The Sampdoria Rollercoaster

Sampdoria have made a remarkable turnaround in the new year, after limping into the mid-season break on a string of underwhelming results which left fans disgruntled, players unsettled, and their league standing dipping into the bottom half of the table. It was a severe slap in the face after the start of the season saw them in devastating form, leading the league and drawing comparisons to the scudetto winning side of the early 1990′s.

Surrounding the story is that the reversal of form has occurred whilst their enigmatic star forward Antonio Cassano has been left out of the team by 1st season coach, Luigi Del Neri. Being an unthinkable choice in many fans eyes, Del Neri was jeered by the home fans last time out at Marassi, however one cannot argue with the results that have followed his decision. Cassano’s replacement, Nicola Pozzi has scored twice in his three starts, and perhaps most importantly he has scored both goals outside Genova, correcting a sequence of six away losses and, with last weeks win over bottom ranked Siena, moved Doria back into Euro-zone of the classifica.

It would be true to say that Pozzi has been largely forgotten during the last couple of weeks as speculation over a rift between Del Neri and Cassano has been rife, in some journals going so far as to do away with speculation altogether. However, Del Neri has maintained from the outset that his choice has been technical, whilst Cassano has denied any rift, and dramatically refused to join Fiorentina at the end of the transfer window, choosing instead to stay at Samp despite being left out of the team.

For the upcoming match, at least, it seems that Cassano will not even knock at the door, due to the soreness in his abductor muscle (www.sampdoria.it) which has seen him training with the team in the gym, but in the pool while the team is out in the field. But while he remains unavailable due to injury, Sampdoria are now starting to trust Del Neri and perhaps are warming to Pozzi, who must have faced the difficult realisation that he was an unpopular starting choice. He remains fairly modest about his abilities, stating after returning from Siena:

“I’ve always said and don’t mind repeating that I’m not a phenomenon but when I get on the field I never give up…. I don’t think that yesterday was a great personal performance from a technical point of view but I believe that I succeeded on a level of effort and will. These things, I can assure you, will never be missing from my game.”

Del Neri, for his part, has kept mum about any strife – solidly stating at the beginning that his choice was only to give more profondita to the team and it’s style of play. Now, three weeks later, he and his rejuvenated side stand in sixth place, and the prospect of bringing Cassano back into a winning side, maybe later on in a match when he might play havoc with a tired defence, must be incredibly satisfying. He has the team he wants, saying after the win in Siena that

“I saw the team that I like, able to fight for every ball and able to sacrifice. Our objective is to not have any objectives.”

Sampdoria play Fiorentina on Saturday night in Genova, the middle of a busy week in Serie A. Inter play in Parma on Wednesday night in a catch-up match from a week ago. In the next round, starting on Friday night, is Udinese in Milan, then the Roma vs Palermo match on Saturday evening followed by Sampdoria v Fiorentina at 20:45. Elsewhere Juve host Cenoa, and in the late game Mazzarri’s Sampoli take on Inter.

Doc