More questions than answers in Serie A
Rarely has a new Serie A season prompted so many imponderables as the upcoming 2020-21 version, and not just because of COVID-19. The season that just ended was turned on its head by the elimination of Juventus by Olympique Lyon at the last-16 stage of the Champions League in early August. Mighty shockwaves were generated by the realisation that the all-dominant Juventus, the club that had just lifted its ninth consecutive Italian title, had been eliminated by the seventh strongest club in France.
Has Italian football sunk that low? Is former Juventus, Roma, Milan and England coach Fabio Capello right when he says that Serie A is simply not competitive enough?
If you reflect that in recent seasons Juventus have twice finished 17 points clear of second place (in 2014 and 2015), then Capello might have a point. Furthermore, he also points out that for most of this last decade of Juventus dominance, the club’s traditionally strongest rivals, the two Milan clubs, went missing, leaving it to Roma or Napoli to challenge the Old Lady.
Whatever the answers about the quality of Serie A, Juve did not hang around, sacking coach Maurizio Sarri
Has Italian football sunk that low? Is former Juventus, Roma, Milan and England coach Fabio Capello right when he says that Serie A is simply not competitive enough?
the day after the Lyon elimination. Sarri’s replacement, former Juventus great Andrea Pirlo – promoted immediately from the Under-23s – merely adds to the intrigue of an imponderable new season.
In the wake of both that defeat by Lyon and also a less than convincing end of season in Serie A, champions Juventus suddenly look, if not beatable, at least less intimidating. The questions abound. 41-year-old Pirlo was a wonderful player, indeed one of the all-time greats, but he has no coaching experience at all.
Will he be able to integrate the skills of Cristiano Ronaldo – one of the few positive notes of the Lyon disaster – with new boys such as 20-year-old Swede Dejan Kulusevski, one of the brightest stars in Italian football, and ex-Barcelona midfielder Arthur? Ronaldo turns 36 in February – can he continue on in his bionic way for another season?
Will Arthur and Kulusevski compensate for the departure of talented Bosnia playmaker, Miralem Pjanic? Swapped for Arthur in arguably the most extraordinary transfer of the summer – a deal that valued 24-year-old Arthur at €72 million and 30-year-old Pjanic at €60m.
Have the Old Lady got a €12m bargain for a player six years younger? On the football front, you have to think that Juve will miss the mercurial skills of Pjanic, leaving much to ride on the shoulders not only of Kulusevski and the talented Rodrigo Bentancur, but also on Paulo Dybala, arguably the best player in Serie A last season.
On the economic front, however, the deal looks like a handy way to mutually inflate one another’s balance sheets.
Prior to the Lyon debacle, a seemingly tired Juventus had flashed distress signs in defeats by Milan and Udinese, as well as in draws with Atalanta and Sassuolo, all results that slowed up their eventual winning of the title. It might be considered heresy in certain parts of Turin, but perhaps the Juventus defence has problems. Are the old lions, 33-year-old Leonardo Bonucci and 36-year-old Giorgio Chiellini, starting to show their age? Is 21-year-old Matthijs de Ligt ready to step up after a difficult first season?
As for their rivals, they may take encouragement from the fact that Juve’s winning margin of just one point over second-placed Inter was the lowest of the last nine years. At this point, you have to think that Inter could become credible title challengers next season – especially after their recent Europa League heroics.
The last team to finish ahead of Juventus, they have the economic clout of retailer Suning, China’s third-largest private company, on their side. In all probability, they will still have the driving force of accomplished coach Antonio Conte. On top of that, with Romelu Lukaku, Lautaro Martinez, Christian Eriksen, Alexis Sanchez, Diego Godin, Marcelo Brozovic, Samir Handanovic and Stefan de Vrij, they already have an international squad strong enough to lift the title.
Frankly, it is hard to make a case for any other club. Third-placed Atalanta performed miracles to get as far as they have, but is it not asking too much to expect even more from them? That is said, too, notwithstanding the outstanding quality of coach, Gian Piero Gasperini, arguably the current maestro of the Italian coaching class.
For fourth-placed Lazio, too, it is hard to imagine they could do any better than in the season just ended. Remember, before the COVID-19 lockdown, Lazio even threatened Juventus, beating them twice in two weeks before Christmas, once in Serie A and again in the Italian Super Cup.
Former Milan and Italy striker, Pippo Inzaghi, back in Serie A next season as coach to Serie B winners, Benevento, even suggested that Lazio, coached by his younger brother Simone, would have won the title were it not for the lockdown. He argues that in a normal end of season, Lazio would have been playing just once a week at a time when Juve would have been playing twice as much, given their Champions League involvement. That advantage would have compensated for the fact that Juve clearly had the larger and stronger overall squad.
