Italian League Prediction Thread (Serie A)

[boltz]

Napoli is performing so badly this time. I cannot deny the fact that if Napoli remains clueless during the game against Roma, it has a significant impact.

Indeed. Napoli performed badly, they totally failed to maintain their performance in the last season. They are even defeated by AS Roma with 2 goals. We know that AS Roma played inconsistently. If Napoli was defeated by them, it means Napoli played more inconsistently this season. It is a worse season for Napoli.

The club is also rarely making opportunities. This is the main problem that was also affecting the performance from the club in UCL.

What opportunities do you mean? Shot attempts?
If Napoli made lack of shot attempts, it means there is a problem with their midfielders and attackers.
I think they have quality players on those lines, they just played with no good motivation and have bad teamwork.

Mezzarri is failed to bring napoli back again to the best performance. There are indications that Napoli may be in the midst of making arrangements for a new coach to take over, potentially replacing the current one. Napoli is always showing a disappointing performance.
Napoli has sent off itself off from the title race. This is the major problem that must be solved by the club.

Mazzarri seems to follow Rudi Garcia. He failed to improve Napoli performance and the mentality among the players. I don't know if Napoli may plan to change their coach again. Sure, no chance for joining the race of the title. Napoli probably tries to finish in the UCL zone only. However, it is not easy if we look their current perfromance.

In my opinion Rudi Garcia was never a great coach as he never made it big into Europe and now that is gone from Napoli , my faith in this team is restored once again and I do hope they will have a decent run in UCL and maybe with a bit of luck they can hold top 4 in Serie A as well because finishing under 4th as ex champions doesn't look good at all.

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[Velvet78]

I think Inter Milan shouldn't be underestimate Genoa because as mediocre team they were often can make big teams get in trouble and during this season the teams just like Napoli, Roma or Juventus was failed to beat them even Roma have to lose with big scores from them and about the odds Inter Milan has odds @1.60 but i am a bit doubt Inter Milan can able to overcomes Genoa with their condition especially Inter Milan's front lines strength is much reduced without Martinez but for safe bets i think both teams to scores is good

I agree with your opinion. Genoa are really like a giant slayer team this season. Their position in the standings isn't good at all actually but they still can do a pretty good work in their most challenging games. Even Juventus couldn't beat them indeed. That game against Roma was a total destruction for the Rome team. 

Inter are different from all of other top teams left in the Serie A though. But they still shouldn't have any luxury to underestimate them or shouldn't play complacently against them. As the game is an away one too things can just get harder for Inter for no reason in case of doing that.

[arimamib]

It seems that Milan chose to keep Piorli at least for now.

His position it is not safe whatsoever. Next week we have a break and that will be the key moment for the sack if he does not win next week before the Xmas break.

You know Pioli is an experienced manager who won them the Serie A after a lot of years. So he deserves another chance, right? I think he needs to be given the time to fix this squad for the season. They are in the Europa League right now out of the Champions League and they are actually looking comfortable to secure a top 3 position in the Champions League. So I would say they have nothing more to achieve this season. Pioli can be given the time to fix the team. I don't see a new manager joining and achieving more.

Pioli's achievement of winning the Serie A after a significant drought for AC Milan do underscore his capability as a manager. In such circumstances, making drastic changes, including bringing in a new manager, may not be the most pragmatic solution. Stability and continuity are crucial in football, and Pioli, having worked with the team, is likely to have a better understanding of the players, the system, and the club's dynamics. Giving him the time to address any issues within the squad and work towards improvement is a reasonable approach.

Introducing a new manager might disrupt the team's rhythm, and it may not necessarily lead to better results in the short term. While AC Milan might not be in the Champions League at the moment, there is still much to play for, and Pioli, with his knowledge of the team, is just the man to guide them through any challenges they may face.

