It's in Atalanta’s veins to attack and not sit back to defend instead, claims Marten De Roon

It's in Atalanta’s veins to attack and not sit back to defend instead, claims Marten De Roon

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Atalanta are Europes most prolific side this season

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Atalanta midfielder Marten De Roon has confessed that La Dea will never opt to sit back and be happy with a 1 goal lead as they’re always looking to attack. The Serie A side have slowly become a fan favourite over the last few years with them thriving in Italy and even in the Champions League.

Few sides in Italy have enthralled and excited fans the way Atalanta have with their tactical ingenuity and ability to score goals on a regular basis transforming the game. Somehow, since Gian Piero Gasperini took over, La Dea have become one of the standout sides in Italy’s top flight with them pegging Scudetto challengers Lazio back 3-2 despite being two-nil down. It showed their grit and tenacity against a side that many have as favourites to lift the league title with La Dea doing the same in the Champions League. After their first three games in Europe’s top competition, Atalanta had zero points and were the bookies favourites to get eliminated but things changed after that.

They qualified for the knockout stages and then became the only Italian side, so far, to qualify for the quarter-finals. However, with many claiming that La Dea should be a part of the title contention but De Roon admitted that it may not be possible because Atalanta never look to sit back and defend a lead. Instead, the Dutch midfielder revealed that the club are built to attack and play their style of football, squeezing the most out of one of the lowest wage and transfer bills in Serie A.

“It’s easy to say, ‘If they play like this they can play for the Scudetto’. We can beat anyone. But we’re also a team that if it is not happening we cannot go back to a very stable system or a boring kind of playing style and then try to win one-zero. It’s in our veins now to try to attack, to play our style,” De Roon told the Athletic.

"It’s difficult to compare with teams like Juve and Inter, who pay €80 million, €100 million or €120 million for players, when our wage bill is €36 million and 13th in the league. Our goal from the beginning of the season was to try to end up again in the Champions League and even that is not easy with teams like Milan and Roma, who have a bigger budget and everything.”

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