Serie A Team of Week 14: Juventus and Roma Stumble as Genoa Continue to Impress
Round 14 saw plenty of action in Serie A with Genoa and Sampdoria gaining ground as Juventus, Roma and Napoli all drew.
It's been an incredible season so far for the Ligurian city of Genoa. Both clubs have struggled in recent years and neither are a stranger to relegation, but currently, both Gian Piero Gasperini and Sinisa Mihajlovic have hopes riding high as both sides occupy European places.
By contrast, Milanese misery continues. The city is a traditional centre of football power on the peninsula, but both AC Milan and Inter continue to struggle and sit seventh and 12th in the table, respectively.
The Rossoneri were undone by a goal from one of their academy's products, Luca Antonelli, at the Stadio Luigi Ferraris while the Nerazzurri capitulated at home, giving up a 1-0 lead to Udinese and eventually losing 2-1.
Elsewhere, Empoli shocked the San Paolo by drawing with Napoli while Palermo continued to quietly impress with a 2-2 draw away to Torino.
Luigi Sepe
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It's still early days in the career of Luigi Sepe, but he's been impressive for Empoli so far this season, and if he keeps this up, it won't be long before he's being mentioned alongside Italy's top young goalkeeping talents.
The 23-year-old from Torre del Greco, a small town just outside Naples that also gave us former Cagliari, Roma and Italy winger, Mauro Esposito, is on loan from Napoli, and facing his parent club at the weekend, he made the most of the opportunity to impress.
Sepe's fine work kept Empoli in the game at the San Paolo, denying dangerous efforts from David Lopez, Jose Callejon then Jonathan de Guzman.
Leaving Naples with a 2-2 draw is never a bad result, especially for a side that many thought would struggle in the top flight. The Tuscan minnows currently sit a comfortable 13th in the league—a respectable position for a newly promoted club.
With a goal difference of minus-five, Maurizio Sarri's side is not exactly watertight at the back, but Sepe and his defence have conceded fewer goals than many established Serie A stars, and the young 'keeper deserves a fair proportion of the credit for Empoli's successes.
Alessandro Florenzi
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Lazio's Dusan Basta also deserves a mention this week for a fine performance against Parma, but Roma's Alessandro Florenzi makes the Team of the Week by virtue of the fact that he's not a full-back.
The way he's performed in the role, you'd be forgiven for not realising that right-back isn't the 23-year-old's natural position.
Rudi Garcia's side have been rocked by a few serious injuries in recent weeks, and with Maicon and Vasilis Torosidis both struggling for fitness, it looked like the Giallorossi had a serious problem on the flanks at the back.
Florenzi's flexibility has eased those woes somewhat, and against Sassuolo, he was also still able to affect the game offensively, contributing to the last-gasp equaliser by setting up Adem Ljajic for his second.
The Roman linked up brilliantly with Gervinho, who released him into plenty of space in the Sassuolo box before Florenzi's squared pass found Ljajic.
Paolo Cannavaro
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Paolo Cannavaro isn't always the most reliable defender, but the former Napoli star was brilliant against Roma.
Sassuolo absorbed an incredible amount of pressure from the Giallorossi at the Stadio Olimpico, and the 33-year-old captain was at the heart of it all.
Somewhat cruelly, Cannavaro was twice undone by his team-mate, Sime Vrsaljko. The Croatian international handled in the box to gift Roma a penalty after 77 minutes and was clumsily blocking his fellow centre-back's movement when Ljajic grabbed the home side's second.
Even so, Cannavaro deserves praise for a spirited, determined display that earned the Neroverdi a point away to a Serie A heavyweight and very nearly bagged them all three.
Massimo Volta
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Massimo Volta couldn't single-handedly stop his Cesena side from succumbing to a 3-2 loss away to Atalanta, but he gets full marks for trying.
The 27-year-old, on loan from Sampdoria, was in incredible form in Bergamo, making a number of key interceptions, including two dramatic last-man tackles. And, though statistics aren't everything, WhoScored.com ranked him as the best player in Serie A for the round:
"GRAPHIC: Serie a Team of the Week - Gameweek 14 http://t.co/x7C9pKqdmc pic.twitter.com/74wTqbU35g
— WhoScored.com (@WhoScored) December 9, 2014"
Luca Antonelli
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Genoa's Luca Antonelli was strong defensively against AC Milan and scored the valuable winner for Gasperini's side. You cannot ask for much more from a full-back.
