Napoli now has no intention of stopping and continues to win game after game, Roma finally saw Ola Solbakken for the first time, Henrikh Mkhitaryan took Inter by the hand and surprisingly Lecce beat Atalanta. Here’s what happened over the past Serie A weekend…
PLAYER OF THE WEEK- OLA SOLBAKKEN
In Roma, Lorenzo Pellegrini and Paulo Dybala, the team’s strongest players, were absent for different reasons, so Jose Mourinho chose to focus (finally) on the latest arrival, Ola Solbakken, who joined as a free agent in January.
In his first chance he now has shown what he can give to the team. It was his goal that enabled the Giallorossi to win against Hellas Verona, a great left-footed cross after a backheel assist from Leonardo Spinazzola. Mourinho from January 2 (the day Ola officially arrived in Rome) to Sunday had given the former Bodo Glimt striker only four minutes, generating many doubts around his real value and potential, but on Sunday despite some small mistakes, he showed he is an added value to the team, especially being an alternative to Paulo Dybala and Lorenzo Pellegrini, who are often forced to play in precarious conditions.
The goal certainly stole the show, but his performance was good in every aspect. A positive sign.
MANAGER OF THE WEEK – LUCIANO SPALLETTI
Perhaps it is fair to award him as coach of the month, of the year, of the season and who knows what else. Spalletti’s Napoli is a marvel, it is a machine that works to perfection and knows no results other than victory.
Tuesday night comes the Champions League match, yet Napoli against Sassuolo, despite a huge lead in the standings over their pursuers, did not field players usually on the bench, quite the contrary. And it was Khvicha Kvaratskhelia and Victor Osimhen who led the way to victory. The Georgian scored yet another gem of the season, as did the Nigerian striker, now public danger number one in Italy and Europe.
Spalletti has given an incredible mentality to his team, every match is important and decisive, and Napoli takes the field every game to win and to play well, according to their style. The Scudetto really seems like the natural consequence of a perfectly prepared season.
Now there is the Champions League to try to write another page of history, but this Napoli is really a team that will be talked about even in 50 years.
INDIVIDUAL PERFORMANCE OF THE WEEK – CIRO IMMOBILE, HENRIKH MKHITARYAN
Immobile is back. The Lazio striker and captain has finally returned to playing at his level, and the brace he scored against Salernitana (handed over to Paulo Sousa after the dismissal of Davide Nicola, a decidedly surprise move) is a practical demonstration.
Maurizio Sarri had said several times that Ciro was coming back and so he did. First the goal in the Conference League against Cluj, then the brace in Serie A: 3 goals in two games for the Lazio captain, ready to take his team by the hand. Without him, Sarri had to have Pedro and Felipe Anderson play in attack, as he did not have a reserve forward, but now Immobile is back in his place.
Another player who took the spotlight on Saturday was undoubtedly Henrikh Mkhitaryan. The Armenian against Udinese was his side’s best man on the pitch, not only for the winning goal, but also for the way he fit perfectly into the Nerazzurri’s tactical context, playing even lower than he already did in Rome last year, almost as a central midfielder. He drops down to take the ball, he is good in conduction to take it into the opponent’s half of the field, he is always dangerous with his movements without the ball, and against Udinese he even scored an important goal, important enough to close the match.
At the end of the game he spoke proudly of his team’s quality: “We showed the whole world that we are not a team to mess with”. Words also addressed to Porto, the next Champions League opponent.
SURPRISE OF THE WEEK – LECCE BEAT ATALANTA IN BERGAMO
Lecce is having a great season, there is no doubt about that: they stopped Roma and Milan, they beat Lazio, they beat Atalanta in the first part of the season – as they did in the last weekend.
In one week Marco Baroni’s Lecce collected four points against Roma and Atalanta, and that alone would be enough to describe the incredible job he is doing. That it was not going to be easy for Gian Piero Gasperini’s team was clear, by now the Pugliesi are no longer a surprise, but that even Atalanta could go down by two goals, well, that certainly surprised everyone.
First Assan Ceesay, then Alexis Blin: Gasperini could not find a way to manage a game that was complicated from the first minute to the last one. Rasmus Hojlund, as usual, shortened the distance by taking advantage of a mistake by Wadimiro Falcone, once again a protagonist with great saves, but Lecce eventually won and now have started to run with their heads held high toward the permanence in Serie A. Well done Baroni, well done.
