Palladino confession on Atalanta and Premier League ambition

La Dea are on a roll with 29 points in 14 rounds since he took over from sacked Ivan Juric, so does a whole new season begin this evening?

“Not tonight, it started three months ago,” assured Palladino in his press conference.

“I always said our objective was to climb the table and we will keep doing that. We’ve achieved some important results, those performances helped us to develop the right mentality and self-belief.

“We faced a Lazio side in good shape today, but we were clinical in an overall balanced encounter. Lazio did better in the first 20 minutes, then we improved and did well to pick up all three points.”

Raspadori was a second half substitute, but he limped off with five minutes to go and all the substitutions completed, leaving Atalanta down to 10 men.

“Raspadori hadn’t been playing regularly in Spain, so he needs consistency on the field and we are trying to give that to him,” noted Palladino.

“He is an important player for us, a young Italian, and a proven winner. He settled in very quickly, today unfortunately he sustained a slight muscular issue and we hope it is nothing serious.”

This result saw Atalanta surge past Como, who have a game in hand, into sixth place, so is their target Europe or a top four finish?

“We mustn’t look at the Champions League zone or anything else, we just have to focus on ourselves. The objective was to climb back up, to have this hunger and mentality, but we must never lose our humility either,” warned Palladino.

“There were many difficulties when I arrived, but we are now in three different competitions, in about 80 hours or so we’ll play in the Champions League, then again Serie A and the Coppa Italia. We’ve got to keep our foot on the gas.”

Curiously, Atalanta will face Lazio again in the Coppa Italia semi-final, with the first leg scheduled for March 4.

“I don’t know what kind of game that will be, but certainly a difficult one against a strong opponent. I was impressed by Lazio today, they have pace in attack and are well-drilled. The Coppa Italia is a very important objective for us.”

Former Juventus coach Igor Tudor has just been hired by Tottenham Hotspur, so does Palladino have ambitions of working in the Premier League too?

“For anyone in our line of work, it is an intriguing style of football. I would like to go there in future and I have been studying the English language lately,” confessed the coach.

“Right now, the objective is to concentrate on Atalanta.”