Inter topped winter champion… TEN THINGS WE LEARNED in Serie A

Inter Milan beat relegation-threatened Hellas Verona 2-1 in dramatic type at San Siro on Saturday to seal the symbolic ‘winter champions’ title that goes to the crew on the high of Serie A on the season’s half-way mark. 

Inter have 48 factors from 19 video games, two factors greater than second-placed Juventus, who beat backside facet Salernitana. AC Milan claimed their fifth win of their final six matches to reveal that they’ve overcome a second of nice issue. 

And Albert Gudmundsson scored his eighth aim for Genoa in Serie A this season in opposition to Bologna.  Mail Sport covers 10 issues we realized from spherical 19 this weekend.

1 – INTER WINTER CHAMPIONS IN SERIE A, HALF THE SCUDETTO IS IN YOUR POCKET

After a dramatic 112 minutes, two targets, a crimson card and a missed penalty by Verona, Inter had been topped winter champions. 

Inter does their gown rehearsals in view of the ultimate victory and wins three elementary factors in opposition to a naive Verona – who ends the match with 10 males and misses a sensational penalty with their attacking big Thomas Henry. 

Two years in the past Simone Inzaghi reached the midway level of the championship with 46 factors with out managing to win Scudetto. The precedents date again to 2006-07, when with Roberto Mancini Inter concluded the primary Italian championship with 51 factors and to 2007-08 when, once more with former Italy coach, Nerazzurri reached 49 factors. 

Inter is an ideal machine that has many high quality gamers, who’re additionally decisive when coming into the pitch from bench. 

The profitable aim scored by Davide Frattesi demonstrates how even gamers not thought-about starters are elementary for Simone Inzaghi. 

Despite the controversy over the quite a few refereeing errors suffered by Verona, Inter will be glad with the extraordinary feeling between Marcus Thuram and the returning Lautaro Martinez. Also in midfield Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Nicolo’ Barella suggest themselves in assault but in addition act as added defenders when the defence suffers.

2 – AC MILAN MADE IN CHELSEA

Ruben Loftus-Cheek and Olivier Giroud gave three factors to Milan who gained the fifth of the final six matches demonstrating that they’ve overcome a second of nice issue. 

The away win in Serie A that had been lacking since October 7 2023 and these three factors consolidate third place within the standings. 

When the 2 former Chelsea champions are in acceptable bodily circumstances, they show to be essentially the most charismatic gamers on the crew, taking part in a technically good match in opposition to Empoli. 

Loftus-Cheek scored his second aim of the season, incomes the penalty to make it 2-0. The high English participant is tidy and dynamic, taking part in ‘field to field’ slicing vertically throughout the pitch till the substitution requested by coach Stefano Pioli to present him some relaxation. 

Giroud, then again, is experiencing a second of nice confusion off the pitch because of the issues associated to the contract renewal which is gradual in arriving. The French star is an exemplary skilled, he performs with a small physique however returns to attain and stays on the pitch for 90 minutes, reminding the Rossoneri employees that he’s the very best participant within the assault. 

AC Milan appears to have returned to an excellent stage of efficiency and the presence of gamers with nice worldwide expertise reminiscent of Loftus-Cheek and Giroud facilitates the character progress of all the crew. 

In latest weeks, Mr. Pioli has additionally most well-liked to incorporate many younger gamers reminiscent of Francesco Camarda, Jan-Carlo Simic and Chaka Traorè, the latter scoring his first aim in Serie A in opposition to Empoli, to take advantage of the presence of the two high gamers on the pitch gamers coming from Chelsea.

3 – MANCHESTER UNITED, WASN’T IT BETTER TO SPEND €5 MILLION ON GUDMUNSSON AND NOT €100 ON ANTHONY?

Albert Gudmundsson price Genoa lower than €5million (£4.2m) and scored eight targets in 19 video games in his first 12 months in Serie A, whereas taking pictures star Anthony price Manchester United €100m and after over 1000 minutes within the Premier League, he nonetheless doesn’t even a single aim. 

The Red Devils followers get indignant each time they see Genoa’s Icelandic winger rating, so decisive in a troublesome championship just like the Italian one, which price 20 instances lower than Anthony. Gudmundsson has scored on this season greater than every other Genoa participant in Serie A, proving to be some of the decisive gamers in Rossoblu crew. 

Celeb Ekuban has by no means been a centre ahead able to scoring 15/20 targets a 12 months and never even the little Scandinavian star Gudmundsson appeared to supply sufficient ensures to face up to the impression with Serie A. He runs, fights, scores and by no means stops smiling on the pitch: he appears to be a Brazilian participant because of the pleasure with which he performs soccer and as an alternative he was born in Reykjavík, within the capital of freezing Iceland. 

