Antonio Mirante (7 points): the Roma coach picked him over Pau Lopez, who was really uneven in the resumption, and the veteran had a pair of big-time saves that preserved the result in the challenging game against Verona, keeping his first clean sheet of the season. Unless Paulo Fonseca did it just to send a message to the Spaniard, it will be tough to take the starting job away from him on a performance basis alone.
Leonardo Bonucci (9 points): he looked re-energized and uber confident featuring in something similar to a three-man defence and with his buddy Giorgio Chiellini next to him. He stymied multiple attempts with great timing, launched a pair of interesting long balls and scored the pivotal second goal for his side with a tap-in on a corner kick.
Theo Hernandez (7 points): a blazing start for the Milan fullback, who was the usual menace darting up and down the left flank and set up a Zlatan Ibrahimovic header with a splendid cross.
Federico Dimarco (5 points): Verona relies heavily on their wing-backs and, with Darko Lazovic on the shelf, he is asked to fill big shoes. But he had already started making noise in the second half of last season and started off well in this one with a dynamic showing. He also had one of the best chances of the game, as his lefty rocket hit the crossbar and then the post before mockingly bouncing away from the goal.
Kalidou Koulibaly (5 points): the match-up was not supremely difficult, but the Senegalese giant looked his best in Parma, completely blanketing every opposing attackers that dared crossing his path. The transfer market buzz is not going away, but this version of him is surely worth a ton of money.
Dejan Kulusevski (6 points): he perhaps did not have as many touches as his Parma days, but he surely made them count as he slotted one of his first one precisely in the bottom right corner with a viciously precise lefty shot.
Dries Mertens (6 points): speaking of pretty finishes, the Belgian attackers’ lethal first-touch one that left Luigi Sepe inevitably flat-footed surely belongs to the conversation. You would be hard-pressed to find a craftier striker and he is one of the biggest steals in the fantasy game as he is listed as a midfielder.
Gaetano Castrovilli (6 points): maybe a subpar game from an energetic standpoint versus Torino, where he was not the force he so often has been last season, but he surely provided a key contribution thanks to the tap-in that deservedly solved the matter in Fiorentina’s favour after multiple attempts to break the deadlock.
Zlatan Ibrahimovic (8 points): one of the oldest strikers in the League actually looked the sharpest physically in the opener, as he was the only one to net multiple goals. He bested a pair of opponents in the air for a deadly header in the first, while he fired a penalty kick right in the top corner for the second one.
Cristiano Ronaldo (6 points): it took him a higher amount of shots than usual, but he got his goal late versus Sampdoria and it was a good-looking one as well, even though that kind of cross-shot now looks like routine for him. He also found Kulusevski in the box to set up the initial goal, notching also an assist.
Giovanni Simeone (4 points): granted that the total amount was limited, he had one of the best goals of the weekend as he perfectly contorted his body to meet a sharp cross by Joao Pedro and head it home. Maybe after that solid resumption, he has indeed made the leap and turned into a really clinical centre-forward.
Are you a Serie A expert? Can you defeat the top Serie A Fantasy Managers? If you think so, play www.fantasyseriea.com now!
To leave a comment, you must be logged into www.eurofantasyleague.com