Serie A Injury and Suspension Report – Round 24

Atalanta: newcomer Tomas Sutalo is the only sidelined player, due to an edema in his right foot.

Bologna: Musa Barrow sprained his ankle and Riccardo Orsolini picked up a cut on the knee last week, but they both practiced fully in the last couple of days and should be a full go. Roberto Soriano instead is out due to a bruised thigh. No returns among their previously injured players: Nicola Sansone, Gary Medel, Federico Santander (thigh), Ladislav Krejci (knee) and Mitchell Dijks (foot). Continue reading

Serie A Injury and Suspension Report – Round 20

Atalanta: Hans Hateboer is suspended, while Timothy Castagne missed the midweek Coppa Italia game with knee soreness, but it was likely just precautionary.

Bologna: Stefano Denswil remains iffy after missing one with a thigh ailment and it will likely be a couple more weeks before Ladislav Krejci comes back from his knee problem.

Brescia: Dimitri Bisoli is disqualified. Daniele Dessena is close to being fully cleared from his malleolus fracture. Continue reading

Serie A Match of the Round – Napoli vs Inter

Napoli-Inter was a bit one-sided, but it had enough action to justify its selection as game of the week considering its magnitude.

The Azzurri were looking to build on their first win in two months before the break, versus Sassuolo in pretty fortunate manner, while the Beneamata had crushed Genoa and were looking to confirm their success on the road and answer to Juventus, which had defeated Cagliari earlier on Monday. Continue reading

Serie A Fantasy Picks – Round 12

Alex Meret: he quickly bounced back from an uncharacteristic error and Napoli have had a stingy back-line at home, giving up multiple goals just once. They might be able to take advantage of the fact that Genoa’s best striker, Christian Kouame, will not be available. David Ospina also showed pretty well when called upon.

Stefan De Vrij: Inter have conceded in few games in a row, but Verona have struggled almightily to produce offensively and will be without one of their main weapons, Miguel Veloso. The Dutch defenders has been able to feed the strikers twice thanks to his strong passing game. Continue reading

Serie A Match of the Week – Round 11

Roma-Napoli had the right combination of magnitude coming in and action on the field and therefore easily gets the choice this week.

The Giallorossi approached the tilt looking to build on their two recent wins over Milan and Udinese and to continue climbing in the standings, while Napoli had prevailed just once in the last four, sharing the spoils three times and therefore losing ground.

Paulo Fonseca confirmed most of what has been his go-to XI, replacing the suspended Federico Fazio with Mert Cetin in the back, thus keeping Gianluca Mancini in the midfield, next to Jordan Veretout. Continue reading

Serie A Game of the Round – Napoli vs Atalanta

The best match of the round was rather predictable this time, as Napoli-Atalanta had excellent premises in terms of entertainment and it delivered.

The Partenopei had tied in the match versus SPAL, furthering their trend of not being a supremely consistent side, while Atalanta had walloped Udinese to garner their fourth win in the last five fixtures. The two sides came in separated by three points in the standings. Continue reading

Serie A Best XI – Round Eight

Alex Meret (7 points): Napoli would have found themselves in an early hole if it was not for his spectacular triple save in the span of ten seconds on point-blank attempts by Darko Lazovic, Matteo Pessina and Mariusz Stepinski.

William Troost-Ekong (5 points): if Udinese are rock-solid at home a lot of the credit goes to their defensive linchpin and to his quiet leadership, which contributed to holding in check the likes of Andrea Belotti and company. Continue reading

Serie A Team of the Week – Round Seven

Alex Meret (7 points): pretty solid goalkeeping by those who earned a clean sheet, Bartlomiej Dragowski and Marco Silvestri in particular, but the nod goes to the Napoli youngster, who managed to parry away a cannon shot by Cristian Ansaldi and exuded confidence throughout the game.

Nikola Milenkovic (9 points): he decided the match against Udinese with a trademark header where he soared in the sky. The switch to a three-man defence has surely helped him. Continue reading

Serie A Fantasy Picks – Round Five

Alex Meret: he got the day off during the weekend, so he will be back between sticks in his one as Napoli will host Cagliari, which might be satisfied with the two wins they got recently and therefore not push the opponents too much.Giovanni Di Lorenzo is in the same situation.

Stefan De Vrij: it is not great round for the top defences, so it could be a wise move to pick out the best one, as Inter have conceded just once, even though they have a difficult match-up against Lazio on the docket. He is an ex-Biancoceleste, so you never know. Continue reading

Serie A Fantasy Picks – Round Four

Gianluigi Buffonhe is rumoured to be getting the first start since coming back and Juventus have a good opportunity for a clean sheet against Verona. The previously indicated Alex Meret is in strong form but he might be rested this week ahead of the midweek round.

Diego Godin: Inter’s defense has been as advertised and should continue to grow as it gels after some absences. They could take advantage of the fact that Milan have not figured out the proper combinations up front yet. He is coming off an assist and it would not be surprising to see him solve a big game or two with his headers. Continue reading