During the championship Mateo Retegui suffered many stops resulting from quite a few small accidents and Gudmundsson thankfully started to attain with nice regularity. The aim in opposition to Bologna is a small masterpiece of crafty and technical means and if in 98th minute his free kick had not hit the crossbar, at the moment the Icelandic elf would most likely be thought-about the most effective gamers in Italian championship. 

The feeling is that these will likely be his final six months at Genoa earlier than changing into some of the beneficial and wanted gamers on the Serie A summer season market.

4 – NAPOLI FLOP, TEAM BURNED BY PRESIDENT DE LAURENTIIS’ ERRORS

The defeat in opposition to Torino represents the top of Napoli’s desires of glory. Napoli is experiencing a adverse second which appears to substantiate the analyses carried out on these pages on the day Walter Mazzarri’s return to the bench was made official. 

The nostalgia impact didn’t have the specified results and the crew seen in opposition to Torino is unrecognizable, unfit to combat for the highest positions within the championship. The crimson card of latest signing Pasquale Mazzocchi, who had simply entered the pitch, within the first three minutes of the second half is proof of how psychologically the crew is in issue. At a time when all of the gamers must be giving extra, a brief circuit appears to be created which entails all departments. 

President Aurelio De Laurentiis just lately admitted his errors in constructing the crew in the summertime however it’s clear that an irreversible strategy of emptying the crew has been created. 

Walter Mazzarri is the least appropriate particular person to handle this emergency and on this emotional collapse there are additionally different technical issues. Napoli ends the primary a part of Serie A with simply 28 factors, slightly below half of the factors collected final season, confirming that they’ve had a nightmare season to date. The substitutions of Zielinski, Politano and Raspadori additionally open a rift throughout the locker room between dissatisfied gamers and tactical confusions that coach Mazzarri, albeit unintentionally, is creating within the gamers’ heads. 

Adding to the crew’s issues is the goalkeeper drawback: Alex Meret is at present injured and has not but renewed his contract expiring in June 2024. He shouldn’t be calm and the coach appears to wish to proceed to belief Pierluigi Gollini.

5 – JUVENTUS FANS MUST GIVE A GOLD MEDAL TO MASSIMILIANO ALLEGRI

Massimiliano Allegri deserves to obtain a gold medal from his followers for having introduced Juventus to simply 2 factors behind leaders Inter with a crew decimated by accidents and suspensions. 

‘Napoleone’ Allegri does nothing incorrect within the Salerno rain: he removes Filip Kostic on the proper time and favours the insertion of Samuel Iling-Junior, scorer of the equalising aim, inserts Arek Milik with out eradicating Kenan Yldiz and above all leaves Dusan Vlahovic on the pitch regardless of errors made as much as the extraordinary aim in ninetieth minute. 

He has intuitions worthy of the good French strategist, lives on strokes of genius and depends on his deputy Marco Landucci for all of the bureaucratic procedures, leaving him essentially the most boring work. He has constructed a crew that fights to the top, suffers and transforms moments of nice stress into tablets of maximum knowledge by guiding the gamers in direction of the only selections. 

Allegri led 13 totally different gamers to attain in Serie A, a seasonal statistical file, making a crew with out reference factors. His crew exhibits they’ve pleasure and need to win, they’re 14 factors forward of the final place accessible for the Champions League and now Allegri can construct a scudetto comeback that will grow to be historic.

6 – BOLOGNA SUFFERS FROM VERTIGO

When nice mountaineers go very excessive, climbing the height of the mountain, they start to really feel the stress and are afraid of falling. A bit like Bologna who, after a rare begin to Serie A within the final 2 matches, have undergone 2 classes in humility, acquiring 1 defeat in opposition to Udinese and a draw in opposition to Genoa. 

Thiago Motta’s crew clearly exhibits indicators of slowing down and we have to get again into the very best bodily and psychological situation as quickly as attainable. After 6 consecutive house victories, Thiago Motta’s crew averted defeat with the aim scored within the ninety fifth minute by Lorenzo De Silvestri displaying many tactical and technical cracks. Only 1 level out of the 6 accessible: at this second the adverse outcomes carry the bold Emilian crew again to planet earth, lowering their European desires. 

When Zirkzee and Orsolini make the incorrect method to the match, the entire crew loses focus and effectiveness, displaying their technical limits. The actual disappointment of the large match was essentially the most awaited man, Joshua Zirkzee. His first match as captain of Bologna coincides with the worst efficiency of his season for the Emilian crew. For lengthy stretches of the match he appeared gradual and predictable, nearly absent from the sphere, maybe distracted by the switch rumours regarding him. He by no means discovered the proper areas to shine, with defenders Radu Dragusin and Alessandro Vogliacco following him physique to physique all through the pitch.

7 – ARE WE SURE THAT KHVICHA KVARATSKHELIA IS A TOP PLAYER?

