After six rounds of Serie A, Livorno currently sit in eighth place with eight points, equal with the mighty AC Milan. Although that probably says a lot about how dreadful the Rossoneri are at the moment. But enough of Milan and how rubbish they are. Credit must go to Davide Nicola and his men for making such a strong start to the season.
Despite only being in the early stages of the season, i feel now is a good time to look at the top five performers so far this season for the Amaranto.
Leandro Greco
Greco is in a minority in this current Livorno squad, in that he is one of very few players that has Serie A experience. Due to this he was always going to be an important component Nicola’s team. This has turned out to be true with the former Roma man making a good start to the season.
The Italian made the move to Tuscany from Olympiacos in the summer and has added good balance to the central midfield, with his ability to sit back and shield the defense but also make the occasional run forward to support the attack. Nicola will be hoping the former Roma and Hellas Verona man can keep his current form and continue to be a leader in this team.
Pasquale Schiattarella
Schiattarella was arguably the worst player on the pitch on the opening day defeat against Roma, which is some achievement considering how bad the whole team were. The Italian struggled to give support in attack and was also extremely poor defensively. In conclusion, he didn’t do very much at all.
In spite of his opening day horror show, the former Ancona man has bounced back strongly and has been one of the standout players in recent weeks, putting in some solid and most importantly for his position (right wing back), tactically disciplined performances. It is clear that the shape and tactical discipline of the team has been one of the main focuses’ for Nicola since the opening day defeat, but Schiattarella seems to have made the biggest improvement, something that will delight Nicola.
Francesco Bardi
Livorno have gone for a rather youthful look this season, loaning four youngsters from Inter alone. One of those four youngsters is Bardi. The Italian under 21 international was coming off a great under 21 European championships with Italy, where they managed to reach the final, only to be beaten by a mightily impressive Spain team.
The Inter loanee has carried on his fine form from the summer, showing why many consider him to be a future Italian number one. So often a good goalkeeper can be the difference between staying in the top league and being relegated, this could certainly be the case for the Amaranto this season, with Bardi already making some wonderful saves, most noticeably against Genoa, where he made an outstanding last minute save to give the Amaranto a crucial away point.
Andrea Luci
With Greco and Alfred Duncan left to do most of the defensive work in the centre of midfield, most of the playmaking is left to Luci. His ability to make well timed forward runs and dribble make him arguably the most important player in the team, as he is the only player with genuine creativity.
The only other option is to utilise the wing backs and rely on crosses into the box if Luci is not able to play. That and of course set pieces, where Nicola’s men do hold a considerable threat. On top of his creativity he is also the club captain and will need to steer his club through the tough times, which there will inevitably be a lot of.
Paulinho
And the winner is… Paulinho! The Brazilian was the Tuscan sides top scorer last season with 23 goals in Serie B. However, some people were sceptical to whether he could make the step up and compete against a much higher quality of defender. He is proving his doubters wrong and has already bagged three goals this season, but the most impressive aspect of his game has been his all-round play and especially his hold up play. As I have previously wrote, he seems to be forming a great partnership with new signing Innocent Emeghara, a formidable partnership which can be a handful for any backline in Italy.
These five players will need to keep up their fine individual performances if the Amaranto want to stay if Serie A. Despite these players being the standout performers so far this season, it must not detract from the great team performances and also the fantastic work done on the training ground by Nicola and his coaching staff.
This Sunday will be another tough test as the Amaranto travel to face Napoli, who will want to bounce back after a poor display against Arsenal in the Champions League midweek. However, as Sassuolo showed it is not impossible to get a result at the San Paolo, something Nicola surely will have looked at and took a certain amount of hope from.