[ginsan]

You know Pioli is an experienced manager who won them the Serie A after a lot of years. So he deserves another chance, right? I think he needs to be given the time to fix this squad for the season. They are in the Europa League right now out of the Champions League and they are actually looking comfortable to secure a top 3 position in the Champions League. So I would say they have nothing more to achieve this season. Pioli can be given the time to fix the team. I don't see a new manager joining and achieving more.

I think AC Milan management must act decisively to improve AC Milan performance in the second half of this season. There has been no change for AC milan in the two seasons after they won the Scudetto in the 2021/2022 season where they seemed to have great difficulty getting back into the ranks of the Scudetto-winning teams. Well, Pioli was given the opportunity in the match against Sassoulo at the end of this year where this match will be quite crucial for pioli because if he loses he will be fired. And if He wins it doesn't mean his position will be good enough because the issue of dismissal is getting more intense which is what the fans want.

Pioli failed to make AC milan stronger because in the transfer window of the past two seasons we have seen that many of the players they bought were completely unable to contribute significantly to AC Milan progress. So I might really agree if AC milan looks for a replacement for Pioli before the second half of the season starts. Conte is one of the people who is widely reported to be filling AC milan coaching chair if Pioli is fired because Conte is a coach full of experience in Serie A and it would be extraordinary if he could become AC Milan coach.

[Docnaster]

You know Pioli is an experienced manager who won them the Serie A after a lot of years. So he deserves another chance, right? I think he needs to be given the time to fix this squad for the season. They are in the Europa League right now out of the Champions League and they are actually looking comfortable to secure a top 3 position in the Champions League. So I would say they have nothing more to achieve this season. Pioli can be given the time to fix the team. I don't see a new manager joining and achieving more.

I think AC Milan management must act decisively to improve AC Milan performance in the second half of this season. There has been no change for AC milan in the two seasons after they won the Scudetto in the 2021/2022 season where they seemed to have great difficulty getting back into the ranks of the Scudetto-winning teams. Well, Pioli was given the opportunity in the match against Sassoulo at the end of this year where this match will be quite crucial for pioli because if he loses he will be fired. And if He wins it doesn't mean his position will be good enough because the issue of dismissal is getting more intense which is what the fans want.

Pioli failed to make AC milan stronger because in the transfer window of the past two seasons we have seen that many of the players they bought were completely unable to contribute significantly to AC Milan progress. So I might really agree if AC milan looks for a replacement for Pioli before the second half of the season starts. Conte is one of the people who is widely reported to be filling AC milan coaching chair if Pioli is fired because Conte is a coach full of experience in Serie A and it would be extraordinary if he could become AC Milan coach.

Stefano Pioli has put in so many work since he took over the managerial role at AC Milan  and that's why he deserves to be given more time to improve the performance of the team. The performance and result of the team have been poor in recent weeks which has prompted a lot of the club's fans to agitate for sack Pioli but I think it's too soon for that as the Italian manager can still  make a difference by significantly improving the performance of the team.

If for any reason  AC Milan's management decides to sack the club manager now, it'll be very difficult  to get a top quality manager in the middle of the season. AC Milan started the season on a very good note before their decline in form that's left  them out of the top four of the league and if Stefano Pioli can go back to the drawing board again, I think he has the needed tactical experience to bring the team back to winning ways

[Google+]

After osimhen got a red card I think that was the genesis of Napoli's fall in the match against Roma, Napoli already had a very poor form and had a poor performance along side so the red card made things even worse for them because they were already struggling with complete players, a man down made it even worse.

Roma was beaten by bologna few day back and bologna nis a team that when compared to Napoli in strength and dept so it was more like a team below Napoli was able to win bologna so definitely or most likely Napoli should have been able to win Roma with little stress but then it turned out roma became a hectic game for Napoli to play, the next two games which osimhen will be missing is definitely going to have some effect on Napoli performance and their results will be affected aswell.

