Serie A Preview Part II 15-10 #897

15. Torino

One of the most underwhelming teams this season has been Torino. A historic 7th place finished going into last season gave the club reasons for optimism going into the campaign. Last year they finished near the bottom of the table despite the fact they were on the verge of making the Europa League the season before. Everything just seemed to collapse. The only constant things seem to be Andrea Belotti, who continues to score many goals season after season. The rest of the team has qualities, and even though I put them ahead at some of the teams, I’ve just mentioned they still have significant gaps. Sirigu is an excellent goalkeeper and continues to be productive despite being 32 years old. Whether or not he leaves during the transfer window is yet to be discovered. Torino has a decent Midfield that can turn it on and be effective . Torino is going to die with their defense. Even though they performed well a couple of years ago, they just aren’t the same, and they’ve been Blitz multiple times last season. Torino still has many unanswered questions; whether or not this manager is the one to take them through the entire season is unclear, but Andrea Belotti scoring goals will be enough to really push them into a productive area of the table. Torino hasn’t made that many changes to the team; they just don’t look that much better than they did last season. I think you will more less see more of the same from them this year will be mainly behind what Andre Belotti you can do in the scoring Department. Still, even with that, his goals aren’t going to be enough to push them into a mid-table position. I’m not sure they’re ever going to be threatened by the relegation Zone, although this part of the table, if possible. Still, I just don’t see this team haven’t gotten any better since the last campaign; this is more or less where they’ll finish. It will be on the foot of Andrea Belotti if he can go for over 20 goals, maybe they can reach mid-table, but the rest of the team just simply isn’t strong enough.

14. Hellas Verona

Hellas Verona took the lead by storm last season. They had one of the worst rosters on paper going into the campaign and ended up vastly overachieving their expectations. I think it is doubtful that they will be able to recreate that, especially they have lost several key components of their team. However, they’ll still have a very productive campaign. As it stands, kumbula Still Remains on the team despite having interest from Lazio. If he leaves, I don’t know if it changes anything but kumbula will be an essential piece. They’re losing pieces, but they have secured the services of several decent signing that should help them. Igor Juric was the best manager in Italian football last season for what he did with his team. He’s back again, and it’s signed a new contract extension, which gives this team a terrific chance to try to build momentum on all that. The team isn’t going to be stronger, but they have what it takes within their team and with his approach to continue to push forward. They arent going to be the same thing; there will be some significant drop-off but as it stands, they still have a bunch of good players on their team capable of being a tough out for many teams this season. They won’t be finishing in the top 10 this season, but I don’t think they will fall that far out of it; they have shown the qualities necessary last season, and they have enough depth they have quality in the side to be a factor in Italian football still even though they’re unlikely to repeat similar success.

13. Benevento

In 13th, I have Benevento making some noise ahead of this campaign. They were the winners in Serie B last and have returned to the top-flight just one season. The last time this team was in the first division, they struggled mightily & was one of the worst teams in Italian football history. Only to be outdone by Chievo Verona the next season, but truly they struggled because they did not prepare for Italian football. This year they’ve done it a little bit; differently, promotion teams coming in have a goal scorer, a solid defense, and a good defense that can keep them in games. I think that’s a part of the game that they will struggle with. However, with some of the signings, they made they will be able to pick up a lot of points against mid-table and the relegation zone. Their defense is the thing I’m looking at; they brought in Jinks from Monaco, who also played a good portion of his career in Italy with Torino. On top of that, they have added Gianluca Lapadula; he may not be the most antagonizing piece of the team but still has more than enough quality to give them a couple of goals. They also have some of the top scores from Serie B last season and have made a couple really under radar signing that could turn out to be something special. Unfortunately, Benevento will not be taking Justin kluivert on loan as Roma is going to use him next season, which looks like it could have been a possibility before Nicolo zaniolo tore his ACL. Even if they can’t land the Dutchman, they have enough quality piercing through this team. Last year Hellas Verona massively overachieved what they were expected Benevento have the right players in there to stay in Serie A after next season; a top 13 finish this season it’s something I think they’re well capable of. Inzaghi is not the best coach, and he will need to come up big in a tactical sense but based on the roster they have, they are far too good to be in a relegation battle among the promotion teams they’re easily the best from back to front and really have an excellent opportunity to finish well away from the relegation zone. Something that the other from newly promoted teams will struggle with they have made the right signings and done terrific business in the transfer market, this will undoubtedly help them in the new campaign.