The 27-year-old linked up well with Diego Perotti along the left flank, and though it must be said that the Rossoneri were poor, that doesn't take away from another excellent performance from the Grifone, who are now unbeaten in nine games.
Historically, the Ligurians are one of Serie A's most successful clubs, but their triumphs all came in the league's early days, and this season now ranks as their best since the late 1920s.
Allan
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Allan was arguably the best player at the San Siro for Inter v Udinese.
The Zebrette's young Brazilian midfielder put in the kind of shift that's bound to get him noticed by one of Europe's bigger clubs eventually.
At 23, he's still relatively young, but he deserves to have more of a reputation at this stage of his career. Now in his third season in Udine, the 2011 U20 World Cup winner could be the next big star to leave the Stadio Friuli for one of the continent's biggest sides. He cost Udinese just €3 million in 2012 when he arrived from Vasco da Gama, a shrewd investment that should earn the club a large profit should he leave.
Andrea Bertolacci
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Not for the first time this season, Andrea Bertolacci made the difference for Genoa in midfield.
The Roman was impeccable against Milan, working hard and offering plenty of creativity in the centre of the park.
By comparison, the older and more celebrated Riccardo Montolivo looked decidedly ordinary for the Rossoneri.
Manolo Gabbiadini
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Creativity, energy and poise: Manolo Gabbiadini had it all in Sampdoria's 3-1 win away to Hellas Verona.
The 23-year-old, who is co-owned by Juventus, has blown hot and cold for Mihajlovic's side this season, but whatever he might lack in consistency, there's no doubting his ability when on form.
Gabbiadini has already made a couple of appearances for the Italian national team but must now make the step up from promising talent to dependable star.
It's unlikely he needs much inspiration to do so, but should he be looking for a role model, he could do worse than talk to his older sister Melania—she's won four league titles with AGSM Verona and has 86 caps for her country.
Simone Zaza
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Sassuolo bought the second half of Simone Zaza's contract from Juventus last summer for €7.5 million after an impressive 2013-14 campaign.
The 23-year-old forward has yet to develop into a prolific goalscorer, but against Roma, he showed what he's capable of by netting both of the Neroverdi's goals in what was almost a shock win for the visitors.
It was exactly the kind of showing that's made the Basilicata native one of Italian football's most talked-about young stars and why Antonio Conte has included him in his plans for the future of the Azzurri.
Adem Ljajic
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Not to be outdone by Zaza's fine individual display, Roma's Ljajic also made a huge impression at the Olimpico, clawing back a point from a game that had looked lost for the Giallorossi.
The mercurial young Serbian first slotted home a penalty late in the second half to give Garcia's side some hope before breaking the hearts of Sassuolo fans everywhere with a cooly taken second after 93 minutes.
Roma had more than 77 per cent of the possession and took 21 shots, but they struggled to break down a dogged Sassuolo defence. And without the determined efforts of Ljajic—helped by the arrival of Gervinho in the second half—they would have suffered a potentially devastating blow to their title hopes on a weekend that saw Juventus play out a dour draw with Fiorentina.
In the past, the 23-year-old has been the subject of some criticism in the Italian media for not consistently delivering on his huge potential, but right now, he is arguably the most in-form player for the Lupi. Garcia has plenty of options in attack, but with six goals and two assists in nine league starts, Ljajic is making it seriously difficult for the French tactician to leave him out of the starting lineup.
Paulo Dybala
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Paulo Dybala has gone from relative unknown to one of the continent's most celebrated attacking talents in the space of just a few months—thanks to a string of showings like his latest against Torino.
Palermo left Turin with a 2-2 draw and a crucial point, and no player deserves more praise for that than the 21-year-old Argentinian, who scored twice for the Rosanero and looked dangerous throughout.
Family ties mean that Dybala is eligible to play for Italy or for Poland, but he has expressed a desire to represent Argentina. He's also been expressing a desire to move to the Premier League, with the Daily Express' Ben Jefferson recently reporting rumours of a £31 million transfer to Arsenal.
Should he be allowed to go, it looks likely that Palermo will at least make a tidy profit on the €12 million they spent on him—details of that deal are reported here (in Italian) from La Gazzetta dello Sport—as a teenager in 2012.
Do you think I left someone out? Let me know on Twitter, @ColliOBrien.
