Serie A 2013/14: Analysing the heavyweights of the league
Juventus will be the team to beat again this season
The 82nd season of the Italian Serie A promises to be one of the most intriguing seasons of the Serie A since it’s inception. There have been some quality additions made by various sides in an attempt to strengthen their squads and compete for the top three spots in the league in order to guarantee qualification for the Champions League.
Let’s take a quick look at the teams who can either mount a title challenge or do well enough to guarantee themselves Champions League qualification:
Juventus – The Old Lady of Turin romped to the championship last season and look favourites to retain the title this season. Antonio Conte’s men are solid in defence and brilliant in attack.
The addition of young centre-back Angelo Ogbonna has bolstered an already enviable defence consisting of players like Giorgio Chiellini and Leonardo Bonucci, and the shrewd signings of Carlos Tevez (£10M) and Fernando Llorente (free transfer) has bolstered their forward line, arguably the one department Juve lacked in.
The midfield trio of MVP (Marchisio-Vidal-Pirlo) is one of the best in all of Europe and the fact that they possess talented youngsters like Paul Pogba means the future is bright for Juventus. Retaining the Scudetto won’t be easy, but write of Juventus at your own peril.
Napoli – Last season’s runner-up appointed former Chelsea interim manager Rafael Benitez after losing Walter Mazarri to Inter Milan.
Edinson Cavani was sold to PSG but Benitez has made some strong signings. He raided Real Madrid for Gonzalo Higuain, Raul Albiol and Jose Callejon while also securing the signatures of Dries Mertens and Pepe Reina, the latter having arrived on a season-long loan from Liverpool.
The attacking options Benitez has at his disposal are brilliant; aside from recent additions Mertens and Callejon, players like Marik Hamsik, Goran Pandev and Italy U-21 international Lorenzo Insigne were already at the club from the previous season. However, if Benitez truly wants to mount a title challenge, he might want to add another one or two defenders to his side.
AC Milan – Their current squad boasts of mostly young players who will only get better with time. Last season saw the club offload older players like Gennaro Gattuso, Clarence Seedorf and Alessandro Nesta, while they also chose to sell Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Thiago Silva to PSG.
Despite that, they managed to make it to the Champions League qualifying stages. They possess quality young players like Mario Balotelli, Stephan El-Sharaawy, Mattea De Sciglio, Andrea Poli and M’Baye Niang along with slightly experienced campaigners like Ricardo Montolivo, Ignazio Abate and Nigel de Jong.
One can expect them to challenge for the title if their relatively young squad can perform well. However, inexperience might just be their undoing. Nevertheless, the Rossoneri have some of the most exciting young players in their squad.
Fiorentina – The Viola had to settle for Europa League qualification this season after narrowly missing out on Champions League qualification. Vicenzo Montella has made some clever acquisitions in the transfer window so far, the most notable of those being the signing of Mario Gomez from Bayern Munich after losing Stevan Jovetic to Manchester City.
Massimo Ambrosini is another decent signing, while the arrival of Joaquin from Malaga and Josep Ilicic from Parma can also be seen as good business. Fiorentina played some attractive football last season and their new additions make them outside contenders for the Scudetto.
Aside from these teams, Roma might just be able to snatch a position in the top three if things go well for them. The acquisition of Kevin Strootman will bolster their midfield while the addition of Mehdi Benetia will no doubt shore up their defence.
Inter Milan can be ruled out as Champions League contenders, given the fact that they’ve had a less than convincing pre-season. They might also take some time to adjust to Mazzari’s 3-5-2 formation.