Topic: Italian League Prediction Thread (Serie A) - page 859. (Read 822631 times)

This really deserves 2 merits although I don't give out merits very often. But I have a lot of them left. Since finally someone agrees with me I thought it is time to hand some out. Everyone is entitled to their own points of view and I would even merit a post if I tend to disagree, but it is well explained. But this talk about teams to lose focus when they play the best matches possible in professional football, I don't get it. ItÄs like saying that Klitschko will lose every fight because he was too focused to get to the top that now he isn't as focused anymore and instead distracted. lol -> I know he is retired, no worries!

I am fully convinced that players who play in all tournaments, who feel they can beat everyone, who play the most games because they are in all competitions, will get the best out of themselves. Even more than players that play less games with more recovery. Do you remember when Napoli began to lose games last season? It was when they lost this unbelievable fight with Milan in the Champions League. Then they lost focus in the league because it extinguished some of their inner fire. So people around here, it is the other way around! The harder a football player's life, the stronger they compete! The harder the upcoming box fight, the harder the training and the higher the focus.

Realistically, their chances of winning the league this year are quite low. This year, they will fight to finish the league in the top four places without winning the Scudetto again. I interpret this performance in Napoli this year as quite disappointing. At the end of the year, they will probably part ways with most of their players and return to the Napoli image of trying to finish at the top of the league.

That counter attacking football to the first goal was damn beautiful, iv seen that goal for more than three times now this evening. You could see how selfish the player was to set up his mate for that goal. Even the fans was happy to see that goal. Genoa tried to fight back to score but it wasn't a easy task. Genoa players kept the  Sassuolo keeper quite occupied and busy.
Genoa pressured hard to score goals regardless but Sassuolo held the first half until the whistle was blown.

I still don't think that the penalty given wasn't well rewarded or awarded. But that was a good spot kick taking decisions to level things up. Some defenders and defending errors though tonight led to Genoa winning the game.
It was good and lovely to see them celebrating with the fans.

Ended 2-2.

2 more points lost from Milan, and now they will have almost an impossible task to catch up Inter.

It is December but Inter almost already won the title at this point.

AC Milan threw away 3 points in today match because they couldn't beat the bottom team in the standings. There is nothing interesting with AC Milan this season, they are not too focused on what they are aiming for in Serie A. They lost full points in today match due to their unstable play after leading 1-0. I think AC Milan is not a team that is competing for the Scudetto this season.

Salernitana was able to play better than Ac Milan. Salernitana even put AC Milan behind after successfully coming back with goals scored by Fazio and Candreva, but in the final minutes, AC Milan managed to score another goal which made this match end in a draw.  good results for Salernitana but not the results that AC Milan wants.

The match is very tough because Milan almost lose the match because they conceded a second goal before Olivier Giroud score the equalizer for Milan in 90 plus minutes. Milan performance is not as consistent as Inter Milan and Juventus that is why they are nine points behind Inter Milan. they are also not playing as a team that is competing for the Seria A title because they are not reliable anymore since they couldn't make it to the Champions League round of 16, and today again they almost lost to bottom table team that has won just one match so far since the beginning of the 2023/24 Seria A campaign; they need to improve in order to challenge for the title.

The game has just finished by a 2-2 draw. It is really unbelievable that Milan lost two points in the easiest game in their fixture. Salernitana even got ahead by 2-1 and could have really won the game as well. Jovic's goal was a life saver for Milan there in the 90th minute. I don't know how Milan couldn't beat even the last team in the standings. 

They aren't competitive for the league title this season that's for sure. Juventus and Inter will get away from them more by this week probably. The title competition is very likely to be only between these two teams considering the performances of other teams below.

Mazzarri might be facing challenges, but labeling him as a failure prematurely indeed overlooks the complexities of such transitions, because adapting to a new team and league is a process that takes time. The Serie A is known for its tactical intricacies where where a team will fall short if the team play the quite same tactics every season. The Manager often needs time to implement their strategies and get the best out of their players.

A club need stability and continuity to regain their peak form. Tjis is why changing a coach mid-season, especially for a club of Napoli's stature, is not a good idea. Frequent coaching changes can disrupt the team's rhythm and hinder long-term planning. It's not just about the results of a few matches, but it's about building a foundation for sustained success. management's change is also a rapid changes in coaching staff that can lead to financial strain, not only in terms of paying off existing contracts but also in securing new coaching talent. Clubs must balance the desire for immediate success with the need for a stable and ethical approach to managing their resources.

The Italian league seems to get tougher and teams are rapidly growing into high worth, quality and class. The growth is evident and enviable too. This makes for the widespread fun in the league race too. It's not so easy to predict the outcome of the games too. Juventus are good, so is Milan, Napoli and even Frosinone too. But among the above stated team Frosinone is the least of them all.

 Inter Milan too are in good form and these teams are lasting threats. The race for the trophy is tough and all teams are determined and unwavering at their goal. The strongest teams of the league are Juventus and Inter and the odds for the trophy for these teams are very very much alike. Inter are faced with the European contest and for Juventus, they've still got extra time to prepare ahead for the league games.

Lazio's game plan is more counter-attacking intensive

It means Maurizio trusts this game more. I was not impressed with the goals scored because there was a bit of force in the goals. Empoli's defense could not clear it. How many times did the ball return from the goalkeeper or the defender?

