Serie A’s seventh round opens on Friday night with Frosinone hosting Sassuolo, while the final notes will be written on Monday, when Monza face Cagliari and Parma meet Torino. Between those bookends, several attacking players arrive with different reasons to believe that their season may be turning: a Napoli winger seeking his first decisive contribution, a Lazio forward newly on the scoresheet, and a Lecce recruit trying to lift a side short of goals.
The coach and the club
At Napoli, Massimiliano Allegri has continued to place trust in David Neres as he looks for more imagination in the team’s attacking play. The Brazilian has appeared in four league matches and carries an average fantasy rating of 6.2, without yet producing either a goal or an assist.
There have nevertheless been encouraging signs. Neres received 6.5 ratings against Fiorentina and Frosinone, and he was used for the final half-hour of Napoli’s Champions League defeat to Villarreal. He is expected to start again when Napoli travel to Venezia at the Penzo.
Venezia have recently dismissed coach Giovanni Stroppa and have conceded 16 goals, the highest total in Serie A so far. Neres’s pace could offer Napoli a useful route into a defence still searching for stability.
Lecce are also looking to their wide players for answers. With the central forwards struggling for goals, coach Eusebio Di Francesco has increasingly relied on the players around them to bring energy and penetration.
Fatah, the summer arrival, scored his first league goal in Lecce’s 2-1 home defeat to Bologna. The goal owed much to a Pessina error, but it was still a first tangible return for the Swedish winger, who has received ratings in five games. He started against Cagliari in the second round and was again in the starting side last weekend.
Lecce have lost their last two matches and now visit Udinese at the Bluenergy Stadium. The hosts come into the fixture on a run of four straight defeats, making it a significant meeting for Kosta Runjaic’s team as well as for Di Francesco’s Lecce.
Isaksen finds his moment
Gustav Isaksen has already produced the breakthrough Lazio wanted from him. After a sequence of positive displays, the Danish attacker scored against Monza with his left foot, adding the first league goal of his campaign.
Competition remains strong on Lazio’s right flank, where Matteo Cancellieri has made an impressive beginning to the season. Yet Isaksen has played in five of Lazio’s six league fixtures and has maintained an average fantasy rating of 6.4, evidence that he is finding a place in the rotation.
The next test is Juventus. Isaksen has a recent memory to take into the match: he scored against the Turin club in last season’s return fixture at the Allianz Stadium.
The seventh-round schedule
- Friday 13 October, 20:45: Frosinone v Sassuolo.
- Monday, 18:30: Monza v Cagliari.
- Monday, 20:45: Parma v Torino.
For Neres, Isaksen and Fatah, the weekend is less about grand declarations than the smaller marks of progress that shape a championship: a first assist, a second goal, a place retained in the side, or an attacking move that gives their coaches another reason to persist.
