Following the disappointing 2-0 defeat to Roma in the Stadio Olympico which began 2012 for Chievo, back to back wins inside four days have seen the Verona club lift themselves into the quarter finals of the Coppa Italia and then up to ninth in the Serie A table. Sunday’s 1-0 home win over Palermo wasn’t as spectacular as the 2-1 win at Udinese last Wednesday, but it was as comfortable a home win as Di Carlo could have hoped for.
The former Sampdoria boss hasn’t been without his critics amongest the home faithful this season however. Most recently, the Bentegodi faithful have been restless over his use of summer signing Alberto Paloschi. The young striker (whom Chievo jointly own with parent club AC Milan) continually gets picked for the Italian U-21 side under coach Ciro Ferrara, but he has been in and out of Di Carlo’s side all season with differing results.
Wednesday night’s win in Udine showed the best and frustrating worst of the young striker and clearly shows why he has never really broken into the Milan first team. His hold up play and awareness are second to none, however in front of goal he was frustratingly wasteful. Indeed Paloschi could have had the game wrapped up for the Gialloblu inside the opening twenty minutes as he was sent clear on goal twice after Chievo had taken an early lead, but bad decision making and hesitancy cost him dearly.
Di Carlo however is keeping faith with the man he brought in from Parma and again on Sunday lined up with a front three of Paloschi, skipper Pellissier and Cyril Thereau who was pushed out wider on the right hand side of a front three.
Paloschi scored some vital goals for Parma in Serie A last season but they decided not to take up their option of buying the remaining half of the player’s ownership from Milan and instead opted to sell their half to Chievo for between five and six million euros. Di Carlo brought the striker in as competition for his main trio of Sergio Pellissier, Davide Moscardelli and Cyril Thereau.
Paloschi ticked all the right boxes as a striker with pace, power, hunger and the experience of scoring at the highest level in Italy. To the outsider it seemed like the right move to force his way into Massimo Allegri’s thinking at Milan, but Domenico Di Carlo believes that Paloschi can be the answer for Chievo long term. As far as this view is concerned only time can tell.
With his front three in place, Di Carlo opted for a midfield three of Luciano, Michael Bradley and Paolo Sammarco against Palermo at the Stadio Bentegodi. For Sammarco it capped probably the best week of his life. He had given the Gialloblu the lead last Wednesday in their 2-1 win at Udinese, then his wife gave birth to the couple’s first baby, before he capped off a remarkable week with the only goal five minutes into the second half to lift his side up to ninth in the Serie A table.
On Sunday they travel to face a struggling Lecce side whom many believe they should beat quite comfortably to make it three wins on the bounce, but Lecce had a fantastic 1-0 win in Florence last Sunday to finally lift themselves off the bottom.
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