Osimhen was sent off from the field in the 86th minute and there is no reason that the red card that Osimhen received had a bad impact on Napoli performance, but more precisely, Napoli did not appear very good from the first minute. I think that napoli are not very strong this season even though all their players are still dominated by old players, But the change of coach makes it difficult for the players to adapt to the tactics of their new coach. The defeat against Roma is indeed a bad streak for Napoli in Serie A because so far Osimhen et al have suffered 6 defeats which has left Napoli stuck in 7th place. Roma is increasingly focused this season even though several key players are absent, but Mourinho can still overcome Roma performance by presenting 8 wins from 17 match.

Napoli, Lazio are the two teams that finished as champions last season where Napoli won the scudetto and Lazio as runners up. But this season both teams have not been able to maintain their best performance. I think that napoli cannot finish this season by finishing in the top 4 and also for Lazio they will not reach 5th place. I think that is the big change that has occurred in Serie A this season where other teams are able to perform better, such as Bologna and Fiorentina.

[legendbtc]

After osimhen got a red card I think that was the genesis of Napoli's fall in the match against Roma, Napoli already had a very poor form and had a poor performance along side so the red card made things even worse for them because they were already struggling with complete players, a man down made it even worse.

Roma was beaten by bologna few day back and bologna nis a team that when compared to Napoli in strength and dept so it was more like a team below Napoli was able to win bologna so definitely or most likely Napoli should have been able to win Roma with little stress but then it turned out roma became a hectic game for Napoli to play, the next two games which osimhen will be missing is definitely going to have some effect on Napoli performance and their results will be affected aswell.

Going into the match against AS Roma, the psychology of Napoli players is being affected the most, especially when they just lost 0-4 at home to Frosinone. While there was a deadlock to find an equalizer, things got even worse for Napoli when they had to play with 9 people on the field. In fact, even before they were superior, Roma played better and created many opportunities. Obviously, they scored the goal and made the most of the situation. I think it was entirely deserved. It had 28 points, one point more than their opponent. Roma is still 3 points behind next season's Champions League group. Mourinho and his team have another problematic match against Juventus, while Napoli returns home to face Monza.

[shogun47]

You know Pioli is an experienced manager who won them the Serie A after a lot of years. So he deserves another chance, right? I think he needs to be given the time to fix this squad for the season. They are in the Europa League right now out of the Champions League and they are actually looking comfortable to secure a top 3 position in the Champions League. So I would say they have nothing more to achieve this season. Pioli can be given the time to fix the team. I don't see a new manager joining and achieving more.

I think AC Milan management must act decisively to improve AC Milan performance in the second half of this season. There has been no change for AC milan in the two seasons after they won the Scudetto in the 2021/2022 season where they seemed to have great difficulty getting back into the ranks of the Scudetto-winning teams. Well, Pioli was given the opportunity in the match against Sassoulo at the end of this year where this match will be quite crucial for pioli because if he loses he will be fired. And if He wins it doesn't mean his position will be good enough because the issue of dismissal is getting more intense which is what the fans want.

Pioli failed to make AC milan stronger because in the transfer window of the past two seasons we have seen that many of the players they bought were completely unable to contribute significantly to AC Milan progress. So I might really agree if AC milan looks for a replacement for Pioli before the second half of the season starts. Conte is one of the people who is widely reported to be filling AC milan coaching chair if Pioli is fired because Conte is a coach full of experience in Serie A and it would be extraordinary if he could become AC Milan coach.

It's not trivial to find out what their biggest problems are. I think the good beginning this season could have disguised some of the bigger problems and if you look at Giroud, he has scored quite often in the first few games, but then his performance went down. I thought that he is not the perfect striker for AC Milan as they should more focus on pace and Giroud is not really the fastest player anymore. Having someone who understands where to be at the right time is great, but this seems to have stopped working for them. There is not enough variation in their attacking line despite having players like Leao and Pulisic, but as it was the same in Chelsea, Pulisic can't play on a constant level for several weeks in a row. That can harm the team's performance when some of the players can't perform all the time and now we can see the result of that.

