UCL Fantasy: Atalanta Preview and Top Picks

The Champions League is on pause due to the international break. But, it won’t be long until it returns so we take a look the Atalanta preview and top picks for their run ahead. To do this we bring in Serie A and Champions League expert @FPL_Crisk to take us through it.

Our Atalanta preview and top picks could be hugely enlightening for UCL Fantasy managers. The Italian side have a significant fixture swing, starting with Celtic next, so knowing if we should and how to invest could be key.

Atalanta

Gian Piero Gasperini’s Atalanta have been one of the more interesting Italian teams for a while now. No matter the quality of the players at his disposal, the veteran Italian coach always manages to lead his team into the top spots in Serie A. His success peaked last season with a 3-0 victory against undefeated Leverkusen. As a result of that game he and his side won the UEFA Europa League.

Atalanta assets are always very interesting from a fantasy perspective. This is because they tend to be fairly cheap.

The team itself plays with a very attacking style. This is convenient because their next few fixtures are some of the best on the schedule from an offensive perspective.

In fact, Atalanta face Celtic at home (and thus not at Celtic Park), Stuttgart and Young Boys. Managers could bring in Atalanta players now and Wildcard them away in MD6 before they face “Pot 1” teams like Real and Barcelona towards the end of the group stage.

I expect Atalanta to go all out before the tough fixtures come. This is in order to guarantee themselves a place in the knockout stages.

As far as their form is concerned, Atalanta have been very hit and miss since the start of the season. They tend to alternate great performances. Examples include their strong victory against Shakhtar (3-0) and the draw against Arsenal (0-0) with disappointing performances like the losses to Inter (0-4) and Como (2-3) in Serie A.

Their performance “swings” are also shown in their stats. So far, Atalanta rank amongst the top three in Serie A both for most goals scored (1st, 16 goals) and most goals conceded (3rd, 13 goals).

There is still hope for their defence though. This is because they have been underperforming in the league (only nine xGC), and in Europe they have managed two clean sheets against both Arsenal and Shakhtar.

Just watch out for rotation. Since the start of the season, Gasperini is yet to field the same exact set of starting attacking players (WBs, CAMs and ST) in consecutive matches.

With all of the above in mind, let’s take a look at my Atalanta top picks.

Ademola Lookman (€6.5m – Midfielder – 6% Ownership)

Lookman is the highest priced player in the team. But, he’s still very cheap compared to all premium options. He has been his sides most consistent player in the last two years, getting double digits goals in both his Serie A campaigns and over 20 G+A in all competitions each year. Lookman was also the absolute hero of the 2023/24 Europa League final. If you can remember that was the game he managed a hat-trick against Leverkusen in.

He’s also in good form this season. In fact, so far he’s produced three goals and three assists between Serie A and UCL, managing to get the POTM award in MD2 against Shakhtar. Penalty duty could also be his, which he seems to be sharing with Mateo Retegui. The only penalty Atalanta have had with both players on the pitch was during the Arsenal match. That was the game which saw Retegui’s effort saved by Raya. If you have space for only one Atalanta player in your team, Lookman is definitely the one for you.

Raoul Bellanova (€4.0m, Defender – 1% Ownership)

Bellanova comes in at the cheapest price in the game. This alone is a good enough reason to go for him. He’s also very offensive, having managed seven assists last season, and recently scoring against Shakhtar in MD1.

He plays more advanced in his RWB role, qualities that make the Italian international a very high ceiling pick. The main downside is the fact that Gasperini tends to share minutes between his three main wing-backs, Bellanova, Matteo Ruggeri (€5.5m but listed as midfielder) and Davide Zappacosta (€4.5m). So, every single game feels like a lottery with a 33% of seeing him benched.

Bellanova is a high risk, high reward pick. I would avoid the more nailed defenders like Sead Kolasinac (€4.6m) and GK Davide Carnesecchi (€4.5m), as they do not provide enough attacking threat and Atalanta shakiness at the back makes it difficult to rely on clean sheets.

Mateo Retegui (€5.5m, Forward – 1% Ownership)

As of now, Retegui is the leading goal scorer in Serie A. So far he has netted seven times in just seven appearances (already as many as his total tally from his last season at Genoa). His domestic form is yet to translate into UCL Fantasy points, mainly due to Raya saving his penalty in MD1.

His price is very cheap for a top five league primary goal scorer. But, with the abundance of forwards to choose from, I can understand why he feels like an unpopular pick compared to someone like Lookman.