Jurgen Klopp has compared Atalanta to Leeds United on the eve of Liverpool’s Champions League clash with the free-scoring Serie A side, while speaking to Tuttomercatoweb.
On the face of it, the Premier League newcomers certainly share a few things in common with a side who were minutes away from reaching the semi-finals of Europe’s elite club competition just last season.
Since Marcelo Bielsa shuffled into Elland Road in 2018, Leeds have produced some of the most exciting, attractive, attacking football in England with the legendary Argentine turning a previously underachieving squad into one far greater than the sum of its parts.
The same can be said of an Atalanta side who have finished third in each of the last two Serie A seasons – the highest placing in the club’s 113-year history.
Like Bielsa, Gian Piero Gasperini has La Dea playing a glorious style of free-flowing football that has taken Italy and the continent by storm.
So much so that few would be surprised if Atalanta ‘did an Aston Villa’ against a Liverpool side shorn of Virgil van Dijk at the Stadio di Bergamo.
“Given what they have done in recent years, (Atalanta) is a team that plays well and is well organized. It’s difficult. (Atalanta) look like Leeds,” Klopp said, two months after Liverpool were given an almighty scare by the Whites during a 4-3 win at Anfield.
“(Atalanta) are a great team, they have excellent players. They are well organized. They play according to their system, they all know their role. They use the attackers intelligently.
“Atalanta are good at scoring goals and creating chances.”
In truth, Klopp could have said exactly the same about Leeds.
Liverpool will need to improve defensively if they are to stop a team who scored a remarkable 116 goals in all competitions last season.
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