Welcome back to the Serie A show with me James
Horncastle. Today we will be looking back
at a selection of games from the weekend - we
will also be focusing on some of the set pieces
in Serie A this season and don't forget to
subscribe just click on the g.
It was Juventus’ biggest win in 31 years
and like against Ascoli, when Platini, Rossi
and Penzo scored braces in a 7-0 shellacking
in 1983, so too did Llorente, Morata and Tevez
against Parma on Sunday. Tevez, in the blue
and yellow of Turin, looked like he was back
at Boca and scored the goal of the weekend
drawing comparisons with Ronaldo against Compostela
and Maradona against England for his solo
effort when, let’s be honest, it was probably
a little more like Adriano against Udinese.
Juventus were playing a new Christmas tree
formation and there were plenty of presents
beneath it. After sensibly biding his time
and picking his moment, Max Allegri has moved
on from Conte’s 3-5-2 and is making this
team his own. Could the new system be the
catalyst for European success? They’ll face
tougher opponents than Parma on the continent.
The Gialloblu now shipped 28 goals, have the
worst defence among Europe’s top five leagues
and are now back at the bottom of the table.
Crespo’s shadow looms again over Donadoni
and there’s talk of a takeover by an Albanian
oil baron too. Watch this space.
The Pharoah finally made his goal drought
Ancient History. Stephan El Shaarawy scored
for the first time in Serie A in 622 days
in Milan’s 2-2 draw with Samp, breaking
down in tears after liberating himself from
the torment. Roma blitzed Torino 3-0 at the
Olimpico, Adem Ljajic scored the pick of the
bunch, silencing the newspapermen claiming
he’ll be on his way in January. The big
news, if we ignore the disappointment Francesco
Totti showed at his substitution, was the
return of Kevin Strootman eight months on
from his knee injury. He came on for Seydou
Keita and played the final six minutes. Roma
will ease him back into the side. The idea
that they’d loan him out to Manchester United
in January is quite frankly preposterous.
As Jim Pallotta says, these stories are a
waste of paper. In other news, Napoli are
now only a point behind Roma after their 1-0
win at Fiorentina. Unfortunately though the
in-form Lorenzo Insigne ruptured his knee
ligaments and will be out for 4-6 months.
Get well soon.
Only Gianluca Pagliuca has saved more penalties
in Serie A than Samir Handanovic. His stop
from Luca Toni on the spot was the 20th penalty
of his career on a day when Genoa’s Mattia
Perin and Udinese’s Orestis Karnezis also
made saves from 12 yards. Incidentally 13
penalties have been saved in Serie A this
season. Handanovic’s though wasn’t enough
to clinch a win for Inter against Verona.
Nico Lopez made it 2-2 five minutes from the
end. The whistles descended from the Curva
Nord. Mauro Icardi said it’s like playing
away from home. And there was derision as
Walter Mazzarri blamed the rain. Never sacked
before, he looks on the brink. Do Inter get
rid now and give a new coach, Stefano Vecchi,
Leonardo or Mancini 2 weeks to prepare the
team or do they wait until after the derby
and the trip to Roma? We’ll see. Mazzarri
could save himself yet.
He was the lowest paid coach in the league
and finally aged 55 deservedly reached the
top flight for the first time this summer,
Empoli coach Maurizio Sarri is a great story.
Sunday’s suprise win over in-form Lazio
is a case in point. Both of the Tuscan’s
goals came from set-pieces. Now Sarri has
a reputation: he’s a former bank employee,
was until he was 40, he smokes too much, like
Zdenek Zeman, plays good football, reads Bukowski
and supposedly has 33 different set-piece
schemes up his sleeve. Of course he hates
it if you reduce his success to this but 66.7%
of their goals, or 8 of their 12, have come
from set-pieces. Samp have scored as many
and really interesting ones too, which use
blocks and screens. Take a look for example
at Manuel Pucciarelli’s goal for Empoli
against Milan and Manolo Gabbiadini’s for
Samp against Cagliari. Incidentally Milan
also headhunted a set-piece guru from Fiorentina
this summer. Like Sarri, Gianni Vio also used
to work in a bank, he wrote a book called:
the set-piece the 15-goal striker. Walter
Zenga hired him at Catania. He worked with
Mihajlovic there and followed Montella to
Fiorentina. His most famous routine involved
Catania’s Gianvito Plasmati pulling his
shorts down to distract Torino goalkeeper
Matteo Sereni. That and a false wall. It worked.
That’s Serie A people, not only the place
for tactical innovation but set-piece sophistication
too.
