Lazio-Sampdoria: despite a fairly muted performance, the Biancocelesti came out on top versus Napoli last week, for the second week in a row propelled by a late Ciro Immobile goal. The capocannoniere keeps producing and has already reached the 20-goal threshold. He has scored their last three goals. Joaquin Correa will be limited, so Felipe Caicedo might get another chance to start and he has posted three goals and two assists in limited action in the last five appearances. Luis Alberto will be looking to pad his assist numbers (12), while Sergej Milinkovic-Savic has reverted back to his less efficient self after a hot stretch. Senad Lulic will be suspended, so Jony is set to play on the left wing and he is a willing crosser. The Eagles have been airtight at home.
The Blucerchiati are coming off their best game of the season against Brescia, where most of their offensive weapons found the target: Fabio Quagliarella twice, then Gianluca Caprari, Jakub Jankto and Karol Linetty. The two midfielders had not done much of note so far this season and the team would get a big boost if both, and Quagliarella as well, were more consistent. Jankto in particular has the skill-set to be pretty harmful on offense. If it was not for some big misses, Manolo Gabbiadini would have already amassed strong numbers. They are a pretty opportunistic side so it would not be shocking if they managed to do something here.
Napoli-Fiorentina: another self-inflicted goal did the Partenopei in versus Lazio after a well-played game, where they could have easily found the target, in particular with Lorenzo Insigne. The forward returned to the stat-sheet in Coppa Italia and the chances have been there for him recently. Arkadiusz Milik was engulfed but his stats remain very strong and they will be in a better spot this week. The final member of the trident José Callejon instead has been more hit-and-miss, but Hirving Lozano has not played well enough to dethrone him yet. Even if he was back, Dries Mertens is unlikely to be much of a factor right after an injury. Diego Demme and Stanislav Lobotka are not slated to be major fantasy weapons, but their additions will move Fabian Ruiz permanently to box-to-box, where he would be more involved in the final third, but his playing time would not be as secure, because Allan and Piotr Zielinski have clearly outplayed him recently. The Polish midfielder has been trending positively and he is worth considering. Giovanni Di Lorenzo will be back on the flank with Mario Rui suspended and he is better there.
Fiorentina have not changed that much despite switching manager as the offense has yet to fully get it going and continues to struggle in finding new reference points after the loss of Franck Ribery. Federico Chiesa has been uninspiring throughout the season and he has not scored since late October. Patrick Cutrone is a better finisher than both Kevin-Prince Boateng and Dusan Vlahovic, but their main problem has been creating chances and keeping the ball up front. Gaetano Castrovilli has been their main source of offense but he needs some help. Marco Benassi resurfaced with Giuseppe Iachini and bagged one recently, while Erick Pulgar dished a helper. Their flank game, manned by Dalbert and Pol Lirola, remains mediocre at best.
Genoa-Roma: the Griffon followed up a quite fortuitous win over Sassuolo with a loss in Verona, where they were overwhelmed in the second half. Antonio Sanabria opened his seasonal tally and he has been the starter after the break, as Andrea Pinamonti is hurt and his name popped up in the rumour mill, but Andrea Favilli is in the mix as well. Goran Pandev has been their leading man offensively over the last month and a half and Davide Nicola is still searching for the best combination in the midfield. Kevin Agudelo would be the one with most fantasy upside, but it looks like Francesco Cassata and Filip Jagiello are currently ahead of his in the depth chart. Stefano Sturaro has been surprisingly involved in the offense. Antonio Barreca returned to the XI after long time and picked up an assist, while Peter Ankersen has been playing over the prolific Paolo Ghiglione on the right flank.
Roma could not pull off the comeback after a nightmarish start versus Juventus and lost Nicolò Zaniolo in the process. Cengiz Under will have to up his game to make up for it and Matteo Politano is a solid replacement, but not so much for fantasy owners since he is listed as striker. Lorenzo Pellegrini has been a stud for few weeks now even though that does not necessarily show up in the box score. Edin Dzeko has been quiet in the last two matches, but all their offensive pieces could feast on Genoa’s suspect defence. Diego Perotti has been living off penalties, converting three in the last six games and he is slated to get the nod again as Justin Kluivert will be at most used off the bench. They will be down one weapon because Aleksandar Kolarov is disqualified, probably Alessandro Florenzi will have more freedom to scamper with an adapted centre-back patrolling the opposite flank.
Lecce-Inter: the Giallorossi would have a fairly vast array of weapons if everybody was healthy at the same time, but Diego Farias, Filippo Falco and Gianluca Lapadula are all nicked up, leaving the most underwhelming one, Khouma Babacar, as the only one they can for sure rely on. Lapadula has been their most prolific man, Filippo Falco has been showing well but he has not scored nor assisted in the past four rounds, even though he always slings it. Marco Mancosu looked the best he had in months in the Parma game and bagged five goals in the first nine matchdays before disappearing, perhaps he will be able return to the forefront in the near future. Their most dynamic midfielder Andrea Tabanelli move to Frosinone and Alessandro Deiola is not on the same level, some help will likely come from the transfer market later on. Giulio Donati has been positive since joining, while it is not sure that Marco Calderoni, who has done some damage with his shooting, will be able to return this week.
Lautaro Martinez and Romelu Lukaku are taking turns and the Atalanta’s game was the Argentinian’s time to shine. They will both have good chances to deliver considering the Salentini’s horrid defensive numbers. Stefano Sensi had limited stamina but fared finely in the first half and they will give him some run so he can resume being the force he was at the beginning of the season. Matias Vecino loses all of his appeal with Sensi and Nicolò Barella back, Marcelo Brozovic has been active in the assist department in the recent outings. Antonio Candreva notched three in the past five appearances, Cristiano Biraghi two in the whole season despite some busy performances crossing-wise.
Juventus-Parma: Cristiano Ronaldo’s dominance continued in Rome with a penalty, making it six straight fixtures with at least a goal. Paulo Dybala had another satisfactory display, while they sat back too much to evaluate their supporting cast, especially Aaron Ramsey and Adrien Rabiot, who have been getting consistent minutes and could eventually become relevant, and Miralem Pjanic. Gonzalo Higuain is the most hurt from their most recent tactical evolution, Ramsey the main gainer. Juan Cuadrado has been one of the best performers in the last couple of games. Matthijs De Ligt will be back with the starters following Merih Demiral’s season-ending injury and their back-line has been okay for the most part, rarely allowing multiple score.
The Ducali will be able to follow the script they love the most in this one, parking the bus and countering with blazing speed. They are getting healthy too as Andreas Cornelius and Roberto Inglese both played in the last two games and Gervinho returned for a short stint Monday and should be ready for the full load here. Cornelius has been the most effective of the striking duo. Gervinho will not be available, so they will have just one speedster in the formation, Dejan Kulusevski. The arrival of Jasmin Kurtic adds another piece to a midfield that already comprised okay fantasy options like Juraj Kucka, who will likely play in the trident in this one, and Hernani, who is taking care of set pieces lately and does have a quality right foot.
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