sport news Inter star Federico Dimarco is the best left-back in Europe, Massimiliano ... trends now
What have we learned this week about Serie A?
What remained in the mind and heart of the second round of matches of the Italian championship?
Here's what happened in 30 round of Serie A 2023/2024
1 - DIMARCO IS THE BEST LEFT BACK IN EUROPE
Federico Dimarco is the best Italian left back since Gianluca Zambrotta. Raised in Inter's youth sector, he played with Ascoli, Empoli, Sion, Parma and Verona, before returning definitively to Inter in 2021, becoming in the space of three years an irreplaceable point of reference for both Nerazzurri team and the Italian national team in which he will be a protagonist during the summer European Championship.
Inter star Federico Dimarco (above) is the best Italian left back since Gianluca Zambrotta
The victory against Empoli demonstrates how Federico Dimarco has become an absolute protagonist of Inter, a team no longer dependent only on the competitive fury of Marcus Thuram and Lautaro Martinez, the two attackers who scored 70% of the team's goals in this season season.
Dimarco kicks first as if he were an attacker, hits with strength and precision and is set to become an icon of the team. He is probably the most technical defender in Serie A and Empoli has never managed to stem his inexhaustible run.
Simone Inzaghi has built a perfect machine, apparently without structural defects, in which the twenty-six-year-old box-to-box winger, strongly wanted at Inter by CEO Beppe Marotta, plays a fundamental role, covering the role of fifth defender and third attacker. In 3-5-2 Dimarco is one of the few European players capable of transforming Simone Inzaghi's game plan depending on his position on the pitch: from 5-3-2 to 3-4-3 in the attacking phase in 40 meters which they make the Italian full-back difficult to control.
2 - JUVENTUS DOES NOT PLAY FOOTBALLOne win, three draws and four defeats in 60 days. This is the spoils of Massimiliano Allegri who continues to be presumptuous in the press room and terrible in his role as coach at the helm of Juventus. “Old Lady” has reached such an embarrassing level of ugliness that it cannot be judged.
Bianconeri team no longer follows the coach who lives in a bubble of monotonous impotence, making every move wrong. They failed in all crucial tactical decisions against Lazio, with Mattia De Sciglio replaced out of desperation after 45 minutes and Fabio Miretti non-existent in midfield.
The players have their faults but Massimiliano Allegri is making Juventus play in the worst way and with the worst results ever achieved in Serie A by the club in its more than one hundred year history.
Massimiliano Allegri's Juventus slumped to a 1-0 defeat at Lazio on Saturday
The bench number 500 collected by Allegri was not honoured and the team lived a continuous nightmare proving that they did not know what to do.
Manuel Locatelli plays with shaking legs, players in great form with their respective national teams when they play against Juventus go through matches in psycho-physical agony: there is something wrong in locker room and it doesn't take a genius to understand that this is the case. necessary to give a shock. 7 points in 9 games are a merciless snapshot of the progress of a team, the black and white one, which needs a shake-up and not a coach who continues to repeat to all his players the word "let's stay calm, calm down!".
The team is averaging one point away from relegation to Serie B and continues to have no ideas that could change course of events.
3 - NAPOLI, A TEAM WITHOUT SOULHas anyone seen Napoli on the pitch? The 0-3 suffered by Napoli at home against Atalanta is the demonstration of a serious character deficit of a team that has erased in 7 months the good things done in the last 3 years.
Winning the Scudetto for the second time in a row would have been difficult but the level of quality this season has been largely insufficient. 45 points in 30 games, 44 goals scored and 36 goals conceded, too many for a team that can definitively say goodbye to fourth place in Serie A standings. The true technical value of the team is probably this but what makes the fans suffer is the absolute lack of personality of the team coached by Francesco Calzona.
Weak, defeatist and nervous, Neapolitan team seemed to wait helplessly for the final whistle. 8/11 of this team would not play as starters in any top Italian club and this should give pause to President De Laurentiis who let Eljif Elmas leave and replaced him with players who were not up to par such as Leander Dedoncker and Hamed Junior Traorè. In Naples they disappointed everyone, especially those who should have proved something after the many millions spent in the winter transfer market.
Napoli's season went from bad to worse with the 3-0 home defeat by Atalanta
Cyril Ngonge is a player with mixed performances and against Giampiero Gasperini's team he was crushed by the Atalanta defence. Giovanni Di Lorenzo lost all the one-to-one duels and bears some blame for the third goal scored by Teun Koopmeiners.
4 - LEAO IS A DELIGHT FOR THE EYESRafael Leao is a gazelle impossible to stop. In the big match against Fiorentina he overwhelmed the entire defense of the team coached by Vincenzo Italiano, cutting the field like a blade does with a piece of butter.
Milan's 2-1 is a demonstration of psychological, technical and muscular strength by the Portuguese player who, with a body movement while running, hypnotizes Fiorentina goalkeeper and makes Rossoneri fans explode with joy. The gallop for the fifth goal of the season is aesthetically perfect, it could be set to music by Maestro Ennio Morricone in his famous ditties that accompanied Hollywood cinematography.
When the ball reaches his feet, the Fiorentina defenders begin to move back to try to limit the damage and more often than not they are forced to commit a foul because Leao is unstoppable in every area of the pitch. He runs vertically and obliquely and over the years he has learned how to protect the ball: give him the ball and how to deposit it in the bank and this new leadership has increased his centrality in the team's play.
When Leao is in the game he leaves no way out for his opponents, he runs laughing like the best Ronaldinho admired in his time at Barcelona, he always dribbles past the opposing full-back, creates assists for Giroud and always raises his head as he runs towards the goal. It is a pleasure for the eyes and the hearts of Rossoneri fans who have elected him as the new icon of AC Milan team. He is of a level clearly superior to that of all the wingers in Serie A and has an elastic physique that makes him light as if he were flying on the grass.
Rafael Leao has delighted the Milan fans with his dribbling and assists this season
Bologna deserves a place in Champions League. The 3-0 victory against Salernitana is a direct message to Juventus, today only 2 points away, which serves to consolidate fourth place in the Serie A standings. Salernitana, last in the standings, are not a difficult opponent but the way Bologna attacked the match shows how much the team has matured in recent months.
Managing such a delicate match to ensure a greater chance of participating in the next Champions League was not easy but Bologna managed to gain 3 points, increasing the group's self-esteem. Victory number 7 in the last 8 games is a perfect
