Serie A Injuries and Suspension Report – Round 28

Atalanta: Josip Ilicic returned from an ankle problem in the last game, thus they have nothing else to worry about.

Bologna: Federico Santander and Andreas Skov Olsen will be out for a while due to thigh strains.

Brescia: Jhon Chancellor (thigh) will miss another one. Andrea Cistana is not close after repairing his peroneal tendon during the lockdown. Continue reading

Serie A Injury and Suspension Report – Round 21

Atalanta: Timothy Castagne is out with a sore knee for the second week in a row. 

Bologna: Mattia Bani and Nicola Sansone are suspended. Stefano Denswil and Gary Medel and Ladislav Krejci (knee) remain sidelined.

Brescia: Mario Balotelli was slapped with a two-game suspension. Continue reading

Serie A Injury and Suspension Report – Round 18

Atalanta: Duvan Zapata has resumed practicing fully after his complicate thigh injury and he is fully expected to be available against Parma, but the capacity remains to be determined. Pierluigi Gollini is dealing with the flu.

Bologna: Blerin Dzemaili is under the weather and is out, Federico Santander has recovered from a tibia bruise, while Ladislav Krejci will likely miss another one with a sore knee.

Brescia: Alfredo Donnarumma and Emanuele Ndoj are on the wrong side of questionable due to muscular problems. Bruno Martella joined the long list of sick players this week.  Continue reading

Serie A Injury and Suspension Report

Atalanta: Josip Ilicic lost the appeal so he will serve the second game of his suspension. Ruslan Malinovskyi is disqualified as well. Duvan Zapata is not ready after missing time with a thigh strain despite the early optimism, while Luis Muriel and Remo Freuler, who picked up some muscular ailments with their national teams, should be fine. 

Bologna: Mattia Bani and Danilo are banned. Takehiro Tomiyasu is poised to come back from a thigh strain, while Federico Santander suffered the same injury few days ago and will miss three weeks. Roberto Soriano and Mitchell Dijks will miss another one due to a knee and toe edema respectively, also Mattia Destro remains on the shelf due to knee soreness. Continue reading

Serie A Fantasy Picks – Round 13

Juan Musso: it is not a particularly appealing round for the top defenses, so it might be time to think outside of the box. Udinese have rediscovered some stinginess with Luca Gotti at the helm and will tangle with Sampdoria, which are tied with SPAL as least productive attack in the League and have never scored more than one goal. The Argentinian goalkeeper is a certainty at this point.

Chris Smalling: the Roma back-line has not been particularly airtight, but they have one of the better match-ups on hand against the cratering Brescia, which have not found the target more than once since late September. The English defender has been quite the surprise with his imposing physicality and he is a menace on set pieces too. Continue reading

Serie A Fantasy Recap – Round 12

Standings implications: the usual trend up top as Juventus and Inter did not look great but still found a way to sink the opponents, despite fiery efforts by Milan and Verona. Another shake-up in the Champions League zone as Roma’s run came to a stop in Parma, while Lazio and Cagliari kept it rolling, creaming Lecce and Fiorentina respectively, and they both surpassed La Lupa and gained some ground on Atalanta, which were held to a tie by Sampdoria. Napoli could not do much better at home against Genoa and thus remain seventh, one point over the Ducali. Torino returned to winning ways with an away drubbing of Brescia, while Sassuolo convincingly defeated Bologna. Udinese-SPAL ended in a nil-nil draw despite the late drama.

Continue reading

Serie A Best Fantasy XI – Round 11

Wojciech Szczesny (7 points): clean sheets were again hard to come by as the defences continue to be ravaged by an overall offensive explosion. Just two goalies managed to stop the opponents and the Polish left in his mark on the Derby della Mole with a great dive on a dangerous attempt in the second half.

Matthijs De Ligt (9 points): he finally contributed positively after struggling in the majority of his first few Serie A games and picked a very timely spot for his first goal in black-and-white. He showed improvements in the back too. Continue reading

Serie A Injury and Suspension Report – Round Eight

Juventus:  Danilo is the only injured player returning, while Aaron Ramsey, Mattia De Sciglio and Douglas Costa need more time, even though the first two have resumed practicing fully. 

Inter: Alexis Sanchez underwent surgery to repair some torn peroneal tendons in the left ankle and will miss up to three months. Danilo D’Ambrosio fractured a toe while with Italy and should be out for four weeks. Continue reading

Serie A Fantasy Recap – Round Six

Standings implications: the top three teams in the standings were all successful on Saturday. The one that had to combat the most was Inter, which run into some trouble against Sampdoria but still prevailed, while Juventus and Atalanta easily disposed of SPAL and Sassuolo. The Roman sides kept up as La Lupa nipped Lecce on the road, while Lazio trucked Genoa. Fiorentina earned their second W in a row with a splendid display against a dwindling Milan. Cagliari came back to earth with a draw versus Verona. Udinese returned to winning days after four rounds by defeating Bologna. Parma outlasted Torino on Monday night.  Continue reading

Serie A Best Fantasy XI – Round Five

Samir Handanovic (7 points): very strong goalkeeping in the midweek round, in particular by Udinese’s Juan Musso, Atalanta’s Pierluigi Gollini and Cagliari’s Robin Olsen, but the Inter veteran outdid them with few monster saves where it looked like he had glue on his gloves.

Danilo D’Ambrosio (8 points): he was unlucky not to score in the Derby, but he found a massive goal on Wednesday as he easily beat Jony on a long delivery and headed it home. Either as centre-back or as wing-backs, he has been very useful to the cause. Continue reading