Pogba: why is he that cocky?

Paul Pogba has been crowned the best young player in Europe. Obviously his potential is enormous, but he is not doing well in every game.

He's becoming too aware of his talent and this may be a problem. Indeed, Pogba sometimes seems presumptious and he doesn't play as well as he could.

Italian teams in Champions League: bad luck or just bad performances?

Juventus and Napoli have said "goodbye" to the Champions League. Juventus have to blame the bad conditions of the football pitch, but they have committed too many mistakes.

Napoli have done great in the hardest group, but it's been not enough. They are the first team that has been eliminated with 12 points.

Will Milan win at last?

Will Milan manage to win in a Serie A match at last?

Winning against Celtic could be a boost in confidence, and Milan need three points today against Catania.

Galliani's goodbye: substantial loss for Milan

Galliani is saying goodbye, what is going to happen? Will Barbara Berlusconi be able to replace him?

Galliani has always been unpredictable during the football market and he was able to buy great players without wasting too much money.

Milan led good seasons during the last years without splashing out and the credit for that belongs to Galliani.

Penalty or simulation: is there a middle way?

During the last seasons a new way to referee in case of contacts in the penalty area has more and more diffused.

It seems like when a striker fall down in the box the referee must decide whether it is penalty or simulation. But sometimes it's neither penalty nor simulation.

Italian teams=strong defense?

There's no way for Italian teams to do well in Champions League. But the stereotype of Italian "catenaccio" doesn't correspond to Italian lousy results.

Indeed, Italian teams are wading along because of bad defense. Statistics are significant: Juventus conceded two goals, Milan even three and Napoli won, but conceding two goals to the mediocre Marseille.

Juve: hard but not impossible

Can Juventus compete with the biggest clubs in Europe? Let's see what Bianconeri will demonstrate tonight against Real Madrid.

Juve beat Blancos several times, what are your best memories about those matches?

Worst match ever!

Who watched Bologna-Chievo?

The most boring match of this season! Neither Bologna nor Chievo could lose this match and the result has been a dull match.

Milan, who is responsible?

Allegri's squad is living a really tough moment after the home defeat against Fiorentina. Several Italian columnists don't make the Italian manager particularly responsible for that.

But is it true? Allegri couldn't really opt for a more effective approach with his best players? Milan has never convinced during this season. What's going to happen?

Roma: 10 out of 10, new record

Roma beat the previous record of 9 victories in the first nine matches: that record belonged to Capello's Juventus.

Giallorossi won the tenth match in a row against Chievo, after a balanced match, thanks to Borriello's header. Now Garcia has to concentrate on the next match, against Torino.

Milan: no headers, please!

Milan has started on the wrong foot in this season, having achieved only 11 points in 9 matches. The main problem for Allegri has been about the aerial abilities of his players.

Indeed, Milan is the team which has conceded more headers than any other squad. Silvestre's goal against Parma is the first and only header scored by Rossoneri. Will Allegri solve this problem against Lazio?

Inter and the difficulties in away matches

Tonight Mazzarri's squad will face a really tough opponent: Atalanta. The last time Inter won at Atleti Azzurri d'Italia was in 2008. Even Mourinho has never won there.

Therefore it will be a trial for Nerazzurri. Moreover their approach to away matches has not been satisfactory in different occasions. Tonight having a wrong approach could be fatal.

Roma: lucky shot!

Roma won again at Friuli against Udinese: the ninth win in a row has not been a runaway victory. Garcia's team beat Di Natale and teammates for 1-0.

This victory was not motivated by a supremacy of Roma: indeed, Udinese's Muriel hit the post when the score was 0-0. American midfielder Bradley resolved this match.

Inter-Verona: two different moments

Tonight there will be the game between Inter and Verona: two teams in different moments. After getting off to a good start, Inter didn't improve and lost several points.

On the contrary, Verona is living a great moment, being at the top of the table. What is gonna happen tonight?

Are Italian referees too tolerant?

During the match of Uefa Champions League between Real Madrid and Juventus the referee Grafe undoubtedly committed several mistakes. 

Some Italian columnists claimed the penalty conceded by the referee was generous: will it be true? 

The problem is that the defenders in Serie A are used to marking the opponent too tightly: that's why Italian referees tolerate these kind of contacts. 

Considering the difference in judging same contacts between Italian and European referees, what should our defenders do? 

Playing in different ways depending on the case is not the right choice: it's difficult to play differently according to the referee. 

But then it's important to consider that a strong defence is a peculiarity of Italian football; surely Italian defenders are much more aggressive than Spanish or German ones.

