CROTONE-ATALANTA
Crotone: they had their best offensive game to date in the Cagliari trip, unfortunately their defence keeps letting them down and they do not have the horses to fully make up for it. Junior Messias and Salvatore Molina capitalized on their good run of form with their first goals of the season versus the Sardinians and they have welcomed back linchpin Ahmad Benali, who will be a weapon once he will have his legs underneath him. Simy has nailed two PKs so far and he always has a chance or two during matches. Arkadiusz Reca is coming off an assist and has squarely been their best wing-back. Jacopo Petriccione is likely to fill in for Luca Cigarini and he could be a cheap plug. The Goddess have been rather shoddy defensively so far.
Recommended picks: Simy, Messias, Molina.
Atalanta: their early woes continued against Sampdoria, as they dominated ball possession, especially in the first half, but they had just one goal to show for it and ended up giving up three on the other end. A small improvement compared to the Napoli drubbing, but they are distant from their peak form and they were not much better Tuesday versus Ajax, although Duvan Zapata bailed them out with a brace. The Colombian powerhouse has steadied himself and is up to five goals in the season, while his compatriot Luis Muriel has been damaged by the fact that the coach has shot-gunned Josip Ilicic into regular minutes, with mixed results. They have the Liverpool clash coming up so it is possible the coach heavily rotates the squad, giving another shot to Sam Lammers (two goals) and Ruslan Malinovskyi, who has however fired blanks thus far. The one constant has been Alejandro Gomez (five goals, three assists), who has picked up bonuses in almost every match. Robin Gosens and Hans Hateboer have each found the target once, but the former has not been the fury he was last year so far.
Recommended picks: Gomez, Muriel, Zapata/Lammers.
BOLOGNA-CAGLIARI
Bologna: the poor results keep piling up for the Felsinei, even though they have generally played decently and paid the price for some unlucky endings. They have been held back by their back-line, because the attack has been operating at a decent clip, even though Musa Barrow has been in slump and is still scoreless. However, the others have delivered, starting with Roberto Soriano (three goals, two assists) and Rodrigo Palacio (one goal and one assist) and also Riccardo Orsolini, with the constant prodding by the coach, has found paydirt once. Mattias Svanberg has been threatening with his shooting and fired one home and is also rather unlucky with VAR reviews. Lorenzo De Silvestri netted his first goal on a set piece, but he and Aaron Hickey have not been very involved in the offense on open play.
Recommended picks: Soriano, Palacio, Orsolini.
Cagliari: they are on the rise thanks to two consecutive wins, which were helped by a slight tactical adjustment which saw Nahitan Nandez move up to right winger, Riccardo Sottil switch to the left flank and Joao Pedro play centrally behind Giovanni Simeone. A tweak that enhanced all four players as the Fiorentina product notched his first goal and their dynamic duo can combine more easily: El Cholito has scored four times, Pedro has registered three goals and two assists. While Charalampos Lykogiannis buried a sterling free kick last week, the more sustainable trend should be Razvan Marin’s picking up assists with his sharp set pieces. Gabriele Zappa has had a smooth transition to Serie A and recently collected his first helper.
Suggested picks: Simeone, Pedro, Sottil.
TORINO-LAZIO
TORINO-LAZIO
Torino: finally somebody not named Andrea Belotti (five goals) scored for the Granata as Sasa Lukic and Karol Linetty hit the net in the previous match, even though it led just to a tie. Lukic has been sprightly as trequartista and, while they have more technical options, he has been the best performer. Linetty can put his name in the stat-sheet three or four more times if the confirms the numbers he had during his time with Sampdoria. Simone Verdi was deployed as second-striker and he was better than in previous outings: in such design the ones paying the prize are Federico Bonazzoli and Simone Zaza, who is currently sidelined. Given it provided a spark and that the match-up is rather difficult, it could be confirmed here. Right-back Mergim Vojvoda has already tallied two assists, while Soualiho Meite and Ricardo Rodriguez have been silent. They have begun integrating Amer Gojak in Coppa Italia and he could be a wild card.
