Atalanta coach Gian Piero Gasperini offered little defence for his players after defeat at Frosinone.

Abdou Harroui and Ilario Monterisi had the minnows 2-0 up before Duvan Zapata's consolation for La Dea.

Gasperini said, "It wasn't the approach, they were going stronger than us. It also happened last year, we struggle to keep this tempo. In the second half, when the pace drops, we manage to play a different game. We missed some chances, even easy ones, and this game came out.

“We know that in certain situations we struggle, when the games take other turns, we manage to straighten it out. This is also a new season, it's a very tough season for us and we must have a lot of humility. Talk is of little use.

“It's not a problem for the fans, the fans have to dream, but it's us who have to understand what we have to do and what the goals are. I see them complicated, compared to imagining them, I hope I'm wrong."

He also said: “It's not that the guys wanted to have this attitude, but it's an approach that often happens to us, when we meet technical and fast teams, very often we go behind, then maybe we concede the second goal in an avoidable way.

“I saw this many times last year, it's hard to pass, but I see it like this. It's a question of characteristics, on low tempo we do well, it's a repeated thing. First you have to play a few games to understand what our season will be like, the level has risen.

“This message passes a few times, then we see games like these. For what I have seen it means very little. What matters is the pitch, the rest is talk. Then I'll draw my own conclusions."