Roma faces Atalanta’s new jewels- this season’s Cinderella story in Serie A has to be Atalanta. Former Genoa manager Gasperini has the club playing attractive football with many very promising Italian players- they are following the Sassuolo blueprint very successfully.
Atalanta will host Roma this weekend, and will need great performances from their young jewels- especially 22 year old center back Mattia Caldara who is on the radar of top Serie A teams, he will have his hands full trying to contain red hot Edin Dzeko. Wing back Antonio Conti will be suspended but this match will also be a chance to shine for midfielder Gagliardini, Franck Kessie’ (followed by Juve, Napoli and top Serie A teams) as well as the intriguing attacking duo of Papu Gomez and Petagna
How much turnover can Juve afford against Pescara? despite numerous injuries and fact that some of their new additions have struggled to fully fit in, Juventus find themselves comfortably in first place in Serie A. But as usual they are underachieving a bit in the Champions League, the bianconeri have a key match against Sevilla coming up on Tuesday so it will be interesting to see how Allegri handles turnover.
With Benatia out hurt, it’s likely that Allegri will start Evra as the left side center back in the 3 5 2. Rugani will likely play on the right side since Barzagli is out. Hernanes could get a start so that Marchisio can be fresh for the Champions League match. It’s possible that uber prospect Moise Kean could play in the second half since Juve only has Higuain and Mandzukic healthy up front- the Raiola client could be first player born in 2000 to appear in a Serie A match. Even without many of their starters, Juventus should be able to handle Pescara at home- however while Oddo’s club doesn’t have much talent they do play attractive football.
How will Pioli deal with his baptism by fire in the derby?- the big match of the weekend is of course the derby della Madonnina. Milan comes into the game after winning matches against provinciali types while not playing particularly well, which is a great sign when you consider they failed to accomplish that in previous seasons.
The rossoneri will almost certainly be without their best center back Alessio Romagnoli, who injured himself playing for Italy’s national team. While Icardi has brought some drama off the pitch, he continues to score at a very impressive rate especially when you consider how much Inter has struggled- it will be interesting to see if he takes advantage of Romagnoli’s absence to make amends for missing a penalty in the last derby.
This will be the first match on Inter’s bench for Stefano Pioli. While he isn’t a sexy hire, it makes a lot of sense for Inter to go with a manager who knows Serie A at this point in season- arriving just two weeks before season started without knowing Serie A proved fatal for Frank de Boer. Pioli did very well when he took over at Bologna mid season a few years ago and did lead Lazio to the preliminary round of the Champions League. Pioli is asking his team to play the derby with a cynical mind and warm heart, will this formula pay off against Milan?
Can Lazio take a step forward in standings now that they are getting players back? In my opinion Pioli’s former team Lazio is one of the clubs in Serie A with the most margins for improvement. Despite having lost their best defender De Vrij about a month ago and being without Biglia for a stretch of games, they find themselves in fourth place.
The biancocelesti have been succeeding thanks to their excellent offensive trio of Felipe Anderson, Immobile and Keita, but now they are starting to get healthy. Biglia returned and he brings even more quality to a midfield that also features the underrated Parolo, Lulic and excellent prospect Milinkovic Savic.
This weekend Simone Inzaghi is getting Angolan defender Bastos back, he was pretty impressive in his first few matches before getting injured- he could finally be the partner for De Vrij that Lazio has been seeking for awhile. Bastos will be tested by Genoa’s striker Pavoletti who receives good service from his wingers Laxalt and Edenilson as well as midfielder Miguel Veloso.
How will Hamsik celebrate his 500th match at Napoli- after a few impressive performances at the last Euro, many asked me why Marek Hamsik had never left Napoli for a big club. The answer is the Slovakian midfielder is one of the last “bandiere” left in Italian football- he truly loves living and playing in Napoli.
Unless Sarri decides to rest him for his team’s upcoming Champions League match, Hamsik will appear in his 500th match at the club- a remarkable achievement. Napoli will face Udinese who has a rather underrated midfield with new addition Kums who has brought order to the team, excellent prospect Fofana and club stable Badu who is likely ready to join a bigger club in the summer.
Napoli will face Duvan Zapata, a striker they loaned to Udinese- there has been talk that they will try to bring him back to the club in January to help offset Milik’s injury. The partenopei will at least get Albiol back to try to contain him.