[temple]

Well you may have put it in more precise words. Dominant is maybe too much of the good for Napoli, but they had control over the game and didn't really get under pressure and then I thought if the chance comes up for them, they are the team that is more likely to strike. That's also why I would have chosen Napoli as the winner, but the two teams are struggling and that makes it particularly difficult to determine who the favorite really is in such a game. Osimhen receiving a red card was stupid. That should have never happened and in my opinion it is straight out dumb to receive that second yellow when you know what's on the line in that game.

It is difficult for a player to control emotions when the team is under pressure and I think in football it is normal for what happened to Osimhen.
I am not surprised by the final result of this match, regardless of the game statistics because the most important thing is the final result and it must be admitted that Napoli are currently in a slump with a series of bad results so it is only natural that they lose again in this match.

That's all not the problem here I think. Players are playing with emotions and that is a good thing, but as the word "professional" suggests, the players have a duty towards the rest of the team and that is to avoid unnecessary harm during the game. That red card for Osimhen was such an unnecessary thing. Sometimes I know coincidences can kick in and it is not the best and luckiest day in the life of a player, but after they already lost a striker, he should have known that more caution is required to limit the harm and prevent further harm from being inflicted on the team.

[TelolettOm]

In my opinion Rudi Garcia was never a great coach as he never made it big into Europe and now that is gone from Napoli , my faith in this team is restored once again and I do hope they will have a decent run in UCL and maybe with a bit of luck they can hold top 4 in Serie A as well because finishing under 4th as ex champions doesn't look good at all.

However, Rudi Garcia ever won a trophy with LOSC Lille. It was a proof that Rudi Garcia has the quality as a coach. If he failed to maintain the performance of Napoli, he may be not suitable to manage Napoli. For UCL, Rudi Garcia surely has no good experience, he is not the right coach for any team to target for UCL title. I also think Mazzarri not a very suitable to manage Napoli. I doubt if Mazzarri will stay a long time in Napoli.

Inter are different from all of other top teams left in the Serie A though. But they still shouldn't have any luxury to underestimate them or shouldn't play complacently against them. As the game is an away one too things can just get harder for Inter for no reason in case of doing that.

Inter Milan performed well during this season, they are in a good form. No doubt if Inter Milan is the favorite team to win Scudetto. Sure, Inter Milan mustn't underestimate other teams in Serie A, it will bring bad impacts for them. Inter Milan also must be careful that Juventus also has the chance to be the champion.

[asriloni]

After osimhen got a red card I think that was the genesis of Napoli's fall in the match against Roma, Napoli already had a very poor form and had a poor performance along side so the red card made things even worse for them because they were already struggling with complete players, a man down made it even worse.

Roma was beaten by bologna few day back and bologna nis a team that when compared to Napoli in strength and dept so it was more like a team below Napoli was able to win bologna so definitely or most likely Napoli should have been able to win Roma with little stress but then it turned out roma became a hectic game for Napoli to play, the next two games which osimhen will be missing is definitely going to have some effect on Napoli performance and their results will be affected aswell.

Napoli lacklustre performances continue and the chance to defend their serie a title tightens up as well even their chance for champions league football is also slim as they are now 4 points of champions league place (even though the super league charge is on).

Questionn is, when will the napoli underperforming coach be sacked?

Napoli may be evaluating the ersult from mazzarri at the end of season. The club has sacked rudi from coaching the club at the middle of season. Napoli may take the current result as another evaluation. I meant mazzarri didn't have long term contract with napoli.
It will be so good for napoli to get rid of him and then try to recruit someone who can help the club to play better. The club needs someone like spalletti or jose mourinho which was able helping the club to compete at the top place even with low budeget squad.

This is the main point that must be fulfilled by napoli. We can expect napoli to change its coach again at the end of season. I will be giving mazzarri 5/10 for his score caused by it is just another flop like rudi garcia.
Napoli needs to be careful in hiring the new coach caused by when it was hiring the wrong coach and it will give big impact to the peformance from club.

