STAR FOOTBALL ANTE-POST PREVIEW: Serie A

ALL KICKING OFF – SERIE A: As part of our build-up to the new football season we preview Italy’s Serie A with WILLIAM KEDJANYI including two recommended starsports.bet selections. Inter Milan were utterly dominant last season, but – can their much-changed rivals get closer this time?

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With seven new managers in the mix, there’s been a ton of change in Serie A before the season’s even started but Inter Milan remain the team to beat and set a hugely demanding standard for their domestic rivals.

Seven of those new managers are coming to sides who finished in last year’s top 10 but Simone Inzaghi led the Nerazzurri to a 19-point win last season and scarily for their opponents, the same squad is back to defend their title.

Serie A clubs have struggled in the transfer markets in recent years with the huge money that the Premier League can offer – along with the lure of clubs such as Real Madrid, Barcelona, Bayern and PSG – but Inter haven’t lost any key players and if anything, have strengthened.

Landing Piotr Zielinski from Napoli and Mehdi Taremi from Porto is an incredible coup to add to a side that’s already stacked with attacking talent whilst signing former Genoa goalkeeper Josep Martinez provides solid backup to Swiss keeping ace Yann Sommer.

Marcus Thuram and last season’s top goalscorer Lautaro Martinez scored 37 goals between them in 2023/24. Behind them is a midfield core of Nicolò Barella, Hakan Çalhanoğlu, and Davide Frattesi – as good a trio as any side in the league can offer.

A backline of Benjamin Pavard, Stefan de Vrij and Alessandro Bastoni provides top class protection for Yann Sommer whilst Matteo Darmian and Federico Dimarco provide width down flank for the reigning Champions. Inter can expect a sterner challenge this time around from refreshed rivals, but there’s no doubt they set the standard and their price of ? is fair given their dominance last season and the settled summer they’ve had.

One of many big new managerial appointments comes at Juventus, who have replaced Max Allegri with Thiago Motta, fresh from taking Bologna to a fifth-placed finish.

Motta has received significant support in the transfer market and in the shape of Douglas Luiz and Kephren Thuram Juventus ( ? with Star Sports for the title) have made two of the most eye-catching arrivals in the Serie A window. If their new midfield rivals can stabilise a team that has Dusan Vlahovic, Arkadiusz Milik and Kenan Yildiz upfront then there’s huge potential for improvement from Juventus, who also have a technical goalkeeper to assist with their new playing style in the shape of Michele Di Gregorio. Atalanta’s Teun Koopmeiners is also in the latter stages of forcing through a move, injecting Juventus with even more technical skill into their new look midfield.

They are likely to need a big goalscoring season from their star striker Vlahovic, however – last season Juventus finished in third despite scoring just 54 goals and with others having potential for improvement, they’ll need to be more clinical in front of goal.

AC Milan ( ? for the title) were unable to cope with their city rivals last season but they did finish second and they’ve also made some changes over the summer, as Paulo Fonseca has replaced Stefano Pioli in a bid to improve their defence – last season they conceded 49 goals, more than any other side in the top 10 – and improve the balance across a team that has plenty of firepower going forward.

Rafael Leao and Christian Pulisic are joined by Alvaro Morata, who will be looking to at least match or improve upon his performances at Atletico Madrid (12 goals, 13 goals, 15 goals in last three La Liga seasons), and free-scoring Milan (second highest scorers last season with 79 goals) shouldn’t have many worries about finding the net – so if Fonseca can get the best out of Emerson Royal and Strahinja Pavlovic then Milan’s prospects will be enhanced.

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Premier League offer …..

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Perhaps the biggest change of coach has come at Napoli, where serial league winner Antonio Conte arrives at the helm. Napoli ( ? for the title) won Serie A in incredible style just two seasons ago and whilst they had a horrendous title defence last season, that can be easily forgiven after the departure of Luciano Spaletti and the sacking of his replacement Rudi Garcia midseason.

Key absences and departures also impacted them along with some rather poor luck – Napoli accumulated the third greatest expected goals tally in Serie A (68.49) and had the fourth most expected points – and much of the title winning squad is now in the hands of Conte.

That includes Khvicha Kvaratskhelia – at the time of writing, Victor Osimhen – Giovanni Di Lorenzo, and Stanislav Lobotka, all of whom played a key role in Napoli’s title Triumph, and there are also rumours that Conte could bring Romelu Lukaku from Chelsea and Billy Gilmour from Brighton to bolster the squad.

Napoli’s players are already familiar with the 3-4-3 system Conte prefers to use, and thanks to last season’s disappointing effort they won’t have any European commitments at all, meaning Conte can give full focus domestically. Conte’s record at rebuilding sides needs no introduction and he’s won four of his last five Serie A campaigns, being beaten by just a point in the other one, making Napoli one of the most interesting potential contenders.

Atalanta were one of the success stories of last season, beating Bologna by a point to fourth whilst also taking glory in the Europa League when proving their pedigree by smashing Liverpool in the quarter-finals and then beating Bayer Leverkusen in the final.

Things will be harder this time with Champions League football – where they could play upto ten games in a bid for a knockout place – but they managed their successful Europa League run in style (second highest points total over the second half of the season) and have enjoyed a decent summer in the transfer market as Ben Godfrey, Charles De Ketelaere and Nicolo Zaniolo have arrived whilst the only major departure looks to be Teun Koopmeiners, who’s forcing through a transfer to Juventus.

Bar that saga they haven’t suffered any great losses – whilst the masterful Gian Piero Gasperini remains at the helm which should also help matters.

The downside for Atalanta, who are ? for a top-four finish this season – is an injury crisis. ACL injuries to Giorgio Scalvini and Gianluca Scamacca are huge blows whilst Nicolò Zaniolo is also absent, although he should return sooner with any luck – but if they can weather that then 13/8 on them finishing in the Top 4 could be value.

Roma ( ? to finish in top four) just beat City rivals Lazio to finish sixth last season – under the guidance of club legend Daniele De Rossi, who did an excellent job of steadying the ship following José Mourinho’s sacking. They’re another top club who have had a very eye-catching transfer season – taking last season’s La Liga top scorer Artem Dovbyk from Girona could be the best business of the entire window, whilst Matíás Soulé brings huge promise to the forward line – and the arrival of De Rossi has put new life into Lorenzo Pellegrini in midfield.

Adding superstar Paulo Dybala into the mix and there’s a potentially explosive combination there if De Rossi can play his cards right and Roma will be worth keeping an eye on early in the campaign.

Lazio ( ? to finish in top four) fell to seventh last season after finishing second to Napoli in 2022-23 and now have a huge task to rebuild things after two managerial changes last season and the exit of club talisman Ciro Immobile whilst Luis Alberto and Felipe Anderson have also departed, so it’s hard to imagine them making big forward strides.

Bologna reached the promised land of the Champions League last season with an incredible season, led by Thiago Motta. He’s since been snapped up by Juventus whilst Riccardo Calafiori and Joshua Zirkzee have left for Arsenal and Manchester United respectively (Marko Arnautovic has also gone to Inter). Former Fiorentina coach Vincenzo Italiano is a very solid replacement but with other clubs promising to improve they could struggle to hit the same heights.

At the other end of the table, Two of the three promoted clubs managed to survive in Serie A last term. Como – managed by Cesc Fabregas – have made some eye-catching signings including World Cup winner Raphaël Varane and Andrea Belotti, and they could shake up the established clubs whilst Lecce, Hellas Verona and Empoli could find themselves in trouble.

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⭐ STAR MARKET ON SERIE A ⭐
⚽ ALL KICKING OFF – PREVIEWS ⚽

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