Amoyal: Players to watch during the Serie A season
GOALKEEPERS
With Buffon announcing he’ll retire after the World Cup in Russia, we have two years to speculate on who will replace him on the Azzurri and Juventus. Despite only being in our lives for less than a calendar, Gianluigi Donnarumma has quickly established himself as one of the hottest names in all of Serie A, and now he’s the youngest player to be selected to the Azzurri’s senior squad in over 100 years. With Milan having new investors set to acquire the club, they will likely work with his agent, Mino Raiola, to ensure he’s a centerpiece of their long term project.
While Mattia Perin will almost certainly be part of the Azzurri squad in next few months, he also could be a long term target for Juventus to eventually replace Buffon. Despite only being 23, Perin has over 120 career starts in Serie A and he has established himself as one of the best keepers in Italy- had he not suffered a significant knee injury at end of last season, Genoa would have likely cashed in on him this summer. Atalanta’s Sportiello is another exciting prospect to keep track of for teams looking for a long term answer at the keeper position.
DEFENDERS
While Serie A is no longer the league of boring defensive football (at least to those who actually watch it), there are still plenty of intriguing defenders in Italy. We have covered Bonucci, Koulibaly, Manolas, Romagnoli, Rugani and Maksimovic quite a bit in previous columns so let’s focus on some other names starting with Lazio’s Stefan De Vrij who was excellent in his first season in Italy’s capital.
The former Feyenoord center back finally returned after a serious knee injury- his absence last season proved how valuable he was. De Vrij is able to perform well in both a 3 5 2 formation or a more classic four man backline, and Lazio may have finally found him a good partner in Bastos.
Inter’s Jeison Murillo got off to an excellent start after arriving from Granada last summer. He quickly became Robin to Miranda playing the Batman role, and was linked to clubs like Barcelona and Real Madrid during the last January transfer window. But just like most of Inter, Murillo took a considerable step back during the second half of last season- in his case it may have been because he had also played in the Copa America the previous summer, where he won the award for best young player. Murillo was linked to Arsenal and Zenit last July, his value could sky rocket with a strong season now that he’s entering his prime.
At the wing back position, you should keep an eye on Elseid Hysaj who left Empoli along with coach Sarri to join Napoli and was one of the reasons the partneopei’s defense was so vastly improved. Hysaj followed up his excellent season in Serie A with some strong performances for Albania at the Euro. Hysaj fits the blue print of what Napoli does on transfer market, find a very promising player (Hysaj is only 22) who will play for them on low wages and whose value will sky rocket.
In the past two seasons Widmer has been linked to Juventus as a potential replacement for Lichtsteiner partly due to the bianconei’s strong relationship with Udinese, while Bologna’s Adam Masina quickly made a name for himself in his first season in Serie A- in part because of scarcity at the position Masina is already considered one of the best left backs in Italy.
MIDFIELDERS
A common complaint I get on Twitter is how difficult it is for clubs to do transfer business with Napoli. Personally I think more Serie A clubs should learn from the partenopei in this department, and this summer president De Laurentiis ensured his club signed many players who will be big names on transfer market in future- it will just cost a fortune to acquire them now.
Former Bologna midfielder Amadou Diawara was sensational in his first season in Serie A at the age of 19, he will only improve playing for Sarri. Napoli also signed Zielinski who was heavily linked to Liverpool and Milan as well as Marko Rog from Dinamo Zagreb- these three players will provide great depth behind Napoli’s excellent starting trio of Jorginho, Allan and Hamsik who recently signed what could be described as a lifetime extension to stay at Napoli.
There are few better stories in Italian football than Sassuolo, who now find themselves in the Europa League. Their coach Eusebio Di Francesco is a disciple of Zdenek Zeman, and while he has incorporated a lot of his mentor’s offensive philosophy, he’s a bit more pragmatic. Ghanaian midfielder Alfred Duncan (born in ’93) is able to bring some balance to the team with his work rate. Sassuolo has two very intriguing creative midfielders in Lorenzo Pellegrini (very good in his first season in Serie A) as well as Stefano Sensi, whom they acquired from Cesena this summer, a player who has been compared to Verratti.
While Kevin Strootman isn’t as young as most of the platers listed so far, his comeback from another knee injury makes him one of the feel good stories of the summer. He has started almost all of Roma’s matches this season and looks finally healthy- in his first season in Serie A he was being linked to clubs like Manchester United. Roma’s cross town rivals Lazio have an underrated midfield with veterans like Biglia and Parolo, but the one to watch long term is Sergej Milinkovic-Savic (born in ’95) who has all the physical tools and technical ability to take a leap this season.
While the trequartista position is becoming almost obsolete in Italian football, both Chievo’s Birsa and Empoli’s Saponara (both former Milan players) are very good in that role.
STRIKERS
When Suarez was first rumored to be on his way out at Liverpool, Luis Muriel was mentioned by some as his ideal replacement. The Colombian striker was compared to the Brazilian Ronaldo back then, but unfortunately his career took a step back in part because he wasn’t mature enough to handle the hype. But joining Sampdoria seems to have helped him, he’s off to an excellent start to the season and since he’s still just 25 he can still make up for lost time.
With former Torino coach Ventura replacing Conte on Italy’s bench, it was not surprising to finally see Andrea Belotti selected to the Azzurri’s senior squad. The striker born in ’93 has continued his strong form from second half of last season by scoring 4 goals in his first two matches in August.
While Domenico Berardi is coming off his worst season in Serie A, he’s been sensational this month- he’s scored 7 goals in 6 matches in all competitions. Berardi’s skill on the pitch is undeniable (he’s like a poor man’s Robben at this stage of his career), but there are still questions on if he has the temperament to succeed at a top club because of his frequent suspensions and peculiar personality. Berardi has turned down opportunities to join bigger clubs; it could either be because he wants to fully develop or maybe because he’s the new Di Natale and is comfortable being the big fish in a small pond.
Pescara has launched quite a few strikers in recent years- including Immobile, Insigne and more recently Lapadula. The newly promoted club has two intriguing young attackers in Gianluca Caprari (born in ’93) and Rey Manaj (born in ’97) who arrived on loan from Inter.
See you next Tuesday for another round of transfer talk…
@DavidAmoyal