[Majestic-milf]

After osimhen got a red card I think that was the genesis of Napoli's fall in the match against Roma, Napoli already had a very poor form and had a poor performance along side so the red card made things even worse for them because they were already struggling with complete players, a man down made it even worse.

Jose Mourinho just knows how to set any team out of balance and he managed to do that with Napoli. I watched the game and to be honest, the two sides played equally good but I guess there has to be one winner and that was were Roma outsmarted them. First half was tight, Napoli was playing with confidence that they would have opened the scoring but missed chances and then second half came in and I saw the walls of Napoli coming down after Politano got the red card. To be frank, that game was all about wittiness and it seemed Napoli let their emotions get the better of them and it showed more after Osimhen got booked. Truly the Nigerian would have caused a fight of he hadn't been properly tended. That's a big humiliation to hit him after he was being praised for his stellar performances after winning the African Best player award.
Roma made them see red and turned their Christmas blue after that lose pushed them a bit far from the title race.

[udidrone]

That's all not the problem here I think. Players are playing with emotions and that is a good thing, but as the word "professional" suggests, the players have a duty towards the rest of the team and that is to avoid unnecessary harm during the game. That red card for Osimhen was such an unnecessary thing. Sometimes I know coincidences can kick in and it is not the best and luckiest day in the life of a player, but after they already lost a striker, he should have known that more caution is required to limit the harm and prevent further harm from being inflicted on the team.

I agree with you, it's just that sometimes players can get out of control and make such mistakes. Napoli must have been very disadvantaged by this incident when their performance was not yet stable and their mainstay player had to miss 2 matches of course this will have an impact on the results of their future matches and Lazio and Atalanta were able to shift Napoli from 7th position. I don't know what to say to Napoli their performance is much different compared to last season even had to lose their place in the champions league. Napoli's only chance is to be in the Europa League and Napoli have to compete with 4 other teams, really bad season for Napoli.

[klidex]

After osimhen got a red card I think that was the genesis of Napoli's fall in the match against Roma, Napoli already had a very poor form and had a poor performance along side so the red card made things even worse for them because they were already struggling with complete players, a man down made it even worse.

Roma was beaten by bologna few day back and bologna nis a team that when compared to Napoli in strength and dept so it was more like a team below Napoli was able to win bologna so definitely or most likely Napoli should have been able to win Roma with little stress but then it turned out roma became a hectic game for Napoli to play, the next two games which osimhen will be missing is definitely going to have some effect on Napoli performance and their results will be affected aswell.

Yes, you could say that, after all, when Victor Oshimen had not received a red card, Napoli had already lost control when Matteo Pollitano left the game due to receiving a red card. Napoli seemed to have difficulty creating opportunities, so in the end Roma took the lead after Napoli played with 10 players. And Napoli found it increasingly difficult when Victor Oshimen received a red card which caused Napoli to become even worse with their fate of losing against Roma.

Technically and the depth of Bologna squad seems to be still below Napoli but Bologna was able to beat Roma with the same score as Roma did when they faced Napoli, even though they have an ordinary squad depth, Bologna was able to appear more impressive than Napoli, you can see in 5 In the last match, Bologna has not experienced a defeat while Napoli has experienced 3 defeats, which means that Bologna is much better than Napoli at the moment.

[borovichok]

That's all not the problem here I think. Players are playing with emotions and that is a good thing, but as the word "professional" suggests, the players have a duty towards the rest of the team and that is to avoid unnecessary harm during the game. That red card for Osimhen was such an unnecessary thing. Sometimes I know coincidences can kick in and it is not the best and luckiest day in the life of a player, but after they already lost a striker, he should have known that more caution is required to limit the harm and prevent further harm from being inflicted on the team.

I agree with you, it's just that sometimes players can get out of control and make such mistakes. Napoli must have been very disadvantaged by this incident when their performance was not yet stable and their mainstay player had to miss 2 matches of course this will have an impact on the results of their future matches and Lazio and Atalanta were able to shift Napoli from 7th position. I don't know what to say to Napoli their performance is much different compared to last season even had to lose their place in the champions league. Napoli's only chance is to be in the Europa League and Napoli have to compete with 4 other teams, really bad season for Napoli.

