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Horncastle: Milanese teams can't digest Maccarone & Lasagna
Carpi Diem
The great escape is on. Fabrizio Castori’s boys are now unbeaten in four.
Ricky Saponara
To think Milan let him go back to Empoli for just €4m. He’s the player they are missing. As Vujadin Boskov used to say Saponara “sees motorways where others see only footpaths.” A throwback to the 10s of old, he leads the league in assists with 7. His understanding with Big Mac, another Milan old boy, is telepathic. The pair are responsible for 70% of Empoli’s goals this season.
Carlos Bacca
The Colombian look in tears after Saturday’s 2-2 draw at the Castellani. Twice in the lead, he couldn’t believe Milan hadn’t won. “If he had been crying, I would have taken him some tissues,” Sinisa Mihajlovic said. Saturday’s goal was the eighth Bacca has scored this season with his first shot on target. He has got into double figures with only 29. Milan have a killer in their team but other shortcomings mean they haven’t been able to make as much of him as they should.
Dybalissimo
Juventus and Dybala are growing up together. Their improvement is intertwined. The Old Lady always wins. Her toy boy always delivers. It’s now 11 straight victories in the league for the champions - one short of the club record established by Antonio Conte the season before last. Dybala has scored nine goals and laid on six assists over the course of that hot streak.
Tevez who?
Tuttosport’s front page asked a week ago. The Apache left big boots to fill but as with Cinderella’s glass slipper, they’re a perfect fit for Dybala. His fellow Argentine was Juventus’ top scorer in his first season with 14 goals. His successor already has 12.
Big Sami
Another freebie after Pirlo, Pogba, Llorente and Evra in the past, Khedira’s history of injuries left many fans sceptical of him continuing what has become a successful tradition. Fears seemed justified when he suffered a bad muscle tear in pre-season. However, Sunday’s game was his sixth start in a row, something he last achieved three years ago, and he is now integral to Juventus’ resurgence. A natural leader - it was to Khedira who Jögi Löw turned to bring the Bayern and Dortmund factions together for Germany - the World Cup winner has ensured Juventus don’t lack character in the middle of the part post-Pirlo, post Vidal. As with Claudio Marchisio, Juventus have never lost with him in the team. Twice on the scoresheet in 2016, his bursting run from inside his own half against Roma was a big part of Juventus’ winning goal.
Napoli
The storm that engulfed Napoli coach Maurizio Sarri after Tuesday’s Coppa Italia quarter-final was rather aptly followed by a rainbow. Eliminated earlier than expected from the cup, beaten for the first time at the San Paolo to boot, their coach mired in controversy, Napoli could have been destabilised. But they weren’t at Marassi. This was their fifth win in a row. They’ve scored 17 goals in that run, an average of 3.4 per game. A couple of things stood out. Higuain struck for the 21st time in 21 games. He could have had more. But despite being the designated penalty taker, he let Insigne take one instead. This was generous or mature. Irrespective of his general confidence levels, if Higuain didn’t feel like, he did well to put side before self. Another win on the road, Napoli peppered Samp. Yesterday they had 23 shots. When they met earlier in the season they had 27. A total of 50. Spare a thought for Samp keeper Emiliano Viviano.
Marekiaro
All the headlines are going to Higuain and Insigne and understandably so. They’re the fourth most prolific combination in Europe [30] after Neymar and Luis Suarez [34] at Barcelona, Ronaldo and Karim Benzema [33] at Real Madrid and Robert Lewandowski and Thomas Müller [21] at Bayern. But Napoli’s captain Marek Hamsik deserves plaudits too. His slaloming effort against Samp was his fourth in five games. Restored to a more withdrawn midfield role under Sarri, Napoli’s captain is playing better than ever. Top scorer for Napoli in his first couple of seasons at the club, Sunday’s goal was his 80th in a blue shirt. It draws him level with Careca and if he scores one more he’ll match Diego Maradona and go third on the club’s all-time list.
Emanuele Giaccherini
A Giak in the box in the real sense. That’s now five goals in his last eight appearances and one in a Emilia derby too as Bologna became the first team this season to upset Sassuolo at the Mapei Stadium. Beloved by Italy coach Antonio Conte, it’s hard not to see him at the Euros.
