Serie A 2009-10

Time to get the Serie A talk going beyond just what we discussed in the Offseason Transfers thread. This weekend league play kicks off in Italy. I found this blog with a pretty good preview of each club, noting their major comings and goings:

http://www.insidefutbol.com/2009/08/16/ita...season-preview/

Inter have been quite busy in the transfer market for a team who have won the last three scudettos. Shows they ar enot content with sitting still and have their eyes on bigger prizes too. The Eto'o for Ibrahimovic swap is a real roll of the dice for both Inter and Barcelona, either shaking up a championship winning etam with some new life at forward or trying to fix something which is not broken. But with Diego Milito also arriving, between he and Eto'o plus young volatile Mario Balotelli, Inter won't be short of goals. Adding a world class defender like Lucio will also help shore up the back and with Julio Cesar one of the world's top goalies in the net, Inter will not be easy to score on.

You have to rate them as favorites once again but Juventus could be their main challenger this season. Diego gives them the playmaker they've missed since Zidane left for Real Madrid at the turn of the century. And with Amauri, Iaquinta and Trezeguet he will have players to feed the ball to. Add in Del Piero and young hope Giovinco and Juve look very talented offensively. The big questions to me will eb whether Cananavro still can anchor the defense at his age and whether new coach Ciro Ferrara is able to handle the repsonsibilities of coach. he will use Pep Guardiola at Barcelona as his model.

Milan as I have been lamenting in the transfer thread seem to lack the midfield creativity needed to be a top two team. That is unless Ronaldinho and Seedorf suddenly discover the fountain of youth! But look for Alexandre Pato to have a big season and wth Kaka gone to Madrid, Pato may even drop deeper at times and help build up play. Thiago Silva looks to be a good signing and he and Nesta should form a good defensive partnership.

When I have more time I may discuss some of the other leading clubs but the link I have provided does a pretty good job of outlining their prospects for the new season. I say watch out for Napoli, Lazio and Genoa this season.

My predictions:

Champions: Inter (I do this with a heavy heart!)
Runners up: Juventus
Relegated: Bari, Livorno and Siena

Here is another season preview of the Serie A clubs, it is pretty similar to the one raconteur gave but I figure the more information out there, the better!

http://www.goal.com/en/news/10/italy/2009/...2009-10-preview

Logic would say Inter are the favorites once again but I am thinking they are poised finally to make a decent run in the Champions and thus I question whether they'll be entirely focused on the league. Juve look improved but you wonder about ferrara's ability to handle the coaching pressure. The same probably applies to Leonardo at Milan and without kaka, Milan will need Ronaldinho to step up and become an impact player once again. If he does it will not only eb a greta story but could mean Milan with their improved defense will be scudetto contenders. I don't think Roma has what it takes, another 6th place finish would not surprise me. Fiorentina have a good starting XI but with European and league play I doubt if they have the depth. Genoa have made a lot of changes but have brought in some good players. They may take some time to gel. Napoli have made some wise additions in goal, defense, midfield and attack, I think they are legitimate contenders for a top four finish. And Lazio are going to have a potent attack with Zarate, Rocchi, Pandev and Cruz. They will cause a lot of teams headaches this season. With DiNatale abck and an improving Alex sanchez Udiense will be another club who will cause their opponents problems but ultimately probably don't have the horses to be contenders. Still they won't be a club you will look forward to facing. Palermo will be a difficult away trip but they don't quite have the talent of the other clubs I have mentioned.

OK so I have found weaknesses with each team, so what then are my season predictions?

Champion: Juventus
Rest of Top Four: Inter, Milan, Napoli
Relegation: Livorno, Bari, Chievo
Capocannoniere: Diego Milito

By the way for those interested in English language Serie A news the Channel 4 Football Italia site from Britain has moved and it is now here:

http://www.football-italia.net

Here is one of that site's blogger's predictions for the new season:

http://www.football-italia.net/blogs/sf33.html

He goes with inter for the crown, hardly a stretch there, and with talk that Wesley Sneijder's move to Inter is imminent, they'll likely ebcome an even more favored pick for the scudetto. But the writer surprisingly includes Genoa in his top 4 and picks Siena, Bologna and Livorno for relegation.