Napoli performance have turned and downgraded to become one of these random mediocre performance. Since the exits of their former coach that won the the scudetto this season, the club have grown to become one the club's with flopping records in the Seria A this season. Alot of things have fallen apart but we still have hope for Napoli to bounce back stronger than expected. The present of Napoli, Aurelio De Laurentiis makes attempts to revived the club but it's not working at the moment, he has single-handedly appointed and sack numerous coach and have become of the vital problems the club faces. Napoli will suffer this season, I'm seeing it coming their path gradually.

[mamesso]

~Snip~

Napoli performance have turned and downgraded to become one of these random mediocre performance. Since the exits of their former coach that won the the scudetto this season, the club have grown to become one the club's with flopping records in the Seria A this season. Alot of things have fallen apart but we still have hope for Napoli to bounce back stronger than expected. The present of Napoli, Aurelio De Laurentiis makes attempts to revived the club but it's not working at the moment, he has single-handedly appointed and sack numerous coach and have become of the vital problems the club faces. Napoli will suffer this season, I'm seeing it coming their path gradually.

Luciano Spalletti was an important actor in Napoli's success last season, he managed to turn Napoli into a club that was very difficult to beat and in the end he managed to become the best in Serie A after winning the Scudetto. After Spalletti left Napoli's performance gradually declined, his replacement as coach was unable to maintain Napoli's performance as they achieved success last season.

Now Napoli is in seventh place in the standings, this position is not ideal for a team that won the Scudetto last season. If his performance continues like this, his suffering will continue in the next match. Finally, Roma managed to humiliate Napoli 2-0 and force them to drop to seventh place. It took a miracle for Napoli to be able to return to competition in the top four.

[hd49728]

Luciano Spalletti was an important actor in Napoli's success last season, he managed to turn Napoli into a club that was very difficult to beat and in the end he managed to become the best in Serie A after winning the Scudetto. After Spalletti left Napoli's performance gradually declined, his replacement as coach was unable to maintain Napoli's performance as they achieved success last season.

He is an important piece for Napoli success but he is not the only piece for that success and there are other staffs in Napoli and many contributions from their players. It's unfair to only name Kravatskhelia and Osimhen because other players made great contributions for their Scudetto past season. These attacking players themselves have worse performances in this season and they are part of reasons for Napoli's worse performances in this season. Not only their new coach Mazzari is responsible for this.

Now Napoli is in seventh place in the standings, this position is not ideal for a team that won the Scudetto last season. If his performance continues like this, his suffering will continue in the next match. Finally, Roma managed to humiliate Napoli 2-0 and force them to drop to seventh place. It took a miracle for Napoli to be able to return to competition in the top four.

They are at a bad position but chance is big enough for them because differences from top four to their temporary position are not too big. The bigger problem comes from Napoli, will they be able to improve their performances in coming months.

The defeat over AS Roma at Olimpico stadium is bad but it is not the end of this season for Napoli.

[Getmon]

After osimhen got a red card I think that was the genesis of Napoli's fall in the match against Roma, Napoli already had a very poor form and had a poor performance along side so the red card made things even worse for them because they were already struggling with complete players, a man down made it even worse.

Roma was beaten by bologna few day back and bologna nis a team that when compared to Napoli in strength and dept so it was more like a team below Napoli was able to win bologna so definitely or most likely Napoli should have been able to win Roma with little stress but then it turned out roma became a hectic game for Napoli to play, the next two games which osimhen will be missing is definitely going to have some effect on Napoli performance and their results will be affected aswell.

