Atalanta coach Gian Piero Gasperini defended his selection for defeat at Lecce.

La Dea lost 2-1 on Wednesday night with Gasperini rotating his line-up.

“We were too frenetic in the second half and lost our shape, giving the ball away cheaply. We created something, but not enough," Gasperini told DAZN.

“There are many teams who are aggressive like Lecce, we did better in the first half and created good opportunities, but in the space of five minutes we compromised the whole match and never recovered.

“The loss with Napoli was different, it was a very good performance. I had hoped to repeat it tonight, but we made too many mistakes in defence, then tried to resolve the situation as individuals rather than working as a unit with our usual passing moves."

Gasperini made nine changes from the side which lost to Napoli and he added: “I made those changes because Merih Demiral was not fully fit and Rafael Toloi needed rest, while I wanted to test our lads on the wings and this seemed like the right game to do that. The changes didn't decide the result, but the two goals we conceded after a good start."