Serie A 12/13 Preview

by Niklas.

Some things in Italian Football never change; the new season has been overshadowed by the latest match fixing scandal, the Italian national team proved their critics wrong at a major tournament, and the presidents are as crazy as ever. This season promises to be one of the most interesting and exciting ever. With a host of clubs fighting for the Scudetto title and a lot of teams fighting for a European spot, this season is

the most balanced in recent times. Its time for another year of Serie A football.

Juventus

Like a phoenix, Juventus have risen from their ashes with a glorious performance last year that brought them the Scudetto on a 38 games unbeaten run. Legendary striker Alessandro Del Piero waved goodbye to end a remarkable era, bringing tears in the eyes of many Juventus fans.

With additions like Isla and Asamoah (both from Udinese), Lucio (from Inter but is now sidelined for at least 3 months due to injury) and youth-product Giovinco (from Parma) they arguably had the best mercatto in Serie A. With the right mixure of proven player (Pirlo, Buffon, Chielini) and young, talented ones (Giovinco, Pogba, Giabbiandini) they seem to be the high favourites for their 29th offical Scudetto.

However they are a club in somewhat of a mess as Conte has been suspended from football management for the whole season after being found guilty in court of failing to report match fixing that he was aware of during his short spell in charge of Siena in Serie B.

They still miss a striker who can bang in 20 goals a season up front. The Old Lady also need to show they can keep up on all three fronts – Juve are participating in the Champions League for the first time in three years.

Retaining the Serie A title seems like the main target and they do have the strongest squad but it remains to be seen what impact the Conte situation will have on the squad.

Internazionale

Just like Juve, Inter seems to be back from the dead. With a horror showing last season, no-one thought Inter can recover in such a short time, but they are serious title contenders this year.

Internazionale have decided to give the inexperienced Andrea Stramaccioni a chance as the permanent manager for this season after an impressive spell at the end of last season. There have been a couple of quality additions in Fredy Guarin from FC Porto, Handanovic who will replace Julio Cesar, Antonio Cassano and Rodrigo Palacio, who had a great season up front for Genoa last time out.

There haven’t been too many departures either with only Lucio, Diego Forlan and Goran Pandev moving on so it is a settled squad which may help the new manager. They will look again this season to the likes of experienced campaigners Wesley Sneijder, Maicon, Esteban Cambiasso, Diego Milito, Walter Samuel, Coutinho and the immortal Javier Zanetti. A push for one of the three Champions League places is a realistic expectation.

AC Milan

On the other side of Milan the situation doesn’t seem so rosy. Not just the old guards left AC Milan

(Seedorf, Gattuso, Inzaghi, Nesta….), they also sold two of their best players in Thiago Silva and

Zlatan Ibrahimovic. All these players have left huge boots to fill in.

Milan have signed a bunch of young players in Niang, Acerbi, Bojan, Gabriel plus some experienced ones in Montolivo, Pazzini and Zapata. If they are to achieve success this time, players like Boateng, Nocerino and Abate will need to step up a level and show that they are capable of leading a club like Milan into a new era.

The responsibility for goals will fall on Alexandre Pato who, after three strong seasons, struggled last term with injury and only managed one goal in the league. In summary, Milan’s situation will be an interesting one to watch this season and nobody is quite sure what to expect from them, still they need to aim for the

Champions League spot.

Napoli

After winning the Coppa Italia last term, Napoli will aim for more silverware this season. The loss

of Ezequiel Lavezzi to Paris St Germain is a blow and Inter have taken Walter Gargano but they

have brought in wonderkid Lorenzo Insigne who is capable of getting a decent goals tally in Serie A.

They have a great focal point in Edinson Cavani and a strong backbone to the side from front to

back including De Sanctis in goal, Cannavaro and Gamberini at the back, Inler in the centre of the

park, support from the wings in Vargas and Maggio, and the playmaking abilities of Hamsik who could be expected to feature a lot in his natural position behind the striker since Lavezzi has left. All in all, it is a strong squad that will fight for a top four finish.

AS Roma

After Project Barca 2.0 was a complete failure, AS Roma will try to get a European spot this season.

With new coach Zdenek Zeman in charge and legends like Totti and De Rossi plus younstars

Llamela, Pjanic and co., they have a great foundation for a successful season.

They lost young Italian international Borini to Liverpool, but signed Balzaretti and Destro - two other Italian national players. Whatever this season brings it is almost surely going to be done with flair, ultra-attacking all-guns-blazing style under Zeman, who is one of the only two managers in Serie A who are not Italian with the other across Rome at Lazio.

Lazio

After leading Lazio to an impressive 4th last term Edoardo Reja decided to leave the club and his replacement Vladimir Petkovic has a lot to live up to but does still have the majority of the squad to select from. Klose, Mauri, Zarate, Hernanes and Rocchi up front will deliver them a Europe League spot this term. Anything  less than that could be considered as a failure.

Fiorentina

After leading Catania to an 11th place finish, Vincenzo Montella left them to join underachieving

Fiorentina where he will look to revitalise the Viola with the help of Stevan Jovetic, Alberto

Aquilani, Pizarro and Borja Valero.

They might have lost their promising young defender Nastasic, but they have signed Gonzalo Rodriguez fro Villarreal – a resolute defender who is more than capable of handling tricky players.

Fiorentina will be the surprise team this season.

Udinese

Udinese finished third again last term, but once again failed to reach the Champions League group stage after getting knocked out against Braga in the playoffs. And yet again they sold their best players Isla, Asamoah and Handanovic.

Udinese would be hoping tha the void would be filled by new signing Maicosuel and Willians – both of whom have looked good in the games they have played so far. They still have strong performers in Pinzi, Armero, Danilo and top scorer Antonio Di Natale and with some uncertainty around teams expected to challenge for the Champions League who would bet against Udinese getting a top three place again?

The others…

Fighting for a surprise Europe League spot are Parma, Genoa, Palermo and, after their win against Milan, Sampdoria. Parma lost their best player in Giovinco, but are still full of talent to prove their critics wrong.

Genoa have completely renovated their team with players like Veloso gone and a bunch of new arrivals. They underperformed last season, but given the right tactical setup they can aim for a top 8 spot.

Eccentric president Zamparini wants his Palermo to perform this season and maybe he finally will keep Sannino for the whole season (however, we wouldn’t recommend you to bet on that!). Miccoli, Illicic and Hernandes are an impressive trio, however, it needs to be seen if the rest of the team can keep up with

them.

Cagliari, Atalanta, Chievo and Cantania will be happy with a mid-table finish, while newly promoted

Pescara and Torino, Bolgna and AC Siena (started with -6 points because of the match fixing

scandal) have to fight for relegation and things aren’t looking good for them.

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