A collection of observations, a mix of feelings, and developing certainties: the unity of Thiago Motta with his team has not been truly proven once again. There hasn’t been a response that dispels all the alleged criticisms. There hasn’t even been a show of strength from the coach, who after Empoli was expected to make a difference with strong decisions, but instead played the same tune, for the same team, with the same fears. No, nothing has changed. And the coach himself has not changed anything.
The team seen against Atalanta has the same flaws as the team seen against Empoli, and at other times this season. From the Champions League – the worst defeats – to the remnants of play, to intentions that remained just that: intentions. As if they were a series of beginnings, of first times, and never really completed. Inevitably, Thiago’s choices are implicated, the fact that he probably didn’t hold a firm course, or didn’t even grasp the real problems of this team. He seemed to trust the youngsters when they told him that no, nothing had happened. But behind the complicit looks, the seeds of disaster were maturing.
At the end of the match, Motta’s face was that of a betrayed man, both by his convictions and by the players he had relied on. And by himself? Partly, probably. He knows very well that he was an active part in fulfilling his destiny, starting with the choices, and the doubts resolved evidently poorly. Yildiz after the problems leaked to the press or Koopmeiners after the confidence of the rediscovered goal? He went in the direction of the Number Ten, author of one of the worst performances since he became a professional, but substituted at halftime when perhaps there was a need for his play and not for Koop, melted like snow in the sun in front of his former team. Above all, Thiago has shown that he does not believe in Vlahovic at all. He was the last to enter, after a clearly embarrassed trio. And he was the involuntary author of the assist for the fourth goal: if he had done it on purpose, it wouldn’t have come out so well.
It is difficult to say now how Thiago Motta will change, if he will change. It is impossible to know what is going through his head, if he will actually want to change the men again and probably – this time yes – make strong decisions, instinctive ones, leaving aside for a moment the talk about the future. Certainly, he will not change the formation, nor the game plan: on this point, no one will change his mind, because the coach is convinced that his proposal is the best possible to achieve the result. So: still 4-2-3-1, still full-backs tucking inside and the other overlapping, still Kolo acting as a target man, Locatelli creating. And still Dusan out, like Mbangula. Anything but a revolution.