thirteen Atalanta players are away with their national teams, leaving the coach to work at Zingonia with a reduced group. The sessions are therefore as much about building fitness and confidence as they are about correcting the attacking mechanisms that have so far failed to produce enough.
There has been no single scorer to carry the burden. Each of Atalanta’s five league goals has been scored by a different player. Gianluca Scamacca, Nikola Krstovic and Giacomo Raspadori are among the forwards to have contributed, while Lazar Samardzic has also scored despite being used by Sarri as a central midfielder. The wider issue, however, is that Atalanta need more regular production from their attacking department rather than isolated contributions.
More is expected from Rowe and De Ketelaere
Jonathan Rowe was the brightest member of the forward line in the final fixture before the pause, away to Juventus in Turin. The Englishman won a penalty that was not given and forced Guglielmo Vicario into a low save. His pace and willingness to take on defenders offer Atalanta something different, but Sarri’s task is to ensure that possession reaches him faster and in better situations.
Rowe arrived in a deal valued at €35 million: €5 million for the initial loan and €30 million through an obligation to buy, with a further €5 million in potential bonuses. Atalanta want that investment to bring directness, acceleration and dribbling capable of unsettling opponents. If the side can move the ball with greater speed and attack with more intensity, Rowe’s ability to disrupt established defensive patterns should become more visible.
Last season, his first in Italian football, Rowe scored three times and supplied three assists for Bologna. In Bergamo there is belief that a second year in the league can bring a more substantial return in front of goal.
Charles De Ketelaere is another player Sarri wants closer to the penalty area. The Belgian has not scored for Atalanta since 10 January, a drought that sits awkwardly beside the positive period he is enjoying with Belgium. The intention is to recover, in the black-and-blue shirt, the freedom and effectiveness he showed around a year and a half ago.
Sarri must also find ways to give Scamacca and Krstovic more weight in the final third, while creating clearer scoring opportunities for Raspadori. Samardzic remains another possible source: he scored six goals last season, two in Serie A and four in the Champions League.
There are further options behind the strikers. Mario Pasalic, Eljif Elmas and Franck Kessie all possess an eye for goal from midfield areas, while Kamaldeen Sulemana will add another attacking possibility when he returns. His potential is still largely unexplored.
For now, patience remains part of the work. Sarri’s Atalanta are not lacking individual talent, but the next chapter of their season depends on turning that talent into a more coherent and repeatable attacking output. One goal per match is a foundation, not yet a platform.
