Continuing on our roundup of Serie A club reviews, our next stop is the midfield of Chievo. Their 14th placed finish ensured safety with a few games to spare, and their final position was a fair reflection given their goal difference tally.
They scored more than each team below them, and only two teams who finished below them in the league conceded less. Of course, despite them scoring more than each team below them, their goal scoring wasn’t necessarily a delight – 43 goals from 38 games, giving them an average of 1.13 goals scored per game. Not too bad then, but plenty of room for improvement next season.
A natural key element to the goals scored column is of course the supply line and contributions from the midfielders, and Chievo Verona certainly had a fair few midfielders in the EuroFantasyLeague game last season! So with that said, let’s get cracking.
A good place to start is always with the biggest hitter, and for Gialloblu that man was none other than Valter Birsa. The 30-year-old Slovenian proved an absolute steal – his valuation of 3.50m proved a considerably reasonable one given his return of 57 points. His Price / Performance (P/P) ratio of 16.9 was amongst the highest in the entire competition last season, and his points scored made him the 51st best midfielder overall. Seven goals and nine assists contributed to that total considerably, but his highest point was in his first appearance of the season. That was a 2-0 home win over Inter Milan, with Birsa scoring both goals. The clean sheet added to his bonus to give him 10 points straight off the bat.
Just behind him was Lucas Castro. His return of 41 points with a 5.50m valuation gave him a decent P/P of 7.3. That was largely thanks to five goals and six assists from his 33 starts. His best performance was the home game against Pescara in February – he scored one goal in a 2-0 win, earning six points in the process.
Massimo Gobbi earns the bronze for Chievo’s midfield last season. 23 points (with a 3.50m valuation) earned him a P/P of 7.1, with a single goal and two assists. He did feature in 10 clean sheets though – more than any of his club peers.
Jonathan De Guzman follows behind Gobbi, with 17 points to his name. A 5.50m valuation may not have made him the most attractive prospect for fantasy managers, and neither did his P/P score of 3.8. However, the former Swansea loanee managed that total with only 15 starts and 12 sub appearances. With his loan spell at Chievo now over, it remains to be seen whether the club will take up the option to buy.
Nicola Rigoni may have looked a better option to fantasy managers looking to add to their midfield. A 3.00m valuation produced 16 points – giving him a deceptively low P/P of 1.8. There were only 12 appearances in total though, and so a bit more first team action could see him shoot his total up to a second-placed level next season. He may be worth keeping an eye on.
Mariano Izco and Perparim Hetemaj were the next two, with 13 and 10 respectively. 3.00m and 4.00m valuations meant these two were particularly underachieving this campaign, Izco managing 25 appearances (12 starts, 13 sub) and Hetemaj 23 (21 and 2).
Ivan Radovanovic was next on eight points from a whopping 25 appearances! 32 starts and 3 sub appearances, and so despite his relatively low 3.00m valuation he still ended up with a P/P of only 2.3.
Rounding off this review, Michele Troiani was bottom of the pile, but to be fair to him he didn’t manage a single first team appearance.
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