Horncastle: Serie A Week 6 Review - Sarri's entertainers, Kondogbia's 28 minutes of hell, Falque slays his former employers
This was a relapse after the 4-0 win against Cagliari in midweek. Juventus miss the order, the geometry and the balance provided by Claudio Marchisio. Mistakes were made as they tried to build their play. Mario Lemina is a decent player but his positioning and passing need work. With the exception of a 45-minute spell against Sassuolo, Miralem Pjanic looks lost and Juventus struggled to find Gonzalo Higuain and Mario Mandzukic at the Favorita. By no means similar, they are perhaps not different enough to work as a partnership. On the few occasions they got the ball, they didn’t combine.
Injuries to Daniele Rugani and Kwadwo Asamoah don’t help. Rugani scored against Cagliari and was standing in for an out of sorts Giorgio Chiellini. Asamoah hasn’t played well since opening night against Fiorentina, but his absence leaves Juventus even shorter in midfield. On the bright side, though, Juventus are top of the table, 10 points better off than they were at this stage last season and have had an uphill start, facing four of the top seven in a tightly packed fixture list.
Napoli on the other hand remain an absolute joy to watch. Visiting Chievo were fourth going into this game and had given the San Paolo a scare in March when they got in front early. This time, however, Napoli were in complete control and the fluidity of their play is unrivalled in Italy. Their midfielders always have three options available to them when they are on the ball and Napoli’s left-hand side, in particular, continues to be irresistible. Faouzi Ghoulam is the best full-back in Serie A down that side, not only in his combination play with Marek Hamsik and Lorenzo Insigne but the quality of his crossing too.
Accused last season of being too rigid, Maurizio Sarri is tweaking things. There is more rotation. Two changes are better than none. Tactically speaking, Hamsik’s ability to cover effectively in front of the defence and pick up Jorginho’s baton, who Sarri wished to give 20 minutes rest, is a novelty this season. As is the narrowness of the front three, which means Napoli’s wingers are now closer to goal and more dangerous. However, the night belonged to Manolo Gabbiadini on Saturday, who opened his account for the season, and Hamsik, who, a week after overtaking Diego Maradona, scored his 100th goal for Napoli, a stunning achievement for a midfield player.
The other contenders lost ground this weekend. At San Siro, Inter’s winning streak came to an end with a draw against Bologna. You feared the worst for them when the news broke that Jeison Murillo and Joao Mario would miss the game after picking up injuries in Inter’s final training session. While Murillo’s stand-in, Andrea Ranocchia, missed a chance to win the game in the 95th minute he was by no means the liability he has become and, quite refreshingly, played well.
By contrast Joao Mario’s replacement didn’t leave the pitch with his head held high. Geoffrey Kondogbia had his worst day in an Inter shirt. The 23-year-old gave the ball away for Bologna’s goal and was substituted after an error-strewn 28 minutes. It sent a strong message to him and the team. Kondogbia has had a year in the league and a full pre-season. He is now running out of excuses, although, as Leonardo explained on Sky Italia last night, the wider his range of action the more his limits are exposed.
Kondogbia was at his best using his long stride to counter-attack into space at Sevilla and Monaco. Inter don’t play that way under de Boer and you wonder if a player unsuited to the team’s style can ever repay the €33m the club invested in him a year ago. It’s in Inter’s interest that de Boer tries. Afterwards, however, the coach couldn’t hide his frustration with the player. Mistakes he can put up with. Not listening? That he will not stand.
Clearly unafraid of taking his players on, Marcelo Brozovic is out in the cold at the moment for displaying a bad attitude. Assane Gnoukouri, a sub against Empoli and Bologna, seems to be the biggest benefactor of both their downfalls. Unsurprisingly given his Ajax schooling, De Boer is quietly putting faith in youth and handed a start to another 19-year-old, Senna Mbiangue on Sunday.
Zooming back out, Inter and Ever Banega in particular missed Joao Mario on Sunday. Dependent on Mauro Icardi and Ivan Perisic - who are still Inter’s only two goalscorers this season - de Boer needs to get other players among the goals. It would help if Inter stopped going behind as well. This was the fifth time in seven games they have conceded first. On the whole, though, this felt like only half a step-back. Inter played well and still seem on the right path, which is more than can be said for Roma.
It’s easy to concentrate on the defence. The truth is we probably won’t see the real Roma until Mario Rui and Antonio Rudiger recover from knee surgery. Only then will Roma’s backline be at full strength and everybody in their natural position. At the moment, Bruno Peres, the team’s right-back, is doing a job out of his comfort zone on the left and is playing full-back now, not wing-back, like at Torino: a different role necessitating a different interpretation. He was at fault on a number occasions yesterday and gave away a penalty. Predictably, Thomas Vermaelen is injured again and Fazio, like Peres, was too slow to react to danger on Sunday.
Roma had the best attack in Serie A going into the weekend. On the flip side only five teams in the league, have let in more goals and until Roma tighten things up, it’s difficult to imagine them mounting a serious title challenge. As Luciano Spalletti said, this team has too many highs and lows, and when the going gets tough, Roma don’t get going. They panic. They blackout and have lost back-to-back away games. Francesco Totti’s 250th goal two days before his 40th was the only thing to savour from result in Turin.
Antonio Barreca, 21, and Lucas Boyé, 20, caused Roma all kinds of problems with their purposeful running and Andrea Belotti, the league’s top scorer, showed Edin Dzeko the kind of bloody-minded determination you need to make your mark in this league. He scored, won a penalty and is averaging a goal every 58 minutes. It wouldn’t be a surprise if Belotti starts for his former manager Giampiero Ventura when Italy play Spain at the J Stadium on October 6.
As for Milan, they could have leapfrogged Roma and Inter and finished the weekend on the podium if they had won in Florence. Instead they creditably drew 0-0. It was their third clean sheet in a row and to put that into perspective, you have to go back all the way to May, 2013 to find the last time they were this solid at the back. It helps when you have a wunderkind in goal like Gigio Donnarumma. That said, a very young Milan - Romagnoli, De Sciglio, Calabria, Suso and Niang are all 23 or under - are defending much better as a collective, rushing men behind the ball whenever they lose it and organising themselves effectively. Four points from six against rivals for a place in Europe this week is not to be snubbed at.
Of course, Milan will no doubt have to reckon with bête noire Sassuolo - Gregoire Defrel, incidentally, has scored in four consecutive games - and maybe even Genoa. They deserved to win against Pescara yesterday and have a game in hand - at home to Fiorentina, which if they take maximum points from would see them go level with Inter. Ivan Juric looks a genuine coaching talent and the loss of Leonardo Pavoletti to injury didn’t hurt them at the weekend. Giovanni Simeone, El Cholito, scored on his first start, following in the footsteps of his father, Diego, 13 years after he last found the net in the league.
“The goal I got today was exactly the kind I like to score,” he said: put through one-v-one, and a neat open body finish. Simeone looked happy but timid in his post-match interview. In fact, you could be forgiven for thinking he wanted to be some place else. He soon revealed why. “I’ve got to call my Dad,” El Cholito smiled.
@JamesHorncastle
