Atalanta coach Luigi Del Neri has backed veteran striker Christian Vieri to be the team's talisman in the second half of the Serie A season.

Vieri struggled with injuries and lack of form earlier in the campaign but has now recovered and will make sixth league appearance on Sunday at Palermo.

"We rely a lot on Vieri, on his quality," said Del Neri.

"He is a great champion who has worked hard and we hope to have in him our talisman for 2009."

Del Neri's troops resume the Serie A season in ninth place having collected 24 points from their first 17 games.

"I expect my team to do what they did in 2008," said Del Neri. "My team must carry on with the expectations we set out at the beginning of the season and take forward our philosophy of play and our winning mentality."

The Bergamaschi have suffered just two defeats at home but it is on their travels where they must improve.

Atalanta have won only one away game, a 1-0 triumph at Bologna on September 18, and since then they have collected two points on the road.

"We have always tried to express our style of football," said Del Neri. "Sometimes it has worked and other times it has not.

"But we have a good group, with young players who still need to mature.

"Our aim remains to avoid relegation and in order to do that we need to improve on our away form.

"We calmly avoided the drop last season and we started this campaign well. There is no reason why we cannot continue to do so."

A win this weekend would be a big morale boost ahead of next weekend's tough test at home to Serie A leaders Inter Milan.

Palermo have also struggled away from home, but have looked solid at the Stadio Renzo Barbera.

Davide Ballardini's men, who trail Atalanta by a point, have won six and lost two games from the eight at La Favorita - and the defeats came against high-flying Inter and Fiorentina.

However, Palermo general director Walter Sabatini knows his side can still improve.

"We must try to eliminate the mistakes we showed in certain games in the first half of the season," he said.

"We have a strong squad which plays good quality football but we have to learn from our past mistakes in order to do better."

Ballardini will play in-form strikers Fabrizio Miccoli and Edison Cavani, who have scored 12 of their team's 21 goals, but will be without suspended defenders Federico Balzaretti and Cesare Bovo.

The visitors will be missing defender Thomas Manfredini and midfielder Diego de Ascentis, who both serve a one-match ban.