Parma scored their first goal of the season in this weekend’s game, but still came up short 3-1 to Udinese.
Goals from Udinese’s Emmanuel Agyemang-Badu and Thomas Heurtaux essentially put the game out of reach by the 72nd minute. However, a late strike by Antonio Cassano raised hopes on last time, before being crushed by an 89th minute penalty goal by Luis Muriel.
Speaking of Cassano, it seems Parma’s latest acquisition is doing exactly what he was paid to do – score goals. Unfortunately, I fear that Parma did too little to strengthen its squad in the summer transfer window.
Simply put, there wasn’t enough talent in Parma’s squad last season to account for its impressive finish. The Italian club can’t hope to do the same thing and get better results than last season. The win-loss record thus far is a perfect reflection of this.
In the game against Udinese, eight out of the eleven starters were returners from last season. On the one hand, this is good as it is an indication that team chemistry is probably greater. On the other hand, it is a sign that there weren’t enough impact signings.
Of Parma’s most notable signings this summer, Antonio Cassano, Mattia Cassani, and Felipe all started the game. The team’s final shrewd signing, Walter Gargano on loan from Napoli, will only join the team after he returns from playing with the national team. Hopefully he will have a positive effect on the team.
Additionally, why was Nicola Sansone used as a substitute once again? Being that he is one of Parma’s most promising talents, his role needs to be more than one from the bench. Admittedly, the attack is rather crowded with the likes of Amauri, Cassano and Jonathan Biabiany all in the running. But, maybe the solution could involve decreasing the number of older past-their-prime midfielders in lieu of playing Sansone.
This critique of Parma’s transfer approach is not to suggest that Parma wasn’t active enough in the window. Rather, Parma signed many players this summer.
Unfortunately, with names like Afriyie Acquah, Mory Kone, and Joel Obi amongst other transfers, I don’t expect recent acquisitions to make much of an impact toward increasing Parma’s standings in the tables.
Finally, the amount of players sent out on loan is simply astounding. With promising players such as Mikael Ishak, Sotiris Ninis, Stefano Morrone, I have to wonder if Parma really hope to be contenders this season; or, if they are already building with next season in mind.
I hate being so down on Parma, being their club correspondent and all. However, with a draw and a loss under their belt so far, and only one goal scored, I think my prediction of 14th place seems on point.
The only chance Parma has of increasing their ranking this season is by leaning more on their impact players (aka Nicola Sansone and Antonio Cassano) and perhaps making a few more purchases come the winter transfer window.
