“Napoli are the anti-Inter, a solid team that is difficult to face and will be able to improve some individual performances. We still haven’t seen the best of Lukaku and Gilmour. Napoli can keep up with the Nerazzurri who in absolute terms are still the favourites.” Thus to TuttoMercatoWeb.com the former Napoli striker Cristian Bucchi, coach of Benevento, Sassuolo and Ascoli among others.
Roma have experienced a turbulent season so far. Juric’s mistakes?
“Juric made little mistakes. It has a clear trademark: it is not very malleable. The mistake was to entrust him with a team built for De Rossi’s totally different type of game. Now with Ranieri I expect a Rome characterized by adaptation. The ranking is far from what Roma’s values are. But Ranieri has all the qualities to ensure that the season can turn around.”
Genoa sacked Gilardino.
“Vieira will certainly do well. But what happened was very strange. Genoa was on the upswing, last year they had Gudmundsson and Retegui. Losing two such important players is a major weakening.”
Serie B: Cremonese, Palermo, Sampdoria and Frosinone are late and disappoint.
“Today, among those who disappointed, Cremonese is the one who can regain the upper zone. Palermo and Samp have not yet found a solution. Up front, Sassuolo has the strongest squad and then there are two teams like Pisa and Spezia who will compete for second place.”
In Palermo Brunori has found little space so far. Can the Rosanero really do without their captain?
“The coach has knowledge of his personnel. From the outside it’s a complex situation: Brunori’s history in Palermo is made up of goals and attack, not seeing him on the pitch is a bit surprising. For everyone’s good, a solution will have to be reached: either he stays and plays or he goes elsewhere.”
At Samp we expected more from the Coda-Tutino goalscoring duo…
“The club’s idea was to build a strong team with players who make the difference. Coda and Tutino have a wealth of goals together, Samp also has Borini, La Gumina and Pedrola and when they find themselves and also find the plays of their individuals they will go back up.”
And are you ready to get back on track?
“There were two negotiations well underway. one with an ambitious C team and one with a B team. They didn’t materialize, but they are still open. We’ll see in the future.”