Atalanta manager Gian Piero Gasperini has defended his decision to name Ademola Lookman among the substitutes in their 2-0 Supercoppa semi-final loss to Inter Milan, Nigeriasoccernet.com reports.
Lookman, Charles De Ketelaere, and Ederson were surprisingly left out of the starting line-up and only introduced after 56 minutes.
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Gasperini insisted that his decision was not an experiment but an opportunity to assess players who had contributed less to the team's recent fixtures.
"I was not experimenting at all," Gasperini told Sport Mediaset.
"We have many players, and we had a long and tough run of games. The Supercoppa came at the right time for us to verify players who contributed but played relatively little compared to others.
"We were up against Inter in the semi-final, and it was the right time to try this."
By Olujimi Dare Ogun