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A look at the Serie A teams tells us that Juventus is still strong after the loss of quite a few quality players. However, Roma and Lazio look to mount a challenge for the battle. An analysis of each team tells us their potential for this season.
1.Juventus - Carlos Tevez, Arturo Vidal, Simone Pepe and Andrea Pirlo have all left the Italian side. However, Juventus have secured the signature of Mario Mandzukic, Sami Khedira, Paulo Dybala, Roberto Pereyra, Simone Zaza and Neto amongst others. They are looking forward to add a fifth to their run of 4 consecutive Italian League titles. They are strong contenders and Juventus has done well the last season under Massimiliano Allegri’s guidance. Their pre-season has been plagued by injuries but the Italian champions have done well to bounce back the last time they suffered from the same issue.
2.AS Roma - Edin Dzeko, Mohammed Salah, Radja Nainggolan, Matteo Politano , Andrea Bertolacci, Iago Falqué, Marco Frediani have all been signed by AS Roma. The Italian club has finished second for two consecutive seasons, even though they may have let quite a few players leave, Roma definitely look to challenge Juventus for the title. Curci, Stoian, Caprari are amongst the few who have left Roma this transfer window. Roma are enjoying a good preseason with new signings Edin Dzeko and Mohammed Salah playing key roles in their match against Sevilla.
3.Lazio – Their performance improved drastically last season as they finished 6 places higher than the previous season’s 9th. A few tactical signings are what Lazio need to help them give Juventus a tough competition they have signed Ravel Morrison, Gabbaron and Hoedt so far. As per latest round of Rumours, the Serie A club has Alexandre Pato, Fabio Boirini and Vlaar on their radar. They have not been active this transfer window and are lacking one key player from seriously challenging for the Title.
4.Fiorentina – Luigi Sepe, Mario Suzrez, Nikola Kalinic have joined the club where as Neto, Lorenzo De Silvestri are amongst the players that have left the club. Ryder Matos, Attacker Mario Gomez and Leo Beleck have gone on season long loans. Alberto Aquilani has left the club to join Sporting CP. Balotelli and Defender Wallace have both been linked to Fiorentina. They have not signed many players so far and have been relatively quite in the transfer window by not making any major signings thus far.
5.Napoli – Napoli did well under Rafael Benitez but the Spanish manager has now been appointed as Real Madrid’s new coach. Maurizio Sarri has replaced the Spaniard but the squad will need to perform better than the last season and avoid dropping points to achieve better results in domestic and international competitions. They have signed Vlad Chiriches, Jorginho, Pepe Reina and Mirko Valdifiori amongst others. Goalkeeper Sepe has left the club to join Fiorentina. Michael Britos and Walter Gargano are amongst others to depart the club.
6.Genoa – Genoa performed well last season and managed to go up 8 places and finish 6th as compared to the previous years’ 14th placed finish. They have signed Issa Cissokho, Krajnc, Gapke, Pandev Lazovic, Pavoletti amongst others. The Italian side however , are without striker Iago Falque who has moved to Roma. Genoa have been quite active this summer and hope to finish higher than 6th in the league. They defeated West Brom 1 – 0 in a Pre season match recently and the squad seems to gel well before the start of the season.
7.Sampdoria – Christian Puggioni, Mattia Cassani, Edgar Barreto, Niklas Moisander, Matías Silvestre and Emiliano Viviano have all been signed by Sampdoria as the club looks to add experience and depth into their squad by adding players who have a lot of playing time under their belts. Francesco Fedato and Fernando have also been signed by the Italian Club. Sampdoria have drastically improved their performances in the last 5 years and have been doing better than their previous year each time, the exact trend which they look forward to continuing this season. Former fan favourite Antonio Cassano has recently joined Sampdoria on a three year deal however, Goalkeeper Sergio Romero has joined Manchester United.
8.Inter – Having signed Jovetic, Kondogbia, Miranda, Montoya and Jonathan Biabiany amongst others shows Inter’s seriousness this window. Inter is looking to add depth to their squad in order to improve their performances as they have not performed as well in the past 4 seasons. They are however, making some great signings to ensure that they’re back to the top. Roberto Mancini plans to add stability to the squad and ensure that they are performing consistently in order to achieve good results. Joel Obi, Luca Garritano, Zdravko Kuzmanovic and Marco Benassi along with Shaqiri as well as Kovacic have left Inter this transfer window. Pre season form for Inter has not been great but Mancini is not worried about it and is confident heading into the 2015-16 season.
9.Torino – Torino have signed multiple players this window. Daniele Baselli, Davide Zappacosta, Joel Obi, Afriyie Acquah, Danilo Avelar, Salvador Ichazo and Marco Benassi have been added to the squad. Torino have done well and managed to quite decently ensure their Serie A survival and the new additions will give the manager more options to select from. They did well last season but could not manage to match their previous season’s 7th placed finish. It will be an interesting season for this Italian side as they have managed to get a couple of good signings so far. Matteo Darmian’s move to Manchester United is a blow to the side’s defensive aspect but the club has the ability to cope up it.
10.AC Milan – Milan have had a bad spell since the last two seasons, finishing 10th and 8th respectively. Milan faced quite a few attacking problems last year and have looked to sort exactly that in this transfer window. Luiz Adriano, Verdi, Carlos Bacca have all been secured by the Italian giants amongst other signings. Stephan El Shaarawy is leaving the club on loan for French side AS Monaco. Adil Rami has left the club to join Sevilla. As per recent rounds of rumours, Ibrahimovic may be joining the Italian side again. Alessio Romagnoli is a good signing made by the AC Milan, being young, he has the potential to grow and become a key player.
