Serie A Weekly Transfer Market Recap and Ended Loans

maroni

The last week prior to the official start of the transfer market was understandably quiet: Sampdoria pulled off the most interesting move by adding another talented youngster, Gonzalo Maroni from Boca Juniors, who can feature in few positions up front and has the potential to be electric. Genoa made a sizeable investment to have Andrea Pinamonti from Inter, who had a very promising rookie season in Frosinone and is set to be their featured guy up front moving forward. Fiorentina are giving the keys to their goal to Barlomiej Dragowki, who blossomed in Empoli last season, and thus sent Alban Lafont to Nantes on a two-year loan. Sassuolo permanently signed left back Rogerio from Juventus after the 18-month loan, Brescia did the same with Ales Mateju, who belonged to Brighton.

Continue reading

Serie A Transfer Market Final Weekly Recap

oberlin

There were not quite fireworks in the last week on the transfer market, which saw the minnows complete a fully of moves to try to bolster their squads. After selling Krzysztof Piatek, Genoa were one of the most active one, as they added Chievo centre-piece Ivan Radovanovic and Lukas Lerager from Bordeaux to revamp their midfield and Andràs Schafer to have one more alternative on the flanks. The first two could be regular starters, especially because Sandro was sent to Udinese. Boca Juniors long chased Atalanta’s José-Luis Palomino, but they had to settle for Lisandro Lopez. Continue reading

Serie A Fantasy Predictions – Round 12

milanjuventus

The next slate before another international break is pretty juicy.

Genoa-Napoli: the Griffon have not won in four games and the effects of the coaching change have not been palpable, since they continue to concede a lot. They lost twice in San Siro last week and the schedule does not do them any favor. The Partenopei easily romped Empoli last week and have won three out of their last four games, looking splendid at times. Krzysztof Piatek has not scored for four games in a row, which is unlikely to be a coincidence, and their last goals under Milan Juric have been pretty random, by Cristian Romero on a free kick, by Romulo on a penalty and by Daniel Bessa on a defensive mishap. Continue reading

Serie A Fantasy Predictions – Round 11

romafiorentina

Just a pair of juicy match-ups on deck this week, while the top teams will try to take advantage of cozy fixtures on paper.

Napoli-Empoli: the Partenopei were not super sharp versus Roma, they salvaged a draw but could have probably done more if they did not put themselves in the predicament of having to come back. It was the first time they dropped points at home. Empoli have not won since the first game, but they certainly put up a fight against Juventus before Cristiano Ronaldo decided to win it. Continue reading

Serie A Match of the Week – Milan vs Sampdoria

milansampdoria

There were few interesting match-ups in this round and, while Napoli-Roma had the most magnitude, Milan vs Sampdoria had the highest entertainment value.

The Rossoneri came into the game looking to bounce back after two tough losses in the past four days in the Derby della Madonnina and against Real Betis in Europa League. The Blucerchiati were coming off a nil-nil tie against Sassuolo and are enjoying a nice start of the season, sustained by a rock-solid defense.

Gennaro Gattuso chose Diego Laxalt and Patrick Cutrone to replace the regular starters Giacomo Bonaventura and Hakan Calhanoglu, both dealing with some nagging injuries, and tilted his usual scheme to a regular 4-4-2. Continue reading

Serie A Fantasy Recap – Round 6

roma

The midweek round is always a little wacky, mainly due to some heavy rotation by the managers. The most recent one was no different and several teams failed to score. Here is a quick recap of what went down.

Standings implications: Juventus and Napoli keep marching on and did quick work of their Emilian opponents. Roma returned to winning ways by steamrolling Frosinone, while Inter and Lazio maintained their momentum by defeating Fiorentina and Udinese. Atalanta and Torino shared their spoils in a dull match, while Sampdoria was held to a nil-nil tie in Cagliari. Genoa grabbed another home win over Chievo. Sassuolo fly high after they resounding win over SPAL, while Milan had another disappoint result in Empoli. Continue reading

Serie A Fantasy Game Predictions – Round 5

sampdoriainter

There are not any mammoth clash this week, but a pair of match-up could turn to be very succulent.

Sampdoria-Inter: if it was not for the tumble they took in Udine in their season opener, the Blucerchiati would be regarded as one of the most impressive squads in Serie A, considering they how they dusted Napoli and Frosinone and came back against Fiorentina. Their attack is humming: Gregoire Defrel, Fabio Quagliarella, Gianluca Caprari and Dawid Kownacki have all already found the target at least once and the former Roma and Sassuolo striker is raining fire.  Continue reading

Serie A Club of the Round – Sampdoria

sampdoriafrosinone

There was the international break in between, but Sampdoria are the first club this season to earn the shout-out twice in a row. While the first one, which came against Napoli, was a little unexpected, the eruption versus Frosinone was more predictable. The had troubles maintained a high level of performances on the road last season, but they took advantage of a cozy match-up in this case.

Marco Giampaolo confirmed most of his line-up from the previous fixture, but this time chose Omar Colley over Lorenzo Tonelli, who had a physical hiccup during the week, and Gianluca Caprari as attacking midfielder instead of Gaston Ramirez, while Riccardo Saponara was out with a hamstring strain. Continue reading

Serie A Fantasy Predictions – Round 3

milanroma

The next round presents a couple of interesting matches.

Milan-Roma: the Rossoneri looked decent in their debut in Naples, but lasted only about an hour, up until their second goal, then showed the defensive deficiencies that held them back last season. While they work on how to feed Gonzalo Higuain properly, the usual fantasy studs shined as Giacomo Bonaventura scored and Suso provided an assist. The return of Hakan Calhanoglu will give them a boost. The Wolf is even more a work in progress after the departure of Kevin Strootman and brand-new hierarchies in the midfield and in the attack. Continue reading

Serie A Fantasy Predictions – Round 2

juventuslazio

After some flashes in the first match day, the second one is more intriguing on paper.

Juventus-Lazio: the Old Lady had to toil to defeat Chievo, but the attack confirmed to be deep and hard to contain, even though few players had an off game, while the defence needs some fine-tuning. Cristiano Ronaldo was electric, but teammates had troubles finding him and Paulo Dybala and Douglas Costa suffered from the fact that the spaces were all clogged up. Among the forwards, Federico Bernardeschi certainly looked the most in-form. Perhaps things will be a little more open against better competition. The Portuguese was devastating on the wing, which is good news for Mario Mandzukic, his ideal partner in crime, and for Alex Sandro as well because he had much more room to operate. Continue reading