Atalanta have made a decent start to the 2013/14 season. They currently sit 9th in Serie A with 16 points from 12 games. That total could and perhaps should be more.
Had La Dea picked up points against Livorno and struggling Sampdoria in recent weeks they may have found themselves placed in seventh and level on points with newly promoted Hellas Verona.
Two players catching the eye currently in Stefano Colantuono’s squad are Luca Cigarini and Giacomo Bonaventura and both this season, and in the past 18 months in the case of Bonaventura, have been linked with moves to the ‘big seven’ clubs in Italy. Cigarini, in particular, has began this season in the form of his life. At 27 he is in his prime physically and is finally settled after a difficult few years.
Cigarini is now part of a co-ownership deal between Napoli and his playing club Atalanta after spending the previous two season on loan at the Stadio Atleti Azzurri d’Italia. He was signed for €10.5 million from Atalanta in 2009 but wasn’t able to establish himself at Napoli and was loaned out to Sevilla before returning for his second spell with the Bergamo side.
This season Cigarini is finally living up to the promise he showed in his early 20s and the statistics back up those raving about his performances. On the surface his stats look decent. In 11 appearances he has one goal and an impressive five assists, just one less than Francesco Totti who leads the way with six.
When you consider that he has only managed six assists in the previous two seasons combined it is fair to say Cigarini is playing a much more influential role for the Nerazzurri.
When one analyses his input more closely the results are even more impressive. He averages 66.8 passes per game, bettered only by five other central midfield players; Daniele Conti (Cagliari – 74.5), Andrea Pirlo (Juventus – 73.7), Daniele De Rossi (Roma – 72.7), Riccardo Montolivo (AC Milan – 73.2) and Nigel De Jong (Milan – 68.8)
His passing accuracy is a respectable 81.4% which stands out even more when you consider he averages the third most key passes per game (2.6) for a midfielder. Although Miralem Pjanic (Roma) and Jaroslav Plasil (Catania) are ahead of him, in this regard Cigarini makes more tackles (3.4 compared to 2.4 and 2.1) and more interceptions (1.9 compared to 1.4 and 1.7) on average per game showing he is truly the complete midfielder at this moment in time. If this kind of form continues expect Napoli to bring Cigarini back to the San Paolo for one more crack at European football.
Giacomo Bonaventura,24, hasn’t had the start to the season his teammate has enjoyed, however interest in this attacking midfielder has been apparent for some time now stretching back to last season when he had an excellent campaign. His eight goals and four assists in 2012/13 earned the Atalanta youth product a first senior Italy cap on May 31, 2013 against San Marino.
During the summer his name was linked with a host of clubs including Fiorentina and Inter but he stayed put insisting he was happy in Bergamo for the time being.
This season, in all honesty, Bonaventura hasn’t really got going yet. His one goal and one assist in eight games is no more than average and his pass success rate of 80% is the only statistic worth talking about. But if you analyse his appearances in the past 18 months one gets a sense of his importance to the side, especially when deployed on the left flank.
Naturally an attacking midfielder, Bonaventura has been mainly used on the left for Atalanta. This season, however, he has also played on the right wing, in the centre and as a second striker. An important fact is that the Nerzzurri lost the games he played in these positions and won all four fixtures that he played on the left wing.
Furthermore, Colantuono’s side haven’t won for three games which has coincided with a hamstring injury to Bonaventura. Last season Atalanta won six out the nine fixtures in which the 24-year-old scored or made an assist with the defeats coming against Fiorentina, Roma and Napoli-all teams they wouldn’t expect to beat. They also failed to win any of the three fixtures in which he didn’t feature.
These kind of facts and figures seem to suggest that when Bonaventura plays well, Atalanta play well and that they also have a better chance of winning when he plays.
Working best from the left wing he adds balance to the team and breaches the gap between midfield and attack. As a right-footed player he often cuts inside to run directly at the centre of the opposition’s defence before executing perfectly weighted slide-rule passes for the likes of German Denis to finish off.
He is due to return from injury any time now and if Colantuono returns his star man to the left flank expect the goals and assists to rack up once more and who knows-this time next year, Bonaventura maybe lining up in the black and blue of Inter or the purple of Fiorentina.
Follow Michael Clarkson on Twitter: @M_Clarkson
Bonaventura could be a star but I’m starting to be convinced that Atalanta is the right fit for Cigarini.
He was tipped to be Pirlo’s heir while at Parma and he never cemented a place at Napoli. I doubt he will get chances to control the midfield at Napoli now because Rafa would probably spend money on a foreign star.