Menez is already adored by Milan’s fans.

After watching Serie’s A first month of ups and downs, made me remember all those articles in “La Gazzetta dello sport” about new players arrivals, youngsters finally promoted, injured players coming back… Anyway, I thought it would be interesting to do a little recap here, to see the ones who really impressed.

Jeremy Menez (3 goals so far) is obviously the first that comes to my mind. He’s so good that Torres can’t find a way through to the starting eleven. He scored goals that  were  decisive or even better, awesome! As a Juventus fan, it really hurts to say nice things on a Milano player, but he’s french after all, so … He really came out of nowhere but a few appearances with PSG in Ligue 1 last year.

Also, a special mention to another Milanese player, Keisuke Honda (4 goals). He came to the club last year, but he had a long integration period; I’ve never thought he’d be that good again, one day. I always liked that player; we almost forgot him last season and he’s coming back strong and decisive.( Here is his fabulous goal against parma  )

When I began writing this piece, wasn’t easy for me to find any shining star in Internazionale, but I did notice Pablo Daniel Osvaldo’s nice start with his new club, scoring 4 goals. He didn’t fit in Juve’s line- up last year and I’m happy for him to see him  back on top. The performances of Matteo Kovacic or Samir Handanovic, their goalkeeper, are also quite interesting.

In Juventus, except Carlitos Tevez who’s the “capocannoniere” with 6 goals but who’s never been a surprise to me I’d pick Sebastian Giovinco and Claudio Marchisio performances.

Concerning”The Old Lady”, currently league leaders and my favorite team “da sempre”, I could talk about Gigi Buffon’s record, Leonardo Bonucci’s goals, Roberto Pereyra’s great appearances or Stefan Lichsteiner’s bravery and determination but let’s be fair here.

Marchisio, because he was asked the almost impossible task to perfectly replace Andrea Pirlo and yet he succeeded, adapting his game to fit in Pirlo’s lower position in  the midfield. His dedication to Juventus since  his arrival at the club( aged 8 )  is proved on the pitch. “Il Principino” was amazing in every match like the one against Bergamo; he rarely missed a thing.

There’s also Giovinco, another bianconero in the team’s  heart. He’s rarely in the starting eleven since his return from Parma, but when he plays, he gives all he has. His impact on Italy’s game against Azerbaïdjan reflects all his talent and explains his surname ” la formica atomica”, the atomic ant. (He delivered a beautiful assist for Giorgio Chiellini you can see his perfomace in this video  )

Now about La Roma and their French manager’s strategy this season , I’d like to single out Miralem Pjanic’s importance in the game. Roman’s true hero, is  their coach Rydy Garcia, but he can thank some of his players like Francesco Totti, who’s better at football than thinking (his bad behaviour, after the defeat against Juventus, showed that he hasn’t Del Piero’s or Pirlo’s brain). Gervinho is as performant as last year, and even more : Amazing, more amazing than the costly Iturbe . (  see the amazing Pjanic’s goal during the preparation  )

Napoli,  have two offensive midfielders , Jose Callejon and Dries Mertens; both of them made an impressive season debut. They’ll have to be that good for the rest of the season, but if they continue like that, they could offer Napoli something nice , like a Champions League ticket.

In the other clubs, we have the eternal Antonio Di Natale in Udine, the efficient Filip Djordjevic in Lazio and the evergreen Antonio Cassano in Parma. It’ll be interesting, even exciting to watch how well, all these players will perform at end of the season.

Toto Di Natale

Categories: Analysis, opinion

Tags: Juventus de Turin, Serie A