Snapshots from the first 15 games from a “First championship” dominated by the Napoli, the first championship that now launches us towards the unknown, towards an unprecedented stop in the history of this football. Starting from a primary fact (the so-called seven sisters are back), this is a first assessment of a season that has given surprises and confirmations, with the promise of another show starting from January 4th.
NAPOLI 10 – You can also pretend not to know that he left 4 points on the road, against Fiorentina and Lecce. The substance does not change, Spalletti’s masterpiece deserves the highest marks, for the way he arrived and for the premises at the beginning of the season. From a “heavily downsized team” due to excellent starts, the Azzurri have become a perfect scoring and scoring machine that looks like it wants to continue like this until the end and that could suffer very little damage from the World Cup.
MILAN 8 – Repeat is never easy, it will be commonplace but it is the pure truth. Pioli’s team, however, has not lost its identity, it has retained that spirit of sacrifice and mutuality that led to the championship six months ago. The contribution of the new players was lacking, especially the heavy investment De Ketelaere, while the pillars of the 2021-22 ride were confirmed (apart from the unfortunate Maignan): when a team is based on such solid work, it overcomes more and more easily than other moments of lack of brilliance.
JUVENTUS 7 – From 4.5 two months ago (even 4 if we consider the elimination from the Champions League), the vote of Allegri’s bianconeri has risen following a slow but steady pace until it reaches the top of the pass. The last six games tell of 18 points won and 0 goals conceded, with a consequent climb from eighth to fourth place, the result of an adjustment in defense, a pleasant rediscovery of Rabiot, the relaunch of Kean and the tactical wisdom of Milik. All pending the contribution that the intact versions of Vlahovic, Pogba and Di Maria will be able to bring.
LAZIO 7 – Nobody had told Maurizio Sarri to win the Scudetto. Nobody demanded goals that don’t belong to this team. Yet Lotito and the Lazio fans managed to have a lot of fun in this first phase of the season. We saw rich remnants of sarrismo, we had an idea of that utopia that the Tuscan coach says he is pursuing. If the championship ended today, Lazio would qualify for the Champions League despite having faced several heavy injuries. To deserve a higher grade it should have a little more continuity, but it is not excluded that from January, with a rescheduling period available to Sarri, the team will be able to offer new ideas and new solutions.
INTER 7 – Considering that she qualified for the round of 16 of the Champions League and considering that she practically never had Lukaku available, she does not deserve the rejection that could have appeared some time ago, when Simone Inzaghi’s position was beginning to wobble dangerously. The terrible score in the head-to-head matches weighs heavily on the Nerazzurri season. Before the victory at Atalanta, Inter had collected zero points against Milan, Juventus, Lazio, Rome and Udinese. The resumption of the championship, with the challenge to the leaders Napoli, will be a reliable examination to understand if the trend has really reversed.
ATALANTA 7 – A month ago he would have deserved 9, it seemed that the absence of the double championship-Cup commitment could project the Gasperini gang into the group of contenders for the Scudetto. Despite the frequent absences of the starting forwards, he was able to work around using the young players. It is less easy to explain the decline of the last period, even if by analyzing the individual performances well, it was a crisis of results rather than of play. A situation that therefore has room for readjustment.
ROMA 6,5 – Many points left on the street and perhaps the real culprits were not always those indicated by Mourinho. But the opposite must always be remembered: probably if this team were not coached by the Setubal poet, it would not be competitive at these levels, conditioned as it is by more or less serious injuries, by the close commitments between the championship and the Europa League, by the distraction of some player who was thinking about the World Cup to play or simply hoping to go there. But Roma are there, close to the leading group, and on the positive days they have shown that they can play with anyone.
