Hien is praised time and time again by national team captain Jon Dahl Tomasson. The Dane offers powerful descriptions such as:
He eats attackers for breakfast.
Hien delivers strong performances with Atalanta in Serie A. Recently, he received the prize as the match's player in the 2–0 win away against Stuttgart in the Champions League. Shortly before that, he replaced Romelu Lukaku.
Atalanta made it 3–0 away against Napoli and are shadowing the league leader, one point behind.
Great statistics
Statistics show that Hien is among the league's top 10 defenders in terms of won tackles and ball wins. He also has higher percentage numbers in passing play.
According to several Spanish media outlets, he is attracting the interest of Atlético Madrid. Atalanta is said to have increased the value of the national team back. The price tag is now around 450 million kronor. Hien has a contract until 2028.
He himself keeps a low profile, but notes:
I've had some good matches, I feel in shape, and I hope I can bring it with me.
He also tones down all the praise lately.
It's a receipt that you're doing well, but at the same time, it's like that in football that it goes in periods. It's nice to get attention, but it's not decisive for the performances themselves. It's fun, but not super important, he says.
Have you stepped up to a new level as a player?
Hard to say. I also had a good season last year. It was a bit special then since I made a move in January. There, I felt I took a step and raised myself a notch from my time in Verona.
Finding consistency
I hope I've taken a step forward after the summer, but it's hard to speculate and it's early in the season. I'm coming from a month with good matches, but what I'm trying to find is to maintain that level and be consistent in my play.
I think we can take a lot with us from there, both good and less good. I think most of it is good. We play a good match overall. We play better than Slovakia, but if it's 2–2, we don't deserve to win in any way.
We need to take with us that we lose our lead and that we concede goals we don't want to concede. We need to check those details and work from there, says Isak Hien.
