Slowly but surely Genoa are creeping their way to the mythical cliched 40-point safety mark.
The club picked up another valuable point last weekend against Fiorentina at the Stadio Artemio Franchi. The Grifone gave up two first half leads to the Viola and had to come from a goal down in the second half to leave Florence with a draw. All in all a very entertaining game.
The match saw Paolo De Ceglie and Nicolas Burdisso make their first starts for the team, with the latter being far more impressive than the former. Burdisso, who signed on a permanent deal from Roma, played in only his sixth game of the Serie A season.
Despite having obvious rust, Burdisso easily showed that he is an upgrade to the recently sold Thomas Manfredini. The Italian was shipped off to Sassuolo where it seems all Genoa castoffs are being sent. Manfredini and Davide Biondini were both bundled off to the Neroverdi, with the latter move thinning out the club’s central midfield position even more. But with it being Genoa, there will probably be one or two more signings by the end of Friday.
While Burdisso looked adequate at the centre-back position, new left sided midfielder De Ceglie looked less than satisfactory. The Italian is on loan from Juventus after playing a mere five times for the Bianconeri this season.
De Ceglie’s play during his 71 minutes against Fiorentina was anything but impressive. Of course, he may have been rusty; however, numerous Juventini will agree that De Ceglie’s play on Sunday night was typical of a player that has been used sparingly by the Old Lady in recent years.
Though both De Ceglie and Burdisso made their full debuts, the team’s other new signing from Juventus, Marco Motta, did not.
The defender, like De Ceglie and Burdisso, had found playing time rare prior to his move. Motta played a mere four times for the Bianconeri, but now joins a Genoa defence that has given up only 27 goals this term.
That is seventh best in Serie A and the total is a far-cry to the amount of goals the defence gave up in seasons past.
Genoa is Motta’s third loan move in three seasons with previous moves to Catania and Bologna unable to translate into anything more than a bench role back with Juventus. His signing and the arrivals of both De Ceglie and Burdisso could finally see Luca Antonelli leave.
His move to Napoli, which looked like a sure thing, hasn’t happened; and it now looks like Roma could land the Azzurri player. Meanwhile, with Manfredini gone it could be former captain Daniele Portanova’s turn to see the door at the Stadio Luigi Ferrarris.
If the 35-year-old is destined to leave this January it would be rather harsh. Portanova, who signed for the Grifone last January for the second time in his career, improved the defence alongside Manfredini. And though both players were occasionally hapless, especially in one on one situations, the two players did the job at the back when it was desperately needed.
With new defenders added to the team, Genoa should be ready to add to the striker position next. However, those additions will most likely have to wait until the summer mercato and is another story for another time.
Drew Farmer is the ForzaItalianFootball.com Genoa Correspondent and hosts the Club Focus podcast. Follow him on Twitter @CalcioFarmer.
