THINGS WE LEARNED from Serie A this weekend as Osimhen shows he’ll be top scorer

The new Italian  Serie A season roared into life over the weekend as the Italian top-flight returned for another season of pulsating action.

 

 

Reigning champions Napoli showed their title credentials with a 3-1 away thrashing of league newcomers Frosinone to hand Rudi Garcia three points on his managerial debut.

Meanwhile, Jose Mourinho’s Roma saw his defence come unhinged against Salernitana despite his attack showing promise in the absence of Tammy Abraham.

Elsewhere, Federico Chiesa is back with a bang at Juventus and is finally demonstrating his ambition to be the centre of the club’s sporting project.

Mail Sport’s Alvise Cagnazzo talks us through 10 things we learned from Serie A’s opening weekend.

 

 

 

1 – Victor Osimhen is like Superman

80 minutes were enough to remind Serie A fans of Victor Osimhen’s strength and killer instinct in the penalty box. Two extraordinary goals brought a clearly inferior Frosinone to its knees and creating early suggestions they are perhaps too weak to be able to compete on the Serie A stage.

The Nigerian centre forward seems to be up and running despite the season just beginning and he is already the recurring nightmare of Frosinone’s defence, scoring two goals with his only two chances in the game.

Napoli manager Rudi Garcia gave him a well-deserved standing ovation 10 minutes from the end of the opening match by subbing him off. Garcia was also looking to manage the players workload.

Osimhen can once again be the top scorer in Serie A and to do so the French coach will have to carefully balance the output of the former Lille striker: his physique is delicate but the presence of Giovanni Simeone on the bench provides an opportunity to rest him when needed.

Garcia is already forging an aggressive and fast squad centred around him and Osimhen is demonstrating his desire to confirm his status as the best striker in the division.

 

 

 

2 – Lautaro Martinez and Arnautovic steal the show

Lautaro Martinez is officially the new point of reference for Inter. The two goals scored against Monza projected Inter’s number 10 into the centre of the Nerazzurri’s game despite rumours in recent weeks linking him with a potential move away from the club.

Without former strike partner Romelu Lukaku alongside him, the Argentinian seems more free in his movements and has worked hard to enhance his technical play.

Marcus Thuram and Marko Arnautovic support him in an offensive tandem that already seems to work well with Edin Dzeko’s absence not creating any disturbance in the team’s attack.

Arnautovic supported Martinez for his second goal perfectly with the pair already forging a partnership that seems destined to get better over time. Beating Monza was easier than expected and Arnautovic and Martinez are already showing how they can build an effective partnership that benefits Inter both in Serie A and the Champions League.

 

 

 

3 – Federico Chiesa means business as Juventus’ star figure

Federico Chiesa has returned to being the top player that Italian football had almost forgotten about. The 10 months between injury and rehabilitation have forged the personality of the Juventus number 7 who is once again the protagonist at the center of the Juventus attack.

Intense summer pre-season saw the Italian cut his summer holiday off early to be ready to fire for the start of the new campaign. Chiesa has changed his role to to try and improve his performance, positioning himself closer to Dusan Vlahovic and getting rid of many of the defensive tasks that in the past were assigned to him by Massimiliano Allegri

 

 

 

His concentration and competitiveness are the demonstration of how the player has matured and reached a turning point in his career.

 

He wants to stay in Turin and become the centre of the club’s sporting project while the choice to entrust him with the No.7 shirt after Cristiano Ronaldo demonstrates Juventus’ interest in building a team around the Italian striker.

 

 

4 – Roma’s fragile defence shatters against Salernitana

Mourinho seems very worried about the situation regarding his attack but the result of the match against Salernitana shows the team’s real problem is their defensive fragility.

Nemanja Matic’s departure has fuelled problems in the middle of the field that is a serious handicap difficult to overcome. Leonardo Spinazzola and Edoardo Bove didn’t guarantee balance in the game and Mourinho’s tactical experiments failed to have the desired effects.

 

 

 

Antonio Candreva drove Gianluca Mancini crazy and caused Chris Smalling to lose his usual calmness, posing the question how can a 36-year-old player put an entire department in difficulty? Tactical truth requires objective analysis that demonstrate how the Giallorossi midfield now protects their defence much less.

Bryan Cristante is a player more suited to attacking spaces rather than defending with order and discipline and distorting his characteristics means exposing the team to dangerous scenarios.

 

 

 

 

5 – Charles de Ketelaere is reborn at Atalanta

A few minutes were enough for Charles de Ketelaere to demonstrate to everyone, and above all to Milan, that he is a very talented player.

