Atalanta lost again, this time to Sampdoria by 3-1.

Maybe Serie A teams are figuring out how to play them.

Zlatan with a brace against Roma yesterday (also hilariously gifted them an assist to give away the victory), third brace in a row in Serie A. 17 goals and 5 assist in 25 games since he returned to Milan. Current top scorer in Italy at the age of 39.

If we had him leading our line even at the age of 39 instead of Lacazette we will be top of the table

Apparently Rambo is picking up form now for Juve. Probably means he'll be injured next month.

banduan wrote:

Apparently Rambo is picking up form now for Juve. Probably means he'll be injured next month.

He started the season on fire and then promptly got injured missing next 2-3 games.

Watched Atalanta's loss last week to Sampdoria.

I was very impressed by Samp's Norwegian defensive mid Morten Thornsby.

Completely shut down the likes of Papu and Ilicic and also popped up with a goal.

Apparently he did the same thing the week prior to Luis Alberto and Milinkovic-Savic as Sampdoria had bossed Lazio.

Didn't know he played DM for them now. He's usually been played at RB I think (and not very well imo).

Gervinho with a great finish against Inter. I swear he scores against Inter every year

A lot of issues for Inter.

They are conceding a lot of goals which is uncharacteristic for a Conte team and completely reliant on Lukaku (and Barella to an extent) offensively.

Lautaro is having a horror show so far (showing that 100 million fee demanded for him was completely unrealistic).

jones wrote:

Ibrahimovic taking the piss again. Milan haven't lost in nine months or so now

Europa League favourites?

Zlatan adds to his legend every passing week. What an icon.

Zlatan just revealing how pointless Serie A is, surely. He wasn't even this effective in the MLS was he?

53 goals in 58 games for Galaxy.

It's not a comment on Serie A, bloke is just one of the greatest players in modern football. Ronaldo plays in Italy too and he hasn't run away with the numbers despite playing for the by far best team in the country geared towards maximising his output. Just look at where this Milan team was when he arrived ten months ago. There are less than a handful of players in the world who can have this sort of transformative effect on an entire club.

Good point about Ronaldo. Zlatan is ridiculous but I just find it hard to take seriously due to my own prejudice.

The only blemish on Zlatan's legacy has been his non-performances in European competition.

He has always gone missing in crucial CL/EL games throughout his career.

Coombs wrote:

Good point about Ronaldo. Zlatan is ridiculous but I just find it hard to take seriously due to my own prejudice.

On Cristiano - 55 goals in 65 Serie A games isn’t exactly awful. 

Speaking of, he’s warming up. Juventus really struggling here vs Spezia. Headed to their 4th draw in 6 games. What’s a Cuadrado?

And he’s scored within 3 minutes. 2-1. Great centre forward movement. The type you don’t see from Lacazette

Absolutely insane stuff in Turin. Torino scored a late goal in the 88th min to lead against Lazio.

Lazio then scored 2 in added time to snatch victory.

They messed up my accumulator. I never thought they had it in them without that trio. Incredible win for them.

mentalvortex wrote:

Great result for De Zerbi's Sassuolo as they beat an in-form Napoli 2-0 in Naples.

That too without Caputo, Berardi and Djuricic.

Annoyed this game was same time. Will catch a repeat tomorrow. 
Klaus, why would you bet against Sassuolo right now even with Rino doing so well?

Because they were playing away to one of the two most in-form teams in the league and missing Berardi, Caputo and Djuricic. :doh: Two top 10 players this Serie A season so far, and another one who at the very least has been in the top 20.

Roma also won today by 2-0 at Fiorentina.

Dare I say that Pedro has looked very good for them.

Just finished the Sassuolo - Napoli game. Although it finished 2-0 it was a game of margins. Napoli were probably more the protagonists in this game, and Sassuolo unusually defended stoutly without their main attackers - Caputo, Berardi and Djuricic. Captain for the night Locatelli was imperious marshaling the defense and keeping Napoli on the edges of the box. It was an unusual display for the team.
Napoli will consider themselves unlucky although all the VAR calls were spot on. Sassuolo’a first goal was a penalty that Locatelli converted after play was stopped for a handball about a minute earlier. Napoli then had a 90th minute equalizer ruled out for offside. And in the 95th minute, Osimhen thought he had a foul on the edge of the penalty box for shirt pulling (turned out he was the one tugging shirts), and while Napoli players were protesting Sassuolo went off and got a second.

I’ve only seen him twice now at Napoli but Osimhen seems a handful. Immensely powerful

Now you know why I have been wishlisting Osimhen for the longest time.

But seriously though 70m is insane. Way overpriced.

For all intents and purpose, that 70 million fee was an accounting exercise from what I read.

Lille had to show a certain amount of revenue from player sales to avoid FFP sanctions and Napoli helped them with that.

In reality the fee was around 45 million, as Napoli sold Lille 4 academy graduates and a backup goalie (valued at 5 million each) in return.

Lots of FFP shenanigans this summer. Uefa is asleep at the wheel, Ole-style

mentalvortex wrote:

Roma also won today by 2-0 at Fiorentina.

Dare I say that Pedro has looked very good for them.

Mkhi scored a superb hattrick today for Roma. Pedro looked good again.

Basically Serie A slow pace is far too easy for seasoned PL players. Young, Dzeko, Mkhi, Pedro etc goes there to retire and tears up the league

A day of draws in Serie a as most of the big games ended up in a stalemate.

Juventus drew against Lazio thanks to another injury time goal for Caicedo.
Most of the focus/criticism would probably be on Dybala who was dogshit and responsible for the equalizer.

Milan came back from two goals down against a very good Verona side and should have won as they had the best chances in the second half.
Ibrahimovic is going to kick himself for his penalty miss.

Inter drew against Atalanta who should have won it at the death as Muriel missed an absolute sitter.
Positives for both sides as Lautaro finally scored and looked good tonight while Miranchuk scored on his Serie A debut and looked threatening all game.

Quick edit - Ibrahimovic confirmed to the media in the post-match media that he has ceded penalty taking duties to Kessie from now on.

Speaking of Ibrahimovic:

Watching Juve- Cagliari. 2 things. Ronaldo is still beastly. Scored 2 beauties to make it 8 in 5. Morata is Spanish for Lacazette

Mkhi with another MOTM performance for Roma. Can't believe he went from not making the bench here to being one of the best players in Serie A

Ibra with the most beautiful of headers vs Napoli.

It's a shame Michelangelo isn't alive, only he could do Ibra justice

I thought Koulibaly messed up initially, but it looks like it's Mario Rui who marks Zlatan and doesn't shout to Koulibaly early enough that the run is coming.

Zlatan is just too good man.

Transformative.