Serie a Preview: Predicting the Top 15 Scorers for 2012-13

One of the many repercussions of Zlatan Ibrahimovic leaving AC Milan to join French club Paris Saint-Germain this summer is that he is not around to defend his title as Serie A's top scorer, the Capocannoniere.

There are probably only a handful of realistic candidates to fill that vacancy when the new season kicks off this weekend, but there are many more who promise to be among the goals right from the first game.

Here, in no particular order, is a list of 15 players who can expect to be in the upper echelons of the Serie A scoring charts come next May.

Stevan Jovetic (Fiorentina)

Back in 2009, Jovetic became one of the most talked-about young forwards in Europe following goals in Champions League matches against Liverpool and Bayern Munich.

He missed the entirety of the following season with a cruciate knee ligament injury, but last term returned and scored 14 goals in 27 league games. Expect more this season from a player who is still only 22.

Giampaolo Pazzini (AC Milan)

As one half of the swap deal which saw Antonio Cassano move to Inter Milan, Pazzini has exchanged a nerazzurri shirt for a rossoneri one.

AC Milan fans may not appreciate the space left by Ibrahimovic being filled by a player who only scored five league goals last season, but if Pazzini can rekindle his partnership with former Fiorentina teammate Riccardo Montolivo then he could still prove a hit.

Rodrigo Palacio (Inter Milan)

In his three years at Genoa, Argentinian forward Palacio scored 35 Serie A goals, with 19 of those coming last year as he finally brought his high-scoring form for Boca Juniors to Italy.

Now with Inter, Palacio may find himself supporting compatriot Diego Milito as much as going for goal himself, but he still has the potential to hit double figures again.

Fabrizio Miccoli (Palermo)

Since Miccoli joined Palermo in 2007, the diminutive striker has enjoyed the most consistently productive years of his career with the Sicilian club.

The 33-year-old was no different last season, scoring 16 league goals, which to all intents and purposes saved the club from relegation, including five across two thrilling games against Inter Milan.

Sebastian Giovinco (Juventus)

"The Atomic Ant" may be pint-sized at less than 5'5" in stature, but his goal tally of 15 last season showed he could rub shoulders with any forward in Italy.

That form earned him a place at Euro 2012 and a move back to boyhood club Juventus just a year after they sold him to Parma, where his ability to play across the front line could see him finally nail down a first-team spot for the Bianconeri.

German Denis (Atalanta)

The much-travelled Argentinian has never had a more prolific spell at any of his four Italian clubs than his current employers, Atalanta.

The brute of a centre-forward, nicknamed The Tank, scored 16 times for the Bergamo side last term, leading to them making his loan move from Udinese a permanent one in the summer.

Antonio Di Natale (Udinese)

The veteran striker claimed the title of Capocannoniere in each of the two years preceding Ibrahimovic claiming it last season. In total, the Napoli-born forward has scored 80 Serie A goals in the last three years.

He may be turning 35 in October, and even hinted at retirement back in May, but he is back in black-and-white for another year of scoring goals at the Stadio Friuli.

Pablo Osvaldo (Roma)

The Argentina-born striker, who would made his full Italy debut last year, had never really made waves at any of his four Italian clubs following his move to the country from Huracan in 2005.

That all changed following a two-year stint at Espanyol in Spain which reinvigorated his career, and his 11-goal season at Roma last term was one of the few highlights of Luis Enrique's ill-fated year in charge at the Stadio Olimpico.

Alessandro Matri (Juventus)

Matri was Juventus' top scorer in their unbeaten championship-winning campaign last season, although he scored just 10 goals in Serie A. That was only one more than he managed following his January move from Cagliari the previous season.

However, the champions have gone about recruiting several new players, most notably Mauricio Isla, who can help Matri rediscover his scoring touch and surpass his personal best of 13 goals for a campaign.

Claudio Marchisio (Juventus)

As mentioned previously, Juve really shared the goals around last season as they dominated the league from start to finish.

Marchisio was the club's second highest scorer with nine league goals, and the midfielder is sure to be gunning for more this term after starting all six of Italy's games at Euro 2012.

Miroslav Klose (Lazio)

After scoring just four league goals in his final two years at Bayern Munich, you could have been forgiven for thinking that the goal-scoring legend for the Germany national team was a spent force.

He proved that was not the case by scoring 12 league goals upon his move to Lazio last season. Although only four of those came after the turn of the year, that was as much to do with the Rome club's dip in form as a whole as his own advancing years catching up on him as the end of the season approached.

Alexandre Pato (AC Milan)

Once the most hyped young striker in world football, now written off by many as a crock whose time has been and gone, few players have more to gain from Ibrahimovic's departure than Pato.

The Brazilian, who turns 23 next month, now has Antonio Cassano to add to a creative attacking unit that should give him every chance of filling the hole left by the departure of last season's top scorer.

Edinson Cavani (Napoli)

Having lost the battle to keep their holy trinity together, with Paris Saint-Germain prising Ezequiel Lavezzi away from the Stadio San Paolo, Cavani now carries even more of the goal-scoring burden for Napoli.

Just as well, the Uruguayan is one of Italy's most lethal strikers, then, with 49 league goals over the past two years. With a supply line that still features Marek Hamsik and Gokhan Inler, plus summer arrival Valon Behrami, Cavani won't find chances difficult to come by this term.

Diego Milito (Inter Milan)

No one player at Inter's fortunes have mirrored the topsy-turvy past few years at the club more than Milito. After scoring for fun in the club's treble-winning 2009-10 campaign, injury and loss of confidence saw the Argentinian's form plummet, to the point where an Italian radio made him the 2011 recipient of the Bidone d'Oro (Golden Dustbin) award.

Since December, however, he looks back to his best, scoring 19 goals in 23 games including hat-tricks against former club Genoa and in the Milan derby and all of Inter's goals in a sensational 4-4 draw with Palermo.

Mattia Destro (Roma)

A lot of big things are expected of the 21-year-old striker who scored a dozen Serie A goals for Siena last season, so much so that he started in Italy's recent friendly against Italy.

He has been signed by Roma as a replacement for Fabio Borini. If he can better his predecessor's haul of nine league goals in a season then he will have fulfilled his debut year brief and probably earned a place among the top 15.