11.Palermo – Palermo have had a fairly bumpy ride.Fromplaying in Serie A to being relegated to coming second in Serie B and clinching promotion, Palermo have seen a fair share of Up’s and Down’s. They have signed Viola, Ahmad Benali, Andrea Rispoli, Simone Colombi and Oscar Hiljemark amongst others. Argentine attacker Paulo Dybala has left Palermo to join Italian Champions Juventus but Palermo have signed young attackers Aleksandar Trajkovski, Matheus and Gastón Brugman immediately. The club would need to do well in order to survive in the league this season. Palermo coach has also stated that he is pleased with the way Palermo played in the pre season.
12.Sassuolo
Sassuolo have signed Domenico Berardi from Juventus for 10 million but have lost Simone Zaza, who left for Juventus in a deal worth 18 million. They have signed Alfred Duncan from Sampdoria on loan. This club has improved season after season, making their way from the 16th position in Serie B to 12th in Serie A last season. Interestingly, they have improved each year by ending up higher on the league table than their previous, for the last 5 seasons. The club has the potential to cause upsets if not end up higher in the table. They have been one of the quietest sides in the transfer window so far.
13.Hellas Verona
They have signed Leandro Greco, Giampaolo Pazzini, Viviani, Pisano, Helander amongst others to strengthen their squad While Thomas Mangani has left the club. Alejandro Gonzalez has joined Cagliari on loan and Hellas Verona are rumoured to make another signing before the window ends. Their performances have been consistent, where they finished in the top 5 three time while clinching their promotion and finishing 10th and 13th in Serie A. Their form towards the latter end of the last season was the reason for a lower finish, where they managed to get only 7 points in the last six games, losing once and managing to end matches with levelled scores on 4 occasions.
14.Chievo Verona
Luca Castro, Simone Pepe, Paul-Jose Mpoku, Fredrico Mattiello Massimo Gobbi have all joined the club whereas Ervin Zukanovic and Fillipo Costa have left the squad. Their performances have been consistent but they have not performed well towards the end of the last season, managing only 6 points in 6 matches. Their position on the league table might have fluctuated in the bottom half but the club has done well to avoid relegation each time.
15.Empoli
Mirko Vladifiori and Davide Bassiehave left the club to join other Italian sides. They have signed Ricardo Saponara, Luca Bittante, Andrea Costa, Raffaele Maiello, Michele Camporese, Lukasz Skorupski amongst others. Having clinched their promotion just the last season, the Serie A side are will do as much as they can to avoid the relegation zone. Empoli’s last 6 matches in the Serie A involve a draw, 2 wins and 3 losses.
16.Udinese
They have signed Ivan Piris, Ali Adnan, Iniguez and Iturra while securing Zapata’s signature on a season long loan. This side has however lost, Roberto Pereyra, Allan, Luis Muriel, Dusan Basta, Douglas Santos and Naldo. They may have secured funds from the departure of their players but have not signed any key players who would ensure their survival in the League. Udinese have the worst record of their last five games of the teams which are currently in the Serie-A, managing to get only 3 points in their last six matches which involves 5 losses. Their Performances have been constantly going downhill as they finish lower than what they have than their previous, for the last 5 seasons, thus indicating that they need a key player if not more, to help them get back to the top.
17.Atlanta
Jasmin Kurtic, Mauricio Pinilla, Marten de Roon, Luca Valzania, Gaetano Monachello, Marcos De Paula, Davide Bassi have all been signed by the club in order to ensure that they finish higher than the bottom half of the table. The Club performed poorly last season, just avoiding relegation, they fell down 6 places to finish 17th as compared to their previous seasons 11th. Daniele Baselli, Davide Zappacosta, Yohan Benalouane have all left the club. They managed to get just 6 points in their last 6 matches and have spent less than half the amount they have received from their player’s departures on their arrivals.
18.Bologna – therecently promoted side has signed Mirande, Rizzo, Djokovic, Rosettinni so far and have let Calabrese go on a season long loan to Arezzo. They have made their way back in the Serie A after two years and looking forward to cementing their place in the league. They are looking to add a couple of players to add depth in their squad. It will be interesting to see their approach to the league this season.
19.Carpi had spent the last two seasons in Serie B and the ones before that in Division below that. They have certainly worked hard to make their way to Serie A. They have signed Luca Marrone and Ryder Matos on loan to help them this season. They are definitely the underdogs but are capable of winning and cementing their place in the league. A side that was playing fifth division 5 season ago, will play against giants like AC Milan, Inter Milan, Juventus, etc.
20.Frosinone have signed Diakite on free transfer and Verde and Chibsah on loan to help them this season. They had been relegated from Serie B at the end of the 2010-11 season but have made their way back in the top tier in just two seasons. They came third in Italy’s third division in the 2013-14 season and definitely were a surprise package in the second tier as they claimed the second spot in the 2014-15 season as well as a chance to play in Serie A the following year along with it.
Juventus, AS Roma, Lazio, Napoli and Fiorentina are all expected to challenge for the top spot. AC Milan and Inter have struggled in the last season but this maybe the season in which they bounce back as champions. Bologna, Capri and Frosinone have done well to clinch promotion. The table above depicts the position of the clubs at the end of the last 5 seasons.
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