Therefore we can easily comprehend that the Italian association should adapt our referees' criteria of judgement to the European ones. 

Is there something Italian managers can do in order to help this adjustment? Perhaps the answer is affirmative. 

Indeed, after every match there are always too many criticisms. We can often see managers complaining about everything the referee did during the game. 

The habit of criticism is a die-hard behaviour in football. Managers can jump all over the referee, but sometimes they make absurd observations. 

The most unreasonable one is made when an Italian referee concedes a penalty like the one of Santiago Bernabeu's match. 

When it happens the manager of the team which suffer the consequences of the penalty says: "if this penalty is justified, during a match the referee should concede 100 penalties!"

Lotito and his curious policy

Lazio president Claudio Lotito has always had controversial relations with his players. It seems like there is a kind of blood bond between Lazio players and the president. 

For this reason sometimes Lotito was the protagonist of really strange behaviours. These are the cases of: - Pandev transfer 

     - Diakite transfer 

In both these cases the transfer meant an economic loss for Lazio: indeed, the president decided to instruct the players to train away from Lazio's squad, until their contract's end.

Italians in Champions League

Tonight Napoli and Milan will play the third round of Uefa Champions League. Benitez's team will face the mediocre Marseille, hoping that Napoli's star Higuain recover from the injury.

Napoli has 3 points, the same as Borussia Dortmund; the Germans will confront with the team at the top of the English Premier League, Arsenal.

Milan will try to cope with a difficult challenge: the Rossoneri are going to play at San Siro against Spanish champions Barcelona. Allegri's squad have to achieve at least one point to avoid difficulties in the qualification.

What a defeat for Juventus!

At Franchi Conte's team conceded four goals for the first time. It's been a disappointing defeat, considering the way Juventus was controlling the match.

Will the players be able to forget what happened in Florence and concentrate on the next game, a really important game, against Real Madrid?
Buffon and all the defenders surely

have to get over the last match.

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Pogba and the temptations

Pogba is surely one of the best player of Serie A. Almost every manager would like to have him at the team's disposal. 

Often it can be dangerous for such a young player to be acclaimed by everyone. The French player must demonstrate his maturity. But will the fans give him time?

What's AS Roma's secret?

AS Roma has been astonishing everyone with a powerful start in Serie A. Garcia has already driven his team to a new record, eight wins in eight matches. Only Juventus did the same in Serie A.

How could the Frenchman improve the lousy team we saw the last year?

Anyway Roma fans must be delighted. 

Inter: is it the right choice?

After months of debate about the future of his football club, Massimo Moratti has finally opted for selling 70% of Inter to the Indonesian businessman Erick Thohir. 

This is surprising; indeed, Inter is only the second team to be bought by foreign businessmen. The start of a trend, maybe? 

The most bitter Italian derby: Roma vs Lazio

In the world of football there are a lot rivalries: in every championship in Europe there is at least one match in which winning means more than three points.

There are matches where the stakes involve the pride of a particular city or district.
But sometimes the rivalries go to far; Not many people outside Italy can imagine what’s likely to happen during the most bitter derby in Italy, the one between Roma and Lazio.

The rivalry between the Italian capital’s two teams has reached incredible levels during the history of these clubs: but the most paradoxical event happened in the 2009/2010 season.

During that season Roma was at the top of the league and the main enemy was Inter, while Lazio was fighting to avoid the relegation. 

When Lazio played Inter, the Lazio supporters started inciting their players to lose the match, in order not to favour Roma to win the league.

Supporters who want their team to lose a match are really unusual to see.

Italian suspensions vs English suspensions

In Italy there has been some discussion about the four-round suspension inflicted to AC Milan's Philippe Mexès. The French defender was found guilty of having punched Giorgio Chiellini during the match between Juventus and AC Milan; the referee didn't realize what had happened, but the images recorded doesn't leave enough space for other interpretations. Four rounds could be enough for such a bad behaviour, however comparing this suspension to what happened in the English Premier League in some episodes, it could not seem sufficient. For example, in August 2006, Ben Thatcher, who played for Manchester City, attacked with a elbow Pedro Mendes, of Portsmouth. For that shocking action Thatcher was suspended for eight matches. Another example can be easily found with a player who is famous for being rude, Joey Barton. He was suspended several times, but the one when attacked more than one Manchester City players during the same match was unbealivable; he was banned for 12 rounds.

Actually it's easy to discern the difference of import between the two English example and what Mexès did, but maybe in Italy there is a lack of severity; such events should be condemn as much as possible.