Recommended picks: Belotti, Lukic, Verdi.
Lazio: with all the uncertainty related to a possible COVID outbreak within the club, it would not be surprising if this game ended up being postponed and so far they have not been transparent with what is going on. Ciro Immobile, Luis Alberto, Manuel Lazzari, Thomas Strakosha Lucas Leiva and Luiz Felipe, on top of other players that are not regulars, missed the Club Brugge tilt. Felipe Caicedo subbed off due to a possible shoulder issue, so, if nothing chances, that would leave them extremely short-handed. Sergej Milinkovic-Savic and Andreas Pereira returned midweek, Joaquin Correa carried the offense and punched one in, while Vedat Muriqi has yet to get it going in Italy. If nobody is cleared, they will continue relying on Jean-Daniel Akpa Akpro in the midfield and Adam Marusic and Mohamed Fares on the wings.
Recommended picks: Correa, Milinkovic-Savic, Muriqi.
SAMPDORIA-GENOA
Sampdoria: three Ws in a row is surely a rare occurrence for them, but they have all been legitimate ones and against quality opponents too. It is not a coincidence that Fabio Quagliarella has found the target in each of them, but the other pieces are coming out as well, for instance Mikkel Damsgaard and Jakub Jankto both scored recently and can have okay fantasy potential in each round. The additions of Antonio Candreva and Balde Keita give them an interesting mix up front and, while the Italian winger is banged up, the former Lazio attacker had an assist off the bench last week and could soon supplant Gaston Ramirez, who has been feast-or-famine. The gritty Morten Thorsby hit the nest versus Atalanta as well.
Recommended picks: Quagliarella, Jankto, Keita.
Genoa: the three post-COVID matches have been rather ugly for them on the offensive end given that they have netted a grand total of zero (0) goals, but it is a tough situation and the squad will improve as more pieces get their form back after the virus. The Derby certainly provides the adequate amount of motivation. Marko Pjaca returned to the starting XI against Inter, while Gianluca Scamacca was held out due to a false positive after his decent debut in the previous game. Eldor Shomurodov has been underwhelming, but he wait should be worthwhile because of his numbers elsewhere. Goran Pandev has gone through the troubles scot-free and he has logged one goal thus far, on top of being the main hub for their offense. They should have Luca Pellegrini, Miha Zajc and Mattia Destro back at full speed and that will be a nice boost, even though it obviously tough to trust a side that has scored this little. Davide Zappacosta will resume challenging Paolo Ghiglione and they boast a high-wattage flank game.
Recommended picks: Pandev, Scamacca, Zajc.
VERONA-BENEVENTO
VERONA-BENEVENTO
Verona: Andrea Favilli scored his second goal of the year despite playing very short minutes against Juventus, but he got hurt and, with Samuel Di Carmine on the shelf as well, they have no alternative to Nikola Kalinic as no.9: he has looked fine so far but has not been super effective. Mattia Zaccagni, after creating a bunch of chances, finally picked up an assist and Ebrima Colley has been effervescent and has quickly separated himself from Eddie Salcedo, but Antonin Barak will be be fully available here, so they might go with a different look. Marco Faraoni got hurt in Coppa Italia, so it is likely Federico Dimarco and Darko Lazovic will man the flanks here and the Inter product has actually been their most threatening wing-back so far even if he has not been a regular.
Recommended picks: Colley, Zaccagni, Kalinic.
Benevento: Roberto Insigne bagged his first ever Serie A goal ever in the Derby against his brother, which should earn him more minutes, especially because Iago Falque is dinged up. No end product this time for Gianluca Lapadula and Gianluca Caprari, who have been reliable in their first few appearances. Their midfielders rarely cut deep, even though Artur Ionita and Bryan Dabo had some moderate success offensively elsewhere, and their fullbacks, generally Gaetano Letizia and Daam Foulon, are only secondary options, so there is not much fantasy value to go round past the attackers, especially because they are facing one of the stoutest defenses in the League.
Recommended picks: Lapadula, Caprari, Insigne.
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