Charles De Ketelaere has once again stressed how good he feels at Atalanta, explaining how his new tactical instructions are helping to get the best out of him.
De Ketelaere was Milan’s marquee signing in the summer transfer window after the Scudetto win, costing over €30m as he arrived from Club Brugge. However, his first season did not go to plan as he recorded zero goals and one assist.
In the summer the decision was made to send the Belgian on a season-long loan to Atalanta, who also have an option to buy as part of the deal.
It has so far been a success for the 22-year-old, given that he has seven goals and five assists in 24 games for La Dea, which is a goal contribution every two games.
He has played around three-quarters of his games as a centre-forward either on his own or in a front two, with a few games as an attacking midfielder.
De Ketelaere gave an interview in this morning’s edition of La Gazzetta dello Sport (as seen below) in which he spoke about his resurgence with the Bergamo club and what it is all down to.
Let’s play a game, it’s called seven adjectives: enthusiastic, euphoric, serene, confident, re-evaluated, reborn, proud. You can choose three for today’s version of yourself…
“I’ll start by being proud, but first of all of the team, in the running for its targets in the league, in the Europa League and in the Coppa Italia. Confident: Atalanta have been playing well for two months and so have I, I like myself that way. Serene: I always try to be calm, after the good matches, but also the less good ones. To work well, every day.”
Your goal that made it 3-0 against Frosinone, a fierce shot and a less controlled celebration than usual. Is that the new CDK?
“More conviction than anger, it’s difficult for me to be angry. But it’s true that I let myself go more, also because it was a really good goal.”
In the difficult moments of the past year did you ever doubt himself?
“I would be telling a lie by answering no. But then it is work that leads me not to doubt and to be calm, as I said before. It helped me not to lose confidence in myself.”
Are you giving and getting what you hoped for?
“I give everything I have, and I can give even more. But I feel like I’m growing and I’m not surprised: what you give, you almost always get back.”
Was there a precise moment in these five months when something clicked inside you?
“Not a single ‘click’: one click when you feel better, one when you get in tune with your team-mates, one when you line up several good games. It was like this at Brugge too.”
Let’s go back to August: was it difficult to choose Atalanta?
“I thought about it a bit, of course: it wasn’t just any choice. But it’s not difficult, because everyone, starting from the coach and the director D’Amico, made me feel the right trust immediately and always. And then I had always liked watching Atalanta play. There were also other options, but I never considered them: either Milan, or Atalanta.”
When did you realise it was the right choice?
“If I make a choice, I don’t sit there thinking: ‘What if I’m wrong?’. I’m already sure that I will put all of myself into making it right.”
Is playing for Atalanta more fun or more challenging?
“Challenging for sure: the aims are high. But fun, a lot. We have quality and not just at the front, I’m certainly not the only one who brought it. Let’s take the 5-0 against Frosinone, five different scorers: this way a lot of players can have fun.”
What was the most important thing, or what struck you the most, that Gasperini told you?
“With his technical and tactical advice he has evolved my way of seeing football. He immediately told me: ‘On the pitch you have to be a protagonist. Anyone who scores or assists is certainly one, but you can also be one with good pressing, playing well as an attacker’.”
Let’s say almost a pure striker: is this change of role a surprise for you too?
“Already at Brugge, where I played in various roles, I felt I could be one. Now I know: I feel much better like this, as a forward.”
So is a goal better than an assist?
“Surely. But I’ve never been a striker who says: ‘I’d rather lose by scoring two goals’. And there are some attackers like that.”
Have you ever felt so good physically?
“Never. It depends on how you work here, but it’s also a question of natural growth: at 22 you’re stronger than when you’re 20.”
In what ways do you feel you have grown the most since you joined Atalanta?
“In the clarity I put into making in-game decisions. You can improve your technique, but without clarity you can’t fully exploit it. This is why today I feel like a better player even than my most brilliant version, the one from last season at Bruges. Also because I play in a league that is certainly tougher.”
Is it more difficult to reach the Champions League, win the Europa League or the Coppa Italia?
“In the league you need a lot of continuity, in the cups big games are one-off matches. Let’s say it like this: to win the Coppa we are three great games away and I know that they have been waiting for a trophy here for sixty years. It would be very nice to be in the Atalanta team that brings one back to Bergamo.”
Meanwhile with Atalanta you won twice out of two games aginst Milan, but you said that you didn’t feel it was revenge. What feeling did you feel, then?
“I didn’t think ‘You didn’t understand me’, but certainly when we beat Frosinone I wasn’t so happy, yes. It wasn’t a negative feeling, but I know what Milan is, therefore also what it means to beat them.”
Milan and the future: do you think about it every now and then? Have you started to think about it seriously?
“It’s January, there’s still time. Today I just think that what happens will not depend only on me and I have been taught that I must only think about the things I can ‘control’. the next training session, the next match. And the fact that I am very happy to be here at Atalanta.”