Yes, you could say that, after all, when Victor Oshimen had not received a red card, Napoli had already lost control when Matteo Pollitano left the game due to receiving a red card. Napoli seemed to have difficulty creating opportunities, so in the end Roma took the lead after Napoli played with 10 players. And Napoli found it increasingly difficult when Victor Oshimen received a red card which caused Napoli to become even worse with their fate of losing against Roma.

Technically and the depth of Bologna squad seems to be still below Napoli but Bologna was able to beat Roma with the same score as Roma did when they faced Napoli, even though they have an ordinary squad depth, Bologna was able to appear more impressive than Napoli, you can see in 5 In the last match, Bologna has not experienced a defeat while Napoli has experienced 3 defeats, which means that Bologna is much better than Napoli at the moment.

The offense of Napoli staggered as it was Roma coming down on them. Lukaku coming from suspension was instrumental in the success, he was a danger and required attention. Napoli was falling apart in the match when Victor Osimhen exchanged words with Mourinho and was given his second yellow card adding harm to the loss.

Osimehen just came up with an agreement and renewed his contract with Napoli, it should give an extra lift to the club. But it is the opposite. A loss to Roma and in the next match, Osimhen and Politano are unavailable. Napoli should be able to win over Monza and get the points they need, but without their strikers, this could be another disaster for the club already in trouble.

[shogun47]

The offense of Napoli staggered as it was Roma coming down on them. Lukaku coming from suspension was instrumental in the success, he was a danger and required attention. Napoli was falling apart in the match when Victor Osimhen exchanged words with Mourinho and was given his second yellow card adding harm to the loss.

Osimehen just came up with an agreement and renewed his contract with Napoli, it should give an extra lift to the club. But it is the opposite. A loss to Roma and in the next match, Osimhen and Politano are unavailable. Napoli should be able to win over Monza and get the points they need, but without their strikers, this could be another disaster for the club already in trouble.

Having Lukaku back in the team and in the shape he is currently in is never bad of course, but the really decisive scenes in this game were the red cards. Those cards pulled the rug under Napoli's feet.

Lukaku got his goal, which helps him to quickly get back to normal and nobody cares whether he scored that against 9 Napoli players or 11 Napoli players. But for Napoli the tendency for the moment is bad and stopping it is hard.

[Jatiluhung]

The offense of Napoli staggered as it was Roma coming down on them. Lukaku coming from suspension was instrumental in the success, he was a danger and required attention. Napoli was falling apart in the match when Victor Osimhen exchanged words with Mourinho and was given his second yellow card adding harm to the loss.

Osimehen just came up with an agreement and renewed his contract with Napoli, it should give an extra lift to the club. But it is the opposite. A loss to Roma and in the next match, Osimhen and Politano are unavailable. Napoli should be able to win over Monza and get the points they need, but without their strikers, this could be another disaster for the club already in trouble.

Having Lukaku back in the team and in the shape he is currently in is never bad of course, but the really decisive scenes in this game were the red cards. Those cards pulled the rug under Napoli's feet.

Lukaku got his goal, which helps him to quickly get back to normal and nobody cares whether he scored that against 9 Napoli players or 11 Napoli players. But for Napoli the tendency for the moment is bad and stopping it is hard.

But it is quite sad to see Napoli this season. Because after losing to Roma, Napoli must now be willing to stand in 7th place. In fact, Roma is now 1 rank above Napoli, namely Roma is now ranked 6th.

Lukaku is always a concern wherever he is. Last season he received a lot of attention when he was able to play well for Inter Milan. And now he is also in the spotlight when he becomes one of the mainstays in Roma. There is no doubt about Lukaku's sharpness. But this player is actually quite rough when playing. And sometimes this also carries over to other players in the squad. So I no longer feel surprised when there will be lots of violations and a rain of yellow and red cards occurring in a match where Lukaku is in it. I don't know if it's just a coincidence or not. But that has happened quite often, even since last season when he was at Inter Milan. But that happens when facing a strong team.

Napoli may have to fight harder without their mainstay striker back. Luckily Monza is not a strong team. So Napoli must be able to win even with a narrow score in this match.