12. Cagliari

Cagliari last season was a solid team that showed some real sense of a killer inside. They have the quality from back to front and was in the Champions League race for a part of the season. They ended up finishing a mid-table, but there was a team that shows their capabilities of getting results against big teams and starting to perform. It seemed like they were missing something. Radja nainggolan was one of the best signings of the season last year; he was truly remarkable for Calgary. If they were able to land him again this season, you might have a different perspective in regards to this team. However, this team had more quality then just Raja. Unfortunately, he is returning to Inter Milan this season, but Calgary has done some made some strong moves. They hired Eusebio di Francesco who previously coached Roma Sassuolo and Sampdoria. He was the coach that took Roma to the Champions League semi-final, which included a massive comeback against Barcelona. He was given an unfortunate situation last year with Sampdoria and did not hang on to his job for very long. This is a perfect situation for him as they get a significant upgrade at the manager. He is in the process of signing Federico Fazio, someone he worked with at Roma for his time there, and Diego Godin, who did not have the Inter Milan season he was hoping for it. He has the experience to a backline, and this team already has Joao Pedro scoring the goals, which was one the top scorers in the league last season. Leonardo pavoletti, coming off a season which he was injured most of the year he’s coming back fresh and energized. With Giovanni Simeone as another striking option, they have the quality from back to front and even added under the radar signing a Razvan Marin, the Romanian midfielder from Ajax someone who can be really important to their Midfield this season that already has quality. It won’t be as strong without radja nainggolan, but this team has the quality and could even finish higher than this. All that together with Alessio cragno protecting the goal. This team has high-quality players from each position, and on top of that, they have the experience and an upgrade at a manager that will help his team push forward. They might even finish in the top 10 on top of all that, but they should finish healthfully in mid-table given the qualities that they have.

11. Fiorentina

Florentina has been for the last couple of years one of the most overhyped teams in all of Italian football. With the new ownership, they came into last season with all these great expectations and it’s not only that they have an excellent young Squad with a mix of Veteran experience as well. There’s no logical reason why Florentina did as poorly as they did last season. I understand they got 10th, but that was only because of the restart; if the restart doesn’t happen, they would have been nowhere near that part of the table. And let’s not forget they almost got relegated the year before. They still have a really young Squad with Federico Chiesa, Dustin vladovic, and Castrovilli with experience with Franck Ribery and Patrick Cutone. Not to mention they still have managed to hang on to their best defender,milinkovich , who continues to be courted by a lot of Italian teams.: a good goalkeeper and Federico draganoski. There’s a lot of things to like about this team , and they’re too talented and not at least finished in the top 12. I have them just outside the top 10 just because I believe in Parma more. It looks like they’re going to add Lucas torreira from Arsenal, which should be in a fusion of energy listed into the team. But equally , they’re letting go of Marco Benassi ,who’s going to be joining Hellas Verona on loan this season. He is under the radar in a really exceptional player that’s not going to be included in this team going forward. There’s a lot of good things they have to like about this team; they just don’t have the other ingredients necessary to really pushing to Europe. They will finish in 11th my opinion, but at no point this season will they look like a team that’s going to push for Europe. Federico Chiesa is a really talented player, but he’s arrogant he’s a little selfish, and frankly, he’s just a little bit overrated. They need to play as a team together if they really want to see a certain level of quality. The worst part of this entire thing is their manager; they had other managers available, and they kept the caretaker manager that did only okay. He will not make it through the season. You can’t deny the Talent they have enough ingredients to push comfortably into the top half of the table, but I think they’re going to come up short in big moments, which is why they will fall just outside of the top 10. They always fall short of their validation and their expectations of what the roster says that they should . There’s a lot to like with this team, but again they’ll just find a way to come up short once again. I cannot look at this team in any other way until they show me otherwise, so until that happens, I’m just going to assume they’re going to choke when it matters the most, and they’re not going to have the season we should expect from them.

10. Parma

We approach the top 10, the upper part of the table teams in this section will be at least attempting to get into a European Place one way or another. It won’t happen for everyone, but in this section, teams will have a puncher’s chance of getting into at least the Europa League. In the 10th spot, I went with Parma. Parma was a team that was one of Europe’s best for some time until they went through bankruptcy and ended up falling down into the third tier of Italian football. Three straight promotions got them back up to the big time, and have been a fascinating and fun team to watch since they have returned. They lost their young Talent to Juventus. However, this Parma team is strong on all fronts. They had a lot of good pieces and components to a really underrated Midfield that is really good with ball distribution and can dictate the game at times. The most admirable thing about this team is the attack. With Gervinho Andre Cornelius and Yann karamoh, who did not play a huge role last season but this season, I think he will get regular minutes and start a good portion of the game, potentially seeing a breakout season that we saw with him at Inter Milan a few years ago. The defense isn’t the best, but it can hold up against some big teams Kucka is an absolute monster defensively multiple times last season; he posed as a significant problem for opposing attackers. As always, Luigi sepe one of the most under radar goalkeepers in all of Italian football. Then to cap it all off, they have lecce coach Viviani who did a tremendous job with the team that got relegated. With a team with quality inside of, it’s only going to take them up a level with a coach of his caliber. Back to the front, they have significantly more quality then Florentina; despite their young Talent Parma have a complete team that may not get into Europe but certainly will push the top half of the table and maybe with a puncher’s chance for the Europa League it’s hard to say at this point, but they have a team that should not finish anywhere below 10th a very underrated well-coached team should take an even bigger step this upcoming season.