If you cannot clear the ball more than necessary in the dangerous area, eventually a goal will be scored and that is how Lazio scored their goals. A new page after two defeats, let's see if they can continue this page, it seems a little difficult with the game they are playing.

Although there are some matches that Mazzari has let slip away without full points at the moment I still wouldn't say he is a failure even though this possibility is quite large because after all when looking at the situation now Mazzari will actually still be considered a form of adaptation for him and indeed this is not going too well.

But what is certain now regardless of whatever happens is that Mazzari will still be behind Napoli's coaching at least until the end of the season because honestly I doubt if Napoli will change their coach again even though they failed because after all it is not too ethical to see a change of coach done very quickly for a big club like Napoli especially this also refers to their finances of course.

Title defence is one of the most tedious task in football nowadays and Napoli's case is not exception, and am not surprised seeing them struggle the way they are doing this season but I expect to see them finish at the top four in the table log so they can have a place in the champions league, at least they deserve that even if there was a change in the coaching crew which i think is responsible for their recent decline but i think they will be fine as soon as because such is expected whenever a new coaching crew comes on board in any team, but as for the title race, count napoli out, they are not anywhere near that circle this season.

For Lazio it was a clean win, but Empoli had more attacks than Lazio and more ball possession. I know that Lazio has never really put emphasis on having the ball a lot within their team, but it is still an indicator that Lazio is missing a lot of the good things they were usually known for. The efficiency was good in this game and the defense seems to have been good as well, but it might also have been the weakness of Empoli to not make use of any of their attempts. But Lazio is still far away from the upper part of the table.

AC Milan has to win this game or otherwise Fiorentina and Bologna will soon say hello to them. By the way, did anyone notice the positive trend for Bologna? I was surprised when I saw them so far up in the table and I only checked for them because they beat Inter Milan recently.

1-1 so far between Milan and Salernitana!

And Maignan saved a goal too...

Good point and I fully agree with you because the current situation of Napoli is far from the situation in which they can even think about winning the title of Serie A as they won in the last season and I think the only thing they can do is to try giving their new coach Walter Mazzari some more time to make the team in the more stable situation and hope for them to get a better place in the table.
After Luciano Spalletti left the team during the summer they could never be in good form anymore.

After two matches without a win, then in this match Lazio managed to beat Empoli even with a clean sheet . But ya, even though Laizo managed to win, it looks like Lazio only relied on counter attacks. Because after all, according to the statistics in this match, in reality Empoli still has quite good statistics but unfortunately, Empoli did not manage to score a goal.

So yes, Empoli's defeat this time will of course keep Empoli in the relegation zone, but even so, Empoli still has a points gap that is not too far from the teams above them. Also, even though Lazio looks like they won easily in this match, but I personally not too impressed because ya, basically Lazio this season is not as good as last season because last season Lazio managed to finish in second place.

Since Luciano Spalletti decided to leave Napoli, I no longer believe in how good Napoli's competition in Serie A will be in defending its title. Napoli are having difficulty maintaining their good performance like last season and they feel forced to change coaches twice this season by firing Rudi Garcia and appointing Walter Mazzarri as head coach.

Currently, Napoli is struggling in 5th position with the same points as Fiorentina. Napoli is having difficulty breaking into the Champions League zone because the stability of their performance is the most obvious problem at the moment, of course because they tend to lose more points. Until week 16, Napoli had suffered 5 defeats and 3 draws in 16 matches. So in my opinion, Napoli will not defend their title and will probably just struggle to qualify for the Champions League next season.

Napoli have been eliminated in the Copa Italia, while in Serie A they are also having difficulty retaining the trophy, especially when talking about Osimhen and his colleagues chances in the European Champions League competition. At this time the situation is leading to decline, the change of coach has not shown a significant impact in creating consistency, it takes some time to adapt, but it cannot change the fact that the dismissal of Garcia is no better for changing the club's future fate. Mazzarri is an experienced coach, but in my opinion he is not the right person for Napoli.

Previously I thought that if Garcia was fired, Napoli management would appoint Conte as the new manager, but unexpectedly they appointed Mazzarri for the second time. Of course they have to do something immediately, I mean increase the intensity of the game and create consistency so they can stay in the top four of the standings. However, regarding trophies, it is very likely that Napoli will be fasting for a title this season. Moreover, if they release Osimhen to join another club in the january transfer window, Napoli could lose balance and it will most likely be difficult to finish in the four UCL zones.

To be perfectly honest with you, Mazzari seems like a better manager than the guy who was the manager at the start. For some reason Italian managers do a lot better at Italy than managers from other nations. This isn't always true everywhere, like you do not have to be a French person to win something at ligue 1, or Spanish to win at la liga, look at ancelotti and real, look at pep and city, it is not really a must in other leagues.

But for some reason if you are Italian, you do end up being a little bit better, or have some edge over other managers at serie a. Mazzeri looks like someone who could do well enough, I am not saying Napoli will win anything, it is too late for them, but it looks like he could actually do some decent recovery for this team.

I definitely agree with you. The best Napoli can achieve this season is top 4 and secure themselves a Champions League spot for next year. I don't see them winning the Uefa Champions League and they are out of the Copa Italia after their huge loss against Frosinone 4-0.

Napoli has not been able to do what they achieved last season. Last season they dominated the Serie A and won the Scudetto. This season Inter Milan are the likely winner of Serie A. They are 4 points ahead of Juventus and I don't think Juventus can achieve them. Juventus has definitely developed a lot in the past few seasons.