After 25 rounds of the Serie A there is one scary statistic. Football is not played only for the wins, football is played for the goals too. But that’s probably the biggest problem in Italian football right now. Her majesty ‘victory’ is untouchable. Everything must be done in order to secure three points, but that’s just killing the game in Italy. A huge number of 109 goals more were scored last season after 25 rounds. Serie A players have so far scored over 100 goals less, which is terrible in terms of entertainment. And for all those who think that the result is always better than entertainment, here is a fact. The price difference between the Premier League and Serie A is a staggering ten times. The English collected two billion euros from the sale of television rights abroad, and Serie A only 200 million in the current season. And the Premier League is considered to be the most entertaining league in the world….Roma 🤝 Clean sheets at the OlimpicoMourinho’s men haven’t conceded a goal at home in Serie A since November 13, 2022 vs Torino. pic.twitter.com/H2vG13mkWj— Italian Football TV (@IFTVofficial) March 5, 2023 In Matchday 25, two great games were played: Napoli – Lazio (0-1) and Roma – Juventus (1-0). Not only the matches finished with only one goal apiece, but arch rivals Lazio and Roma (or more precisely, their coaches) showed what is wrong with Italian football today – no attacking tendencies. The result must be accomplished at any cost, the games are played mainly in order not to concede a goal, and tactics comes before the spectacle. Jose Mourinho and Maurizio Sarri showed new ways to defend against Juventus and Napoli: The Portuguese played without a true striker, the Tuscan turned the strikers into defenders.The Wolfess defends her lair – Mancini’s rocket enough to topple JuventusOf course, both victories are not the same. Lazio played much better, they allowed much less to Napoli than Roma to Juventus, and the Sky Blues created several chances between the goals, while Roma, except for Gianluca Mancini’s goal, did not create any chances. Sarri made a “cage” for Stanislav Lobotka because he understood that the Slovak is the brain of Napoli’s game. At the same time, Ciro Imobile helped the midfield in pressing the ball carrier, whether it was Lobotka, Anguissa or Piotr Zielinski. Felipe Anderson and Zaccangi made sacrifices in the defensive line, shutting down and doubling Khvicha Kvaratskhelia and Irving Lozano. That explains why Victor Osimhen had few usable balls and why Napoli created few chances, practically only one with a double attemptSariball kill the Nigerian starMourinho applied the old defensive style: he parked two ‘buses’ in front of Rui Patricio’s goal. Jose’s plan was simple: Don’t concede a goal, and if something happens in attack, great. In other words, Roma played not to lose. It was no surprise that Tammy Abraham and Andrea Belotti remained on the bench, as well as Stephan El Shaarawy since Wijnaldum, Lorenzo Pellegrini and Paulo Dybala are not fast players. Practically the only “sprinter” in the Roma team was Leonardo Spinazzola. It is no wonder that the only interesting actions came from his side in the first half, but all in all, it was an anti-football win for Mourinho and he doesn’t care. But Italian football is in a serious decline.##NAJAVA_MECA_7069145##
