The odds of a non-Italian manager to win the Scudetto is very currently slim to none. 19 of the 20 teams contesting are managed by Italian nationals. And with 1 team being the clear favorite, and just 3 teams considered title contenders, Julio Velazquez will be doing a magic trick if he is to make an impact with Udinese (a side that finished 14th last season)
Juventus
The word on the street is that Juventus has the Italian Serie A in the bag!
It is evident that Juventus has had a good run in Italian club football in recent years. Juventus has spent the best part of the best part of the last decade celebrating league titles and Coppa Italia successes.
Juventus is on track to win league double in consecutively for 5 years and a league title in 8 consecutive years. The signing of Cristiano Ronaldo to their attack has on paper given them an extra boost to the chances of dominating domestically for at least another season.
Massimiliano Allegri will have the job to live up to these new expectations no matter how much he tries to lower them ahead of the season
Even those of us who not bettors can clearly see from recent history the Juventus is where you put your money when it comes to Italian club football competition. It takes a miracle for a team in Italy for keep Juventus from getting their winning goal and takes something like a miracle for any of the 19 remaining teams to get a victory against the team from Turin.
Finishing their seasons with 90+ points in the last three years and just 23 Serie A defeats in the last 7 years, nothing less than an 8th straight title and a 5th straight league double is expected from Juventus in the 2018/ 19 season. But there might be some hard questions asked along the way by their competitions in the title race.
Juventus in the Champions League.
Juventus has been to the finale of the tournament 9 times and lost 7 (a competition record). Can this Juventus team win their first Champions League since 1996?
Winning the league by just 4 points and having the title race with Napoli go down to the final days of the season might have been one of Juventus motivations to revamp the team with 5-times UCL winner and Ballon d’Or winner Cristiano Ronaldo, but since this team is going on 5 years