I do like his pick a stop scorer, Sampdoria's Giampaolo Pazzini. His partnership with Antonio Cassano will make Samp tough to stop offensively. However, i still think Inter's Diego Milito will finish as top scorer.

The calendar for the opening weekend of play:

Playing on Saturday (GMT)
Bologna v Fiorentina (1600)
Siena v AC Milan (1845)

Playing on Sunday.
Inter Milan v Bari (1600)
Catania v Sampdoria (1845)
Genoa v AS Roma (1845)
Juventus v Chievo Verona (1845)
Lazio v Atalanta Bergamo (1845)
Livorno v Cagliari (1845)
Palermo v Napoli (1845)
Udinese v Parma (1845)

Genoa-Roma and Palermo-Napoli look to me like the best matchups of the weekend as on paper they look like even games but of course most eyes will be focused on Inter hosting newly promoted Bari, Juventus home to Chievo and Milan at Siena.

Genoa-Roma is a great way to begin the new season, Roma due to their money problems are the same team they had last season minus Aquilani and Panucci, off to Liverpool and Parma. But Genoa were along with Napoli the busiest team in the offseason and I think they made some good moves. Crespo may be getting up in years but I think going to an ambitious midsized club like Genoa is the right move for him at this stage of his career. I really think he will produce well there.

Palermo-Napoli is a meeting of the two biggest clubs in southern Italy. I am curious to see how well Zenga will do as coach at Palermo. I really thought one or both of Lavezzi or Hamsik would leave Napoli this summer but both stayed and the club made some good additions, notably Quagliarella and Cigarini. Napoli should be fun to watch. They also just loaned forward Marcelo Zelayata out to Bologna. He should help Bologna in what likely will be a struggle against relegation.

My predictions for the new season:

Champions: Juventus (Diego will have a big season and get recalled to Brazil's team)
Other Champions League qualifiers: Inter, Genoa, Fiorentina
Relegated: Bari, Livorno, Chievo
Capocannoniere: Marco DiVaio

My season picks:

Champion: Inter (they just have too many horses for the rest of the field and the Eto'o-Milito partnership will sparkle.)
Runnerup: Juventus
Other CL qualifiers: Milan, Fiorentina (I'd love to see Napoli make it, they'll come close but think they'll falter at the end)
Relegation: Siena, Chievo, Livorno
Top scorer: Gilardino (Eto'o and Milito will score plenty but will share the goalscoring load at Inter giving the scoring title to Gilardino)

Perhaps the public pressure on Ronaldinho is paying off as he played well in Milan's opening day win 2-1 over Siena. He passed to Alexandre Pato for the first goal then after Siena tied it when Ghezzal knocked in a rebound, Ronaldinho set up Flamini who broke through and squared for Pato to notch the 2nd. Playing behind Borriello and Pato, Ronaldinho played well, was very participatory and his passing as I described was effective. This is the type of performance which will be needed from him. Next week is the derby against Inter so it was good to begin the season with a game like this as it should lift the team heading into next week's game.

Marco Storari has won the sweepstakes to be Milan's number 1 keeper. At least until Abbiati is ready to play.

Pablo Osvaldo for Bologna and Adrian Mutu for Fiorentina scored in their 1-1 draw. A fair result from what I saw of the game.

Ronaldinho did yesterday what you want your playmaker to do. His through balls to teammates were excellent. It may have only been Siena, one of the expected weaker teams in the league but it was the type of start you want to a new season.

Not a spectacular debut for Juventus but a 1-0 home win over Chievo who made Juve work for the victory. Diego started off well and from his free kick Iaquinta scored on a header after 11 minutes but after Sorrentino denied Iaquinta on another chance shortly thereafter the game ended up being nearly a stalemate the rest of the way. But Chievo couldn't create enough danger to seriously threaten Buffon. A satisfactory start in my opinion for Juve. Cannavaro was composed at the back and Diego started well but faded as the game went on.

