I’ve never seen a team play as offensively as Atalanta under Gian Piero Gasperini, especially between the 2018 and 2021 seasons. I recently re-watched some clips from that period and their style of play was nothing short of enormous, messed up and yet chaotic, it was surely a brand of all-out attacking football rarely seen in modern times
Under Gasperini, Atalanta scored over 850 goals during 7 years and also broke several records such as, they became the only Serie A team since the 1960s to score over 90 goals in a single season, and the only side where 3 strikers each managed more than 15 goals in one campaign. For a club outside Europe’s top teams, this arguably was an impressive feat that i’ve ever seen since i began watching football 20 years ago. For instance, i drew comparison with Liverpool under Jürgen Klopp, which scored over 1,000 goals and yet Atalanta’s attacking output given their reputation felt just as impressive
What made Atalanta’s “hyper-offensive” football unique was how different it looked compared to top clubs like Barcelona, Real Madrid, Bayern Munich or Manchester City. Those teams, despite their prolific scoring, usually maintained a sense of balance such as: they know when shifting fluidly between attack, defense and covers midfield area. Atalanta, on the other hand, often began matches with just 2/3 players pressing up front, then gradually swarmed the attacking line with full-backs, midfielders, and even center-backs. At times, they would leave only 1 striker dropping deeper and a lone center-back holding the line, committing nearly everyone else move forward