Golazzo | Part 5 | Resplendent Recoba – Football Manager Addict

Atalanta surprised everyone, including their manager, as a sublime end-of-season surge saw them climb into the European places and finish 3rd in Serie A in 1997 (2026). The challenge now was for Roberto Lombardi to strengthen his squad and hold onto his exciting youngsters.

The latter was easier said than done given the club’s dodgy finances. He moved on 30-year-old midfielder Leo Rodriguez, who’d been fantastic for 2 seasons but tailed off last year, to Newell’s for £875k and saw off a mass of bids from the increasingly irritating Man United.

Lombardi tried to bring Raúl back on loan, only for the Spaniard to reject the move. Instead, he turned to a couple more legendary names, signing attacking midfielder Álvaro Recoba, who has unbelievable technical ability, for just £3m from Arsenal and striker Didier Drogba (a regen) for up to £4.4m from Guegnon. He also brought in Diego Maradona as under 20s manager.

Lombardi slightly tweaked his tactical approach to shoehorn Recoba into the side alongside Domenico Morfeo, with able support from Marcelo Gallardo, in behind last season’s Serie A top scorer Vincenzo Montella. Juan Román Riquelme is now the starting midfielder, while Massimo Ambrosini has retrained as a libero to accommodate him and Mark Van Bommel.

Elsewhere, there have been more interesting transfers over the last 12 months. The most bizarre has to be Liverpool selling Robbie Fowler to Juventus, from whom they signed Roberto Baggio to replace him, and Milan and Juve trading Patrick Kluivert and Alessandro Nesta. Other notable transfers include:

Zinedine Zidane: Leeds to Arsenal, £21.5m
Robbie Fowler: Liverpool to Juventus, £17.5m
Luis Figo: Real Madrid to Liverpool, £17.25m
Clarence Seedorf: Milan to Bayern: £15m
Alessandro Del Piero: Juventus to Man United, £14.5m
Patrick Kluivert: Milan to Juventus, £10.25m
Alessandro Nesta: Juventus to Milan, £10m
Jamie Carragher: Liverpool to Arsenal, £10m
Vitor Baia: Porto to AC Milan, £9.5m
Sol Campbell: Tottenham to Liverpool, £9m
Roberto Baggio: Juventus to Liverpool, £8m
Paolo Montero (former Atalanta): Arsenal to Juventus, £8m
Juan Sebastián Verón: Aston Villa to Juventus, £7.25m
Sami Hyypia: Feyenoord to Arsenal, £7m
Chris Sutton: Blackburn to Man United, £7m
Steve Staunton: Inter to Roma, £6.75m
Alen Boksic: Dortmund to Leeds, £6.25m
Patrick Vieira: Villa to Bayern, £5.5m
Dwight Yorke: Villa to Liverpool, £5m
Rio Ferdinand: West Ham to Newcastle, £4.8m
Diego Forlán: Independiente to Newcastle, £4.2m
Gary Neville: Arsenal to Blackburn, £4.2m
Phil Neville: Man United to Arsenal, £4m
Louis Saha: Metz to Liverpool, £3.4m

Atalanta’s First Taste of European Football

Atalanta entered the delightfully traditional knockout-style UEFA Cup in the 1st round against Zilina, winning 6-0 away before a fully rotated side lost 2-1 at home. Standard Liége were up next and Montella’s late strike just about nicked a wasteful 1-0 win before left wing back Pierre Giorgio Regonesi scored twice in a 4-2 victory in Belgium. Round 3 saw a clash with a pretty poor Celtic side, which was dismissed 2-0 by Riquelme and Ambrosini before Drogba’s brace led a 3-2 win in Scotland.

In the new year, Atalanta took on Sampdoria in the quarter-finals and lost 1-0 to a Mancini goal in the away leg. And, despite winning 2-1 at home, they exited on away goals. Samp lost in the semis to Liverpool, who went on to beat Bayern 4-1 in the Final.

Montella Lights Up Serie A

The bonkers nature of Serie A continued as the Friday night opener saw Fiorentina and Brescia 5-5! Atalanta were also in the goals as Montella continued his goalscoring excellence with 2 goals as Recoba scored a debut penalty and Morfeo and Gallardo rounded off a 5-1 win at Torino. It was tougher at home to Milan, who scored their first shot from a corner, but Montella responded by finishing off a wonderful passing move that began with a goal kick. The striker then finished in style after Regonesi won the ball back out wide and wrapped up his hat trick with a brilliant 25-yard effort from the breakdown of a free kick. Milan battered them from then on but Atalanta held on for a massive win in which they bossed 72% of possession and showcased Montella’s magnificent finishing ability.