Kvaratskhelia is now not the participant able to altering the sport together with his dribbling and targets. After profitable the league title, Georgian winger misplaced his brilliance and slowly ran out of aggressive power. He spends a lot of the matches complaining about refereeing selections, he misses many passes, he runs quite a bit however he does it in a confused and unintelligent manner. 

It’s as if he had forgotten how you can play soccer, he loses many duels with the Torino defence and maybe begins to disclose himself for what he actually is: an excellent participant who has skilled a rare and unrepeatable 12 months. Nervous and never very concrete, as usually occurs to him currently, he suffers the bodily power of the defender Djidji and is unable to seek out his stellar performs. 

His market valuation has collapsed and if in the summertime his worth had been 100 million euros, at the moment it might be troublesome to ask for 60 per cent of the financial valuation of some months in the past. Georgian participant is definitely unhappy concerning the progress of Napoli’s season however objectively he’s a participant in nice technical and psychological decline. 

Compared to Victor Osimhen he scores a lot lower than final 12 months and even seems listless. We have to work quite a bit on his persona to stop him from losing an awesome profession that has simply begun.

8 – JOSEP MARTINEZ IS A HIGH LEVEL GOALKEEPER

Spanish goalkeeper Martinez is a pleasing discovery for Serie A. Little appreciated in Spain, Genoa’s no 1 is proving to be attentive and concentrated in addition to very reactive. Against Bologna he confirmed off his total repertoire with out ever making technical errors. He was surgical in neutralizing a toxic shot from Riccardo Orsolini within the first half, displaying nice mastery inside his personal penalty space. 

In the second half he made a decisive save on defender Riccardo Calafiori. Blameless on Lorenzo De Silvestri’s aim, Martinez is taking part in the very best championship of his profession after varied makes an attempt to grow to be a starter in Las Palmas and Leipzig. In Italy he improved technically and at the moment, regardless of not being a phenomenon, he’s expert each together with his ft and in high and low exits: he’s greater than adequate in each attribute {that a} good goalkeeper will need to have to be a starter in Serie A. 

Maybe he will not have the qualities of a high participant however Martinez definitely has the chance to enhance additional by honing good technical abilities. Genoa have not had such a dependable goalkeeper for a few years and the Spanish star continues to shine and make only a few technical errors, main the defence with nice charisma.

He is within the listing of the 5 finest goalkeepers in Serie A after Szcesny, Sommer, Maignan and Ochoa and Genoa might grow to be the best springboard for a brand new journey in a high membership.

9 – SOULÈ POSITIVE AND NEGATIVE PROTAGONIST FOR FROSINONE

Matias Soule is the protagonist in each senses of the match on the Stirpe stadium. First he scores an personal aim which breaks the crew’s morale and subsequently scores a penalty awarded by the referee. 

This time there are not any explicit justifications: the Juventus jewel on mortgage to Frosinone has little need to combat, few concepts and plenty of dangerous luck, giving Monza the 0-3 with a sensational personal aim. The younger Argentine performed the primary actually adverse match of his profession, however confirmed off the persona of a high participant, taking up the duty of kicking a penalty that might have reopened the match. 

Massimiliano Allegri’s option to ship him on mortgage for a 12 months was clever as a result of it’s in these adverse moments for the crew and for the participant {that a} younger expertise can work on his limits. Soulè must be taught to be extra aggressive and above all he must put extra muscle groups on his skinny physique, remembering how he generally needs to be harder in bodily interventions. 

Mister Eusebio Di Francesco must proceed engaged on him and there may be the entire second a part of the season to attain additional enhancements.

10 – WHAT HAPPENED TO KRISTOVIC?

At the start of the championship it appeared he could possibly be Ernesto Chevanton’s inheritor however at the moment, after 19 video games, Nikola Krstovic appears to have ended up on a Serie A pitch by likelihood, with out even deserving it. 

He struggles to juggle within the presence of the two mastiffs Alberto Dossena and Edoardo Goldaniga however exhibits that he has not but understood the tactical intelligence of the Italian defenders. 

Montenegrin striker failed in essentially the most sensational goal-scoring try: an error that recalled that of Edin Dzeko in 2016 in Roma’s match in opposition to Palermo. Krstovic hasn’t scored since October 6, 2023 and abstinence from scoring is changing into a really significant issue. 

To date, Kristovic has performed 18 video games in Serie A and scored solely 4 targets, all within the first video games: too small a haul to hope to go away his mark on Lecce’s historical past. His soccer is simply sufficient for a troublesome championship like Serie A however he ought to rating many targets and never miss many in an empty web, with the goalkeeper mendacity on the bottom simply over a meter away from him. 

Krstovic makes sensational novice errors however firmly holds his place as a starter by bodily clashing with all of the gamers who go by him. Part of the group boos his each intervention, an ungenerous angle in direction of a participant who accumulates kilometres in each match however who suffers tremendously from the suffocating management of opposing defenders.