Guillermo Barros Schelotto
Palermo remain a basket case. After sacking Beppe Iachini under the suspicion that he might be considering a return to Samp - post-Zenga - owner Maurizio Zamparini brought in Davide Ballardini, sparking a player revolt, then tried to bring Iachini back, hesitated, but sacked Ballardini anyway and entrusted the club to rookie coach Guillermo Barros Schelotto who does not have the paperwork to sit on the bench. Still, his first official game ‘in charge’ couldn’t have gone better. Palermo beat Udinese at the Favorite for the first time in seven years and did so handsomely too.
Danilo Cataldi
Roman born, the first brought through the Lazio academy since Alessandro Nesta, Lazio’s ‘Marchisio’ scored his first Serie A goal and dedicated it to club legend Giorgio Chinaglia, who would have celebrated his 70th birthday on Sunday. The kid has got the making of a bandiera.
Lazio
This was their season in a nutshell. Lazio went behind. They conceded from a set-piece - their 12th of the campaign. Then the goalscorer Bostjan Cesar got sent off. The Eagles began to fly. But almost got their wings clipped, only for Alberto Paloschi to miss a penalty. On the whole, though, Lazio seem to be back. After wins away to Inter and Fiorentina, they got their first at home since October and are now unbeaten in six games. It’s no coincidence that Antonio Candreva has come good in the meantime, combing for seven goals.
Gonzalo Rodriguez
Iliciclone had another stormer and a timely one too after Fiorentina suffered back-to-back defeats. Considering Nikola Kalinic is still yet to score in 2016, it’s vital that others help share the goalscoring burden. Gonzalo’s goal on Sunday was his 20th for the club, a record for defenders in his time in the league.
HELL
Daniele De Rossi
Before rushing to judgement, let’s wait and see if any retrospective action is taken over what the lip-readers claim he said to Mario Mandzukic and whether it’s accurate and admissible. As too often happens, the occasion got to De Rossi. He could have been sent off for an off-the-ball incident with the Juventus striker. Mandzukic isn’t alone. De Rossi has done these things in the past to Brian McBride, Dario Srna and Stefano Mauri. By now there are enough members to form a De Rossi fight club. The bottom line is Roma’s captain risked letting his team down. Alessandro Florenzi lost his cool too. Too much of his energy was spent arguing with referee Luca Banti and after giving the ball away for Juventus’ goal, he was substituted and made an example of.
Not so Super Mario
“If the game was played at the intensity he played at, I could still play for an hour or so,” Sinisa Mihajlovic said. Balotelli has got to do better to win a first team place and a spot in the Italy squad.
Inter’s strikers
“I’m 50 and I would have scored it,” scoffed a frustrated Roberto Mancini after re-watching a chance missed by his captain and last season’s co-Capocannoniere Mauro Icardi. Inter can’t kill games. They’re not scoring the goals to put them beyond all doubt. Nor are they impregnable at the back anymore. As such, opponents are punishing them. Inter have taken five points from five games. They’re without a win in three and have conceded in all of them. Three of the last four goals they’ve allowed have come in the final five minutes, two of which arrived in added time. “We need a striker,” he told Radio Rai. Revealing he received nothing in return after giving Napoli coach Maurizio Sarri one of his scarves as a gesture of peace and goodwill following their ugly spat last week, Mancini joked: “He could loan me Higuain.” More likely is another bid for Eder.
Torino
They hate going to Florence. It’s now 40 years since they won there. They hate playing at lunchtime. Not winning a single 12:30 kick off. But Torino have bigger problems. Like the goalkeeper. Their once reliable defence getting shakier and shakier. Like making life difficult on themselves by going behind. That’s 15 times in 21 games. Goals aren’t coming easy despite Andrea Belotti putting a run together and Ciro Immobile returning to the club. It’s a headscratcher. Because this is the most talented Torino squad in years. Is Giampiero Ventura’s message going stale?
The Little Airplane
Crashed again. That’s now seven defeats in 10 for Vincenzo Montella’s Samp.
Udinese
Just when they looked like turning a corner, they go and lose three in a row and heavily too. How they miss Di Natale’s goals. Only once have Udinese scored fewer at this stage and that was in `93-94.
James Horncastle (@JamesHorncastle)
