Serie A is back and so is our regular Italian football column rounding up some of the main talking points from the latest action.
By Matteo Bonetti, US Serie A expert
Juventus are Scudetto contenders
It’s incredible what a few months can do. It feels like only yesterday that we were talking about the awful state of Juventus in Serie A and the Champions League, where they were knocked out of the group stages and were playing a dull and uninspired brand of football under their manager Max Allegri. But since their 2-0 loss away to Milan in early October, Juventus have been perfect domestically. Eight wins in a row and perhaps more impressively – 8 consecutive clean sheets. They’ve reverted back to the version of Allegri’s Juve that last won the Scudetto, a team that wins no matter the playing style. While this win streak hasn’t seen the most scintillating football, what it has seen is the emergence of youth. 21-year-old Nicolo Fagioli scored back-to-back goals in two games right before the World Cup break, while the teenage midfielder Fabio Miretti has already played 15 league games for the club. This goes along with more minutes for another teenager, Argentine winger Matías Soulé. These young players have given Juventus a new type of spark that they desperately needed in what was becoming one of the most boring teams to watch in Europe.
Adding to the youth movement, Juventus have only good news on the horizon; Federico Chiesa – who is one of the best players in the league when healthy – is finally fit enough to play significant minutes for the club, after missing a year of action due to a devastating ligament injury. Paul Pogba is also ready to take his first competitive minutes for Juventus, after being sidelined since his return to the club form Manchester United last summer.
Given their woeful start to the season combined with the absence of key players, Juventus’ current second place in the table is as improbable as it is extraordinary, given the circumstances they were in just a few months ago.
Napoli get back to winning ways
Napoli were the only undefeated team remaining in the top five European leagues before last Wednesday, when they were finally dealt their first loss of the season, away to Inter. The result isn’t really one that should worry the Napoletani faithful, as they lost to a team that was favourite for the Scudetto with every bookie before the start of the season. There’s no shame in dropping points to a strong Inter side that is injury free, but the issue was how quickly they could recover mentally. In another tricky game, Napoli had to travel to the Marassi stadium over the weekend to face a Sampdoria side that had started off their 2023 campaign with a win under new manager Dejan Stanković, who has given the team much needed life after the failed stint of Marco Giampaolo.
Against Samp, Napoli looked like the team we’ve become accustomed to seeing – quick, dynamic, ruthless under pressure and unstoppable on the counter. With Kvicha Kvaratshkelia quiet once again given his usual standards (at least this time he didn’t get hacked into oblivion like he did in the Inter game), it was Victor Osimhen who took charge by being his usual brilliant self. Osimhen scored a fantastic goal with a perfectly timed run at the near post, finishing off Mario Rui’s cross with a precise first time finish. It was the Nigerian’s pace which caused Sampdoria to pick up a red card, as Thomas Rincon took out the players’ legs from behind, as he was making his way in to the box.
Another positive performance came from Eljif Elmas. The North Macedonian midfielder has been a supersub for most of his career with Napoli, but clearly has the tools and talent to warrant a starting role as he continues to grow. Elmas’ versatility has been called upon by Luciano Spalletti as he filled in for Kvara at left wing before the World Cup, and against Samp, replaced Zielinski in central midfield. It’s this type of adaptability in various positions that will allow Elmas to keep getting called upon in rotation, especially since Napoli are now competing on three fronts with domestic action, Champions League and the Coppa Italia.
We’ll have a lot more answers after this coming Friday, when Napoli take on Juventus at the Maradona, in what’s become the most anticipated game of the season so far in Serie A.
Romelu Lukaku is becoming an enigma
Who exactly is Romelu Lukaku? So far, he’s been a far cry from the unstoppable, world class player that terrorized Serie A under Antonio Conte at Inter, won the club a Scudetto and became the best player in the league – prompting a massive money deal back to Chelsea. Since then, the Belgian striker has been a shadow of himself.
Lukaku scored 47 goals in two seasons under Conte, where he played in a direct counter attacking formation that suited him to perfection. At Chelsea, he only managed eight goals and was in and out of the lineup, often making the headlines for events that happened off the pitch that made him seem like a malcontent with the situation in England. Inter saw this failure at Chelsea as a perfect chance to bring back their hero at a discounted rate. Since his return, Lukaku has managed one goal in six appearances for the Nerazzurri. He’s battled injury and fitness issues since the summer, and endured a frustrating World Cup with Belgium to cap off a 2022 calendar year that he probably couldn’t wait to turn the page on.
While Lukaku looked noticeably heavier and slower at the start of the season, the issue now seems to be more mental than anything else. How else could you explain misses from point blank range with Belgium or the inability to latch onto a simple ball? There’s certain football moves that can’t be simply blamed on form or fitness. These are elementary errors that we’re seeing from Lukaku in the most basic aspects of being a footballer. The hope is that he just needs a few goals under his belt to build up his confidence and get back to the form that made him the most feared player in the league. Inter certainly do need him. While Lautaro Martínez has made improvements to his game since Lukaku’s first stint at Inter, he still can’t offer the one man wrecking crew style counter attacking threat that made the Belgian so unstoppable. Inter are also in fourth place and need something truly special to make up the 10 point difference to leaders Napoli. Lukaku still has plenty of time to work himself back into form, but from a Nerazzurri perspective, that time is hopefully now.
(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.