Inter were the club who had real troubles on opening day drawing at the San Siro with Bari 1-1. Eto'o scored a penalty but missed a great chance where Milito set him up and on the other end Kutuzov of Bari found some space between Inter's central defenders to tie it up. Bari definitely did not look like they were out of their league playing Inter, a very good start for them. Palermo and Napoli ended up 2-1 in favor of the Sicilians, after Hamsik equalized Cavani's goal, Palermo won the game afew minutes later with a Miccoli penalty. And Genoa defeated Roma 3-2 as Giuseppe Biava scored the game winner in a game which apparently was as good as advertised.

Bari did do well against Inter, they kept after them and not only Kutuzov but also Emmanuel Rivas put pressure on Inter's backline. I'm happy for Rivas who started off at Independiente and looked like a good prospect, he was even on Argentina's 2003 U-20 team with Mascherano, Tevez and Cavenaghi, but his career stalled and he bounced around a lot of clubs both in Argentina and Europe before ending up in Bari.

After the game Mourinho was lamenting Inter's lack of a playmaker but with Sneijder apearing as if he'll stay with Real Madrid (see the Spain Offseason Transfer discussion), Inter's chances of obtaining one are getting slimmer. Milito and Eto'o do look though like they'll develop a good understanding and even though Quaresma was trying to do tricks on the ball almost every time, he did look better than he did last season with Inter.

I absolutely agree, Ronaldinho is not the same player he was 4 years ago and he won't be beating people off of the dribble but he can still pass and if Milan uses him properly and I think Leonardo will be able to do that then he can be a very productive player for the club and Alexandre Pato may end up as one of the top scorers in the league.

A good start for the Brasilian spine to Milan's team-Pato, Ronaldinho and Thiago Silva.

I absolutely agree, Ronaldinho is not the same player he was 4 years ago and he won't be beating people off of the dribble but he can still pass and if Milan uses him properly and I think Leonardo will be able to do that then he can be a very productive player for the club and Alexandre Pato may end up as one of the top scorers in the league.

A good start for the Brasilian spine to Milan's team-Pato, Ronaldinho and Thiago Silva.

That is true Alexao, and I think Ronaldinho, and Leonardo, realize this is not the Ronaldinho who was with Brazil in 2002 or Barcelona in 2006 but that his skills can still be maximized in the right circumstances and playing behind 2 forwards would seem to be just that. With Pirlo playing behind him and Seedorf also in the midfield there will be players who can combine with Ronaldinho and who have the creativity needed so that opponents cannot merely focus on stopping Ronaldinho. It is still a work in progress but there is some promise there.

Diego was very active for Juventus in their win and although he is much more energetic than Ronaldinho now, I think his role at Juventus will be similar to Ronaldinho's with Milan. But yesterday Juventus' midfield did not give Diego much help and that I think is why they struggled breaking down Chievo.

Albert Zapater with a cracking goal in his debut for Genoa. I like Zapater who comes to the team from Zaragoza. A good two way midfielder he reminds me in a lot of ways of a younger Ruben Baraja. I think he will do well with Genoa.

But Diego will I think turn out to be the best signing of any club in Italy this year. He is not only a great technician but is always looking for the ball and has a tremendous work rate.

Not just the fact that Genoa won but how they did it, with attacking football, I think opened some eyes this past weekend. And yes Zapater does look like a worthy signing. Crespo is a player who should do well now that he is almost guaranteed a starting job.

Jose Mourinho who seems to make enemies daily has now got Italy's Muslim community upset since he took off Sulley Muntari after just a half hour ebcause he said Muntari's daylight fasting during the Muslim holiday of Ramadan weakened him in the heat last weekend. After tussling last weekend with Italy's coach Marcello Lippi, Mourinho is looking to make more enemies!

Mourinho loves ticking people off, I think that is how he gets through each day!

So Sneijder's will he, won't he saga continues. Apparently Inter are looking at either Roma's Julio Baptista or Villarreal's Ariel Ibagaza if Sneijder does not move to Inter. From what I have read, Inter were "only" offering him 3.5 million EUR/year while his current contract at Madrid is 4 million. So they are looking at Julio Baptista as a playmaker? He's much more bulldozer than playmaker. Ibagaza is a playmaker and not a bad player but not what I would consider the answer to Inter's problem. You would think Moratti can find that half million euros under his couch's cushions and secure Sneijder.