He pierced Sassuolo and within a few turns of clock, had scored his first goal in Serie A after 12 months, demonstrating how Gasperini’s hard and intense training sessions have made his talent blossom.

Constant work allows him to improve Atalanta’s lack of dynamism and speed, qualities that Stefano Pioli failed to correct in one-year, but Gasperini’s painstaking work already seems to bear fruit after just a few weeks.

 

 

 

The Atalanta coach will slowly insert the player into his tactical plans in a bid to strengthen his physical physique.

De Ketelaere seems to be too thin and too fragile in contrast to other Serie A stars and Atalanta will become an important life training ground for him as he is given a second chance to prove his worth in the Italian top-flight.

 

 

6 – Jens-Lys Cajuste angers Napoli supporters

Jens-Lys Cajuste probably played the worst game of his career as Napoli beat Frosinone. The Swedish midfielder gave away the penalty that allowed the hosts to take the lead and then received a stupid yellow card and was the negative protagonist ending up offside in action of Giacomo Raspadori’s goal that was ruled out by Var.

Cajuste succeeded in creating considerable embarrassment for the president De Lurentiis sitting in the grandstand. If this is the player chosen as Tanguy Ndombele’s heir then Napoli have probably made a very serious error of judgement.

Time will certainly offer the Swedish midfielder a second chance who has already revealed obvious flaws when it comes to the emotional management of tense games.

Garcia replaced him after 45 minutes out of desperation and opened a critical debate on the supposed star qualities of the player.

He must now be protected but it remains incomprehensible how a player can make so many mistakes in such a short time, risking seriously compromising the efforts of the whole team.

 

 

 

7 – Andrea Belotti can replace Tammy Abraham

Zero goals in Serie A last season ensured Andrea Belotti was the element that Mourinho did not like but football sometimes seems to be a fairy tale capable of making adults fall in love with the game and Belotti’s performance Roma’s opening Serie A game has already improved his stats for the last 12 months.

Goal disallowed in 7th minute, first goal in 17th minute on the second occasion in the Salernitana penalty area and then a second goal in the 82nd minute certifies his rebirth and removes Mourinho’s fear of running out of strikers after Tammy Abraham’s serious injury.

Belotti has never been a top player but his statistics in Turin seemed to suggest the he was capable of taking a chance in a top club. After a difficult first 12 months in Rome, the 29-year-old now is now demonstrating he can lead Mourinho’s attack. This could be season of his sporting rebirth and his new target is to reach 15 goals in Serie A.

 

 

 

8 – Experienced Antonio Candreva can be Italy’s experienced star

Antonio Candreva looks like Benjamin Button: the quality of his performances on the pitch seems to improve with each passing year while looking younger and younger.

He runs and fights despite being 36 and after more than 20 years is proving to be the true charismatic leader of Paulo Sousa’s team. He helped Salernitana avoid relegation last season by scoring seven goals and registering four assists in 35 games.

In his side’s season-opener he immediately scored his first goal proving that he remains a physically capable player despite his age.

 

 

 

Sousa is angry about the club’s delays in the transfer market but continues to never give up on Candreva and considers him the team’s top player.

His performances mean he could be a very useful asset for new Italy national team manager Luciano Spalletti ahead of his first fixtures at the helm of the team in September.

 

 

9 – Sead Kolasinac stars on his debut

Sead Kolasinac made the best possible debut in Serie A over the weekend against Sassuolo, showing all his experience and impressive physical strength.

Gasperini is convinced that the former Arsenal star can be an excellent left-footed central defender and judging by the excellent performance against Sassuolo’s Laurentie there is no doubting that.

 

 

Kolasinac has the physique of an American wrestler and boasts speed much higher than the average defender in Serie A. He won the duel with Sassuolo winger Laurentie and had already proved to be in excellent physical condition after a few weeks of training.

At 30-years-old, he seems to be experiencing the right moment to start a second winning phase of his career after experiences at Schalke 04 and Marseille.

10 – Genoa will be relegated if they continue to flop

 

 

Conceding four goals at home on the first day of the new season represents much more than a simple alarm bell for coach Alberto Gilardino. Genoa are already discovering they are living a nightmare.

The transfer market rewarded the team with the arrivals of Junior Messias, Ruslan Malinovsky and Mateo Retegui, but Genoa’s first appearance in Serie A saw them concede four goals and only score one.

Mattia Bani and Radu Dragusin played poorly but the impression is that the whole team was surprised by the quality of Fiorentina.

 

 

At the end of the first half, Rossoblu discovered that they were not yet ready for the challenges of Serie A and the last days of the transfer market need to be used to seriously strengthen the team.