The rest? Roma, under the new US ownership of billionaire Dan Friedkin; Napoli, galvanised by coach Rino Gattuso; Milan, with coach Stefano Pioli, mentor Zlatan Ibrahimovic and goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma all still on board; Fiorentina with Sofyan Amrabat, Dusan Vlahovic and Federico Chiesa at their disposal – all four clubs clearly hope to do better next season. But are they ready to challenge Juventus? We have our doubts.
Atalanta performed miracles to get as far as they have, but is it not asking too much to expect even more from them?
Zenit St. Petersburg director general Alexander Medvedev, once a prominent tennis tournament administrator, certainly has been producing lots of winning volleys as he seeks to lay the foundations for a third consecutive Russian Premier League title for the Blue-White-Sky Blues.
If Zenit fans are buoyantly optimistic of completing a hat-trick of title wins in 2020-21, much of that confidence flows from Medvedev’s successful contract renewal talks with talismanic target man and club captain Artem Dzyuba, who recently inked a two-year extension with the option of a further 12 months. The 31-year-old, whose contract was due to expire this summer, had been linked with a move to Italy or England. His departure would have ripped the heart out of the Zenit attack, after topping both the goal and assist charts in Russia in 2019-20, but as it is, his productive front-line partnership with the lively Iranian Sardar Azmoun can continue.
Medvedev deserves plenty of credit too for his work on the recruitment front, especially with regard to his £10.9 million swoop for defender Dejan Lovren from Liverpool. The Croatia centre-back may have spent most of last term on the Anfield bench, but at 31, is far from a spent force. His vast experience, bristling will-to-win and supreme self-confidence is just what the Zenit doctor ordered.
Lovren will step straight into the shoes of the veteran Serb Branislav Ivanovic, who was allowed to walk away from
St. Petersburg as a free agent. Ivanovic was not the only big-name player to head for the Zenit exit this summer. Also decamping were a long-serving pair of Russian internationals: right-back Igor Smolnikov, who was promptly picked up by high-flying Krasnodar, and left-sided midfielder Oleg Shatov, whose next assignment will be to spark a revival at mid-table Rubin Kazan.
Will new Lokomotiv Moscow coach Marko Nikolic prove as bankable this season as he did in the final few weeks of last term? Pundits are divided, though the smart money says he has a fighting chance. When Nikolic was appointed in June to replace iconic Lokomotiv boss Igor Semin, many fans of the Railwaymen were not at all keen, of the opinion that the Serb – who had previously been employed in his native land, Slovenia and Hungary – did not have the stature to take over.
But how wrong that verdict turned out to be, with Nikolic’s side remaining undefeated in his first eight games in charge. Lokomotiv ended the campaign in second, and qualification for the Champions League has brought Nikolic some much-needed respect and breathing space. Now comes the hard part: carrying on in the same vein.
A cool, rather aloof character, Nikolic will take heart from the excellent individual quality at his disposal: evergreen Croat central defender Vedran Corluka, Polish engine room co-ordinator Grzegorz Krychowiak, midfield enforcer Dmitri Barinov and the creative Miranchuk twins, Aleksei and Anton. The Railwaymen believe they have unearthed a gem in the shape of 18-year-old wing wizard Jasurbek Jaloliddinov, a recent signing from top Uzbek side Bunyodkor.
Unsurprisingly, forwards have featured heavily in the transfer market done deal column. CSKA Moscow, anxious to end their four-year league title drought, spent £7.65m on promising young Argentina striker Adolfo Gaich from San Lorenzo. Rostov acquired combative Macedonia U23 forward David Toshevski, a teenage tyro who had been interesting French club Lille. And in arguably the most sensational piece of business of the summer, Spartak Moscow struck a zero cost deal with Zenit for bad boy striker Aleksandr Kokorin.
After serving a prison spell in 2019 for assault, Kokorin, 29, enjoyed a rewarding five-month loan stint with Sochi this spring, scoring seven league goals in ten games. Without his sterling efforts, Sochi surely would have been relegated from the top flight. Spartak, who came a disappointing seventh last season, know they are taking a risk with the tainted golden boy of Russian football. They know he has a history of controversy and scandal. But nevertheless feel he has a genuine shot at redemption. No question about Kokorin’s talent. Shame that his attitude and professionalism has so often been lacking.
It will be interesting to see how newly-promoted Khimki fare in the top flight. The Red-Blacks were magnificent in last season’s Russian Cup, knocking out a string of elite clubs before unluckily losing 1-0 to Zenit in the final. The showpiece result really could have gone either way. Expect more giantkilling acts from them in the RPL.
Spartak know they are taking a risk with the tainted golden boy of Russian football…but nevertheless feel Kokorin has a genuine shot at redemption