Here’s our take on the weekend action in Italy’s top flight where Napoli impressed, Juve did not and José Mourinho faced yet more injury woe.
By Matteo Bonetti, US Serie A expert
Khvicha Kvaratskhelia is the real deal
It’s hard not to get swept up in the hype surrounding Kvaratskhelia’s start to the season with Napoli. After all, in two rounds he’s already scored as many goals (3) in open play as Lorenzo Insigne had in the entirety of last season. It’s hard to remember the last time a new signing had this type of impact straight away in Serie A. Tons of credit has to go to Napoli’s scouting department, given that ‘Kvara’ was playing his 2021/22 campaign with a small Georgian club called Dinami Batumi.
On the field, Kvara has looked unstoppable. He’s a left winger who always wants to take his man on, but instead of doing it with flashy dribbles and flamboyancy, it’s his simple chops in either direction which look impossible for a defender to stop. What makes it so difficult to mark him one-on-one is that the Georgian winger looks so comfortable on either foot. Take a look at his two goals against Monza over the weekend – the first was a stunner from distance on his right foot, bending into the top corner with curl and power. The second, a fake on his right only to chop it back onto his left foot and drill it across goal. The fact he’s two footed means the defender never knows whether or not to show him inside or outside.
Roma’s disastrous injury history continues
Every season it seems like one of Roma’s most important players goes down with a devastating injury. From Leo Spinazzola’s achilles problem, to back-to-back ligament injuries to their young starlet Nicolo Zaniolo, which kept him out of football for nearly two years. Roma’s bad luck with player injuries has now struck their new summer signing Georginio Wijnaldum.
The dutch midfielder, who joined the Giallorossi just last week, fractured his tibia in training and is now expected to miss the next three months of action. This means that one of Roma’s key midfield pieces, who was expected to be a versatile box-to-box presence, won’t likely be available for league play until after the World Cup.
Rumors have started swirling on Monday about potential last minute replacements, including Austrian midfielder Florian Grillitsch, who has been linked with the club in the past.
Allegri is feeling the pressure
If you sat down for the 90 minutes that it took Sampdoria vs. Juventus to finish, my condolences. It was a grim 0-0 affair; one that fans especially did not appreciate. Juventus didn’t seem to have any sort of coherent plan to play football, or any sort of identity to their play.
There were murmurs in the summer that Allegri was ready to change his conservative philosophy and finally take a few more risks to help out last season’s eleventh best attack in Serie A. So far, we’re seeing the same passive Juventus that so often looked content to play for a draw. Against Sampdoria, Juventus had zero creativity. Just to put this into perspective, their striker Dušan Vlahović only recorded three touches total in the first half, with none coming inside the opposition’s box. While it’s true that there are injuries to key players, this can’t be used as an excuse. Every team deals with periods of injuries, and this style of play isn’t exclusive to just this round, but also dates back to last season and beyond. Even when Juventus won their last Scudetto under Allegri (2018/19), there was plenty of criticism about their dull playing style.
(Images from IMAGO)
You can follow every match from the 2022/23 Serie A season live with FotMob — featuring deep stats coverage including shot maps, xG, and player ratings. Download the free app here.