"Very good; top, top players; top recruitment; very, very well organised; play their system with 100 per cent conviction, they know exactly what everybody has to do. They use the skills of the individuals in an incredibly smart way, so you can exactly see how they use the strikers, how they use the strikers in different ways.
"You can see [Papu] Gomez’s role in midfield, which is a completely free, floating, whatever, genius running around everywhere making it really difficult to catch him. A lot of impressive developments of the players as well.
"[Robin] Gosens is one player who is now a German international. Before he played that role at Atalanta I’m not sure a lot of people knew about him. That’s just one example, they have a lot of these kind of stories.
"They obviously have in the team a really good atmosphere in general, a good mood and they are a proper fighting unit. So I was not surprised last year. Of course, I didn’t know too much about Atalanta before the [last] season started but I knew about the role they played in Italy, which was the qualification for the Champions League. But the last season was a good one as well.
"We know how difficult last season was for everybody, and for sure in Bergamo it was not easier; in the beginning, for sure more difficult. And they dealt with the situation. They have all our respect. I know how good they are.
"I actually enjoyed the analysis, I enjoyed watching them because it’s really interesting. How always in life, if you see something interesting you should try to learn a little bit of it. That’s what we always try but in this case, for sure it’s possible for us."
Last year, Atalanta were just minutes away from reaching the Champions League semifinal, only for PSG to score 2 goals in the injury time. The team has not changed a lot since that game, so they will be a tough challenge for the Reds.
After 2 games, Liverpool top Group D with 6 points, while Atalanta are second with 4 points. The two other sides in this quartet are Ajax and Midtjylland who have 1 and 0 points, respectively.