The manic start continued as Montella, Recoba, Gallardo and Van Bommel earned a 4-3 win at Fiorentina. That was followed by the relative calm of Montella and Hasan Salihamadzic earning a 2-1 win at home to Napoli, in which they had 21 shots and 68% of possession. Montella continued his ridiculous form as a goal in a 2-2 at Parma saw him score in 16 consecutive matches going back to last season.

The formation tweak provided plenty of entertainment as Recoba scored twice in 4-0 hammering of Roma before losing another 4-3 thriller at home to Inter. And Drogba scored twice on his debut as Recoba bagged a hat trick in a 6-3 win at home to Padova, in which Atalanta had 31 shots, 18 on target, 3.37 xG and 66% possession. That approach saw them continue to compete at the top but dropped points against Lazio and Milan over the Christmas period. But they got back on track through an inspired Recoba, who scored 4 and created the other 2 in a 6-0 demolition of struggling Torino, in which they racked up 4.51 xG, before Riquelme bagged a hat trick in a 4-2 win at Napoli.

Outside Title Shot?

That left Atalanta leading the pack behind a dominant Juve, who they trailed by 8 points, with a 12-point gap to 6th-place Parma. But they lost 3-0 at home to Parma before 3 huge games in February. They got back on track as Riquelme scored the only goal at Roma before a battle of the top two at Azzurri d’Italia.

Atalanta got a huge chance as Montella was felled in the box, and Morfeo slammed home the penalty. Van Bommel crashed a 30-yarder off the bar only for Giggs to create quickfire goals, which were Juve’s only shots on target. Atalanta bossed the game and Riquelme also hit the bar with a great effort. But they eventually levelled up as homegrown wing back Cristian Zenoni drilled his first senior goal into the bottom corner. This game showed just how far this young Atalanta side has come, considering they should have beaten the dominant force in Italian football. A week later, they took the positives from that result into winning 3-1 at Inter through Gallardo, Montella and a Riquelme screamer.

A run of easier fixtures saw Atalanta tighten their grip on 2nd place led by Recoba finishing in scintillating form. He smashed an incredible 5-goal haul in an 8-1 win at Reggiana then scored a hat trick in a 5-3 victory over Cagliari, which led the media to hail him “Resplendent Recoba.”

They went on to again record the best finish in club history, finishing 2nd on 79 points after 24 wins, 7 draws and just 3 defeats, scoring an amazing 102 and conceding 43. However, nobody can compete with this ludicrous Juventus team, who won the league by 7 points and racked up 128 goals (3.76 per game) – which takes them to 388 goals scored in the last 3 seasons!

Recoba’s late form took him to an incredible 30 goals in Serie A, 2nd only to Shearer (34), and the 2nd-best average rating (7.98 to Shearer’s 8.00), while Riquelme got the 2nd-most assists (16). Recoba also had the most shots (134), shots on target (78) and shots/90 mins (5.49), and Riquelme had the most key passes in open play (77). Montella won the amusingly titled Premio Gentleman award after not collecting a single booking all season, Recoba came 2nd to Shearer in the Top Goalscorer and won MVP Miglior Giovane (best young player), Salihamadzic, Van Bommel and Riquelme made the team of the year, and Lombardi again won Most Valuable Coach.

It’s also worth looking at some team stats for the season as Atalanta:

Enjoyed the most possession (59%)
Completed the most passes (19,331, 1,000 more than Roma and 3,100 more than Juve)
Had the most final third passes per game (133, 29 more than Juve)
Lost possession less than any team (3,064, over 200 fewer than Juve)
Created the 2nd-most chances (191, 30 fewer than Juve)
Had the 2nd-most shots (642, 20 fewer than Juve)
Had the 2nd-most shots on target (306, 10 fewer than Juve)
But.. had the 10th-best shots-on-target ratio (47%) and conversion rate (15%)
Conceded the joint 2nd-most goals from corners (13)

Massive Progression At Atalanta

Atalanta had hit heights that Lombardi couldn’t have dreamed possible. Recoba had been an absolute revelation, scoring 31 goals with 12 assists and a 7.85 average rating in 36 games. Montella impressed again with 24 goals, Morfeo scored 16 with 8 assists, Riquelme was fantastic with 15 goals and 18 assists, Gallardo got 10 goals and 11 assists and Regonesi got 8 goals and 9 assists.

The latest youth intake delivered another potential star in winger Massimo Donati, who went on to play for Milan and Celtic in real life and is currently manager of Greek side Athens Kallithea.

Lombardi was excited by his young side’s progress but concerned by the club’s financial situation. However, he moved quickly to lock down a very exciting signing for next season… But could this wonderkid push Atalanta to the next level? Join us next Saturday to find out!