The Italian coach made five changes from the side that beat Parma in the Serie A on Sunday and had Napoli to set up with a 3-4-3 formation for the first time since May 2013.
The tactics deployed by Gattuso successfully nullified the trenchant attack of Gian Piero Gasperini’s men as both sides settled for a draw at the Diego Armando Maradona Stadium.
In an interview with the media after the game, the former AC Milan manager admitted he changed his tactics to contain the visitors and insists most of his players were unfit to play against La Dea.
“Nobody is the favourite going up against Atalanta. They press you all over the field, combine physicality with great technique,” Gattuso told RAI Sport.
“We moved to 3-4-3, but also had to make some choices, as we had Piotr Zielinski and Eljif Elmas, who were exhausted and we have to rest them at some point.
“We did very well in defence, could’ve done more upfront, but then we know that we’re a bit short up there at the moment. I liked Victor Osimhen over the last few days, he’s getting back into shape.
“Our tests showed a lot of players are not 100 per cent fit. Tiemoue Bakayoko, Stanislav Lobotka and Diego Demme can’t play as a mezz’ala, so we had to do something.
“I’ve seen that Atalanta struggle a bit against a three-man defence, so we tried it out in one day in training and it worked pretty well.
“We could try it again in future, but it depends on who is available, what condition they are in and the characteristics of the players. We need to do more video session work. It gives us greater balance in defence, but we inevitably also lose something when going forward.”
