Serie A preview — Guidolin’s Udinese will prosper

Udi­nese have been under­achiev­ers, this was espe­cially seen last sea­son, when the club only arrived in 15th place. While it could seem strange that I define them as under­achiev­ers, I know the tal­ent in the team is incred­i­ble, espe­cially going for­ward. Maybe they’ve never had the right coach, or maybe the team never gelled together all that well, but for some rea­son or another, Udi­nese have almost always dis­ap­pointed their fans. While in the trans­fer mar­ket they haven’t been extremely active, the team already has a nucleus of top-class play­ers. Di Natale up front, Zap­ata in the back, and espe­cially Sanchez as a tre­quartista, who had a great World Cup with Chile. Now Guidolin will have to unify these play­ers and make a team, like he did with Parma last sea­son, tak­ing them up to the mid­table. And hope­fully in charge at Udi­nese, Guidolin will find the right for­mula between the play­ers, and then Udi­nese will prosper.

New sign­ings

like I said before, Udi­nese haven’t been extremely active in the trans­fer mar­ket, while there are two known names, the rest are rel­a­tively uknown. Can­dreva returned from Juven­tus, where he was on loan, and he will play an impor­tant part in the mid­field, espe­cially help­ing out in attack. To give sup­port up front, Udi­nese were able to buy Denis from Napoli, who wasn’t hav­ing a good time with his for­mer club. But what may be more impor­tant to look at is who Udi­nese have sold, among which there’s Pepe and D’Agostino. The winger left for Juven­tus, and Gae­tano D’Agostino went to Mihajlovic’s Fiorentina, two losses which could cost the club a lit­tle in solid­ity and speed.

What’s miss­ing

Now that Udi­nese have signed Denis, the offen­sive area is set­tled, but the mid­field and defense could use some rein­forc­ing. It’s prob­a­bly the defense which needs the most work, which is being built around the promis­ing 23 year-old Zap­ata. A cen­tral defender and a full-back could be use­ful, but Udi­nese could still man­age with what they have.

For­ma­tion

It seems very pos­si­ble that Guidolin will play attack­ing foot­ball, espe­cially with the tal­ent he has up front, and most prob­a­bly he’ll use a 4–3-1–2. Han­danovic is in goal with a back-line of Fer­ronetti, Zap­ata, Dom­izzi, and Pasquale, which is prob­a­bly not the most well-known defense, but it’ll do. In the mid­field he’ll have Pinzi, Inler, and Can­dreva sup­port­ing Sanchez who will play as a tre­quartista, behind the attack­ing duo of Di Natale and Floro Flo­res. While this could even­tu­ally morph into a 4–3-3 with Sanchez on the right, Di Natale on the left, and Floro Flo­res in the mid­dle, Guidolin will prob­a­bly start with a 4–3-1–2 and move on from there.

There have been rumors about Di Natale leav­ing, but the for­ward recently com­mented about his pos­si­ble move to Juven­tus and said this,

“I don’t know any­thing. I want to stay in Udine where I feel good and where I want to fin­ish my career. I’ve been here seven years and I want to stay here, I don’t know any­thing about a transfer.”

Definit­ley some good news for Udi­nese fans who could’ve seen they’re star player move off to replace Diego, who will be mov­ing to Wolfs­burg some­time soon. So with the assur­ance that their top scorer will stay, Udi­nese will be able to play with more calm now that their cap­tain can guide them. But a lot of what will hap­pen this sea­son also depends on Guidolin, and whether he’ll be able to get the best out of Di Natale. While he did won­ders coach­ing Parma, things could turn out dif­fer­ently at Udi­nese, where the expec­ta­tions will be to push up into the mid-table, and maybe into a Europa League spot. While some fans are neg­a­tive about the new coach, I think that under Guidolin, Udi­nese will prosper.

Tagged as: Di Natale, Europa League, Guidolin, Juventus, Parma, Sanchez, Serie A, Udinese