Posted by In recent years, top-level European football has been dominated by an exclusive group of “super-rich” clubs. Bayern Munich have won the last seven league titles in Germany, while PSG have topped the table in Ligue 1 for five of the last six seasons. La Liga has been won by Barcelona, Real Madrid or Atletico Madrid every year since Valencia finished first in 2003-04. Even the Premier League, widely considered the most competitive major European league, has been dominated by Manchester City and Liverpool the last few years.
Nowhere, however, is the difference between one club and the rest of the division more pronounced than in Serie A, where Juventus have won the last eight league titles. The Old Lady’s dominance is aided by a pronounced economic superiority over their domestic rivals. Juve’s payroll of 256,848,000 euros is more than double that of the second-placed Roma, who spend 109,178,000 euros on player salaries.
Yet, Serie A hasn’t always been a one-team procession to the title. Back in the 1990s and early 2000s, Italy’s top flight was the most tightly-contested major European league. Serie A’s best clubs in that era, known as the Seven Sisters (Juventus, Inter, Milan, Roma, Lazio, Parma and Fiorentina), started every season with a legitimate shot to win the title.
Although Juventus, on 54 points, are again leading the league with the season two-thirds complete, fans of Italian football are enjoying the most exciting title race in more than a decade. Inter Milan and Lazio are both within striking distance of the Old Lady, and will be hopeful of toppling Juve’s hegemony. Here is a look at the two challengers to Juve’s throne:
Inter (2nd, 51 Points, GD +26)
Even though they sit only three points behind Juventus, Inter’s form in recent weeks raises doubts about their title candidacy. The Nerazurri drew five of their previous seven Serie A matches before a labored 2-0 win over Udinese this past weekend. Their stuttering form has evoked memories of the 2015-16 campaign under Roberto Mancini, when Inter were crowned winter champions but finished 4th after a terrible second half of the season.
Head coach Antonio Conte is the main cause for optimism. The former Chelsea coach is a proven winner, with three Scudettos at Juve and a Premier League title in 2016-17. He is a defensive mastermind, and has molded Inter’s defense into the best in the league. The Nerazzuri have conceded only 18 goals this season, and are leading the league in clean sheets with 8. Although they have drawn too many matches in the last month, the solid platform that Conte’s back three provides will always give Inter a chance to win any game.
Besides Conte, the world-class ability of Inter’s two center-forwards has been the main reason why Inter are challenging for the title in 2019-20. The development of Lautaro Martínez has accelerated in his second season in Italy, with the Argentinean drawing strong interest from Barcelona. The former Racing man has proved a perfect foil for summer signing Romelu Lukaku, who looks rejuvenated after leaving Manchester United. The burly Belgian has 16 goals in 22 league matches, and is well-suited to Conte’s direct style of play.
Ultimately, Inter’s title defense could be defined by how they incorporate another former Premier League star. Bought in January for a measly 20 million euros after running his contract down at Tottenham, Christian Eriksen is one of the best attacking midfielders in the world and, at 27, is reaching the peak of his powers. However, it is unclear where the Dane fits into Conte’s preferred 3-5-2 system.
The creativity in Conte’s 3-5-2 comes from the number 6, who plays more as an organizer than a defensive stopper. Andrea Pirlo at Juventus and Cesc Fábregas at Chelsea were perfect for this position, and became crucial cogs in Conte’s title successes. At Inter, however, this deep midfield position is already occupied by Marcelo Brozović, who has been one of the team’s best players so far this season. Furthermore, Eriksen is unaccustomed to playing as a number 6, as he prefers to float in and out of the spaces between the opposition midfield and defense.
Against Udinese, Conte modified his tactics in an attempt to accommodate Eriksen. He inverted his midfield three, playing Nicoló Barella and Matías Vecino in the holding positions and pushing Eriksen into a number 10 position behind Lukaku and young forward Sebastiano Esposito. Without the ingenuity of Brozović from deep, Inter struggled to get their attacking players on the ball in the first 60 minutes, and Eriksen was barely involved. However, Inter immediately improved once Brozović was brought on for Eriksen, with the Croatian reprising his organizing role. This allowed Barella and Vecino to push forward, with the former assisting Lukaku for the opening goal after Brozović found him with a pass between the lines.
Conte needs to resolve the Eriksen conundrum quickly, with a crucial run of fixtures coming up for Inter. They play Milan in the Derby della Madonnina and travel to Lazio and Juventus between now and March 1st. If Inter are still in the title race by early March, Conte’s pedigree could deliver the Nerazurri’s first Serie A title since 2010.
Lazio (3rd, 50 Points, GD +32)
Coming into this season, nobody expected Lazio to seriously challenge for their first Serie A title since 1999-2000. Although they won the Coppa Italia last year, they finished a disappointing 8th in the league, 10 points behind Inter in 4th. With a budget a quarter the size of Juve’s, challenging for a Champions League place was a more realistic target.
However, head coach Simone Inzaghi has turned a squad made up largely of cast-offs from bigger clubs into one of Europe’s best sides. Multiple players are in the form of their lives under Inzaghi’s tutelage. Journeyman striker Felipe Caicedo has provided vital contributions off the bench, with 7 league goals in just 682 minutes. After an inconsistent spell at Sevilla, wide forward Joaquín Correa is terrorizing backlines in Serie A, drawing more penalties (3) than any other player. Liverpool flop Luis Alberto is leading the league in assists (10) and key passes (24).
No player has blossomed more under Inzaghi than Italian striker Ciro Immobile. Capocannoniere with Torino in the 2013-14 season, Immobile failed to make the grade at Borussia Dortmund and Sevilla before the Spanish club sold him to Lazio for 9.45 million euros in July 2016. Since moving back to Italy, Immobile has re-established himself as one of Europe’s top marksmen. He won a second Capocannoniere in 2017-18, registering 29 goals in 33 games.
This campaign has been ever better though, with Immobile leading the European golden boot race and powering Lazio into the top 3. He has 25 goals in 22 Serie A matches, and is finding the net once every 73 minutes. However, Immobile is more than just a goal poacher. He ranks 5th in Serie A for assists with 6, more than any other center-forward.
With Immobile and company fueling a high-powered attack that averages 2.36 goals a game, Lazio won 11 straight league matches between late October and late January, their longest-ever winning streak. Many of their victories during that run came in heart-stopping fashion, with four games won in the 89th minute or later, including a Felipe Caicedo strike in the 8th minute of added time at Cagliari. Still undefeated in the league since a 1-0 loss at Inter on September 25, the Biancocelesti seem to be a team of destiny at the moment.
Although making up a four point gap to Juventus won’t be easy, Lazio are already eliminated from the Europa League and the Coppa Italia, which will allow them to focus on their league commitments. This will allow Lazio’s small squad important mid-week rest while Juventus and Inter chase European glory in the Champions League and Europa League, respectively. Furthermore, they hold the head-to-head tiebreaker over Juventus after a deserved 3-1 win at the Estadio Olimpico in December. Before Napoli defeated Juve at the end of January, Lazio were the only team to beat the Old Lady all season, having also beaten them in the Italian Super Cup. They will be confident, then, of taking points from Juve’s Allianz Stadium when they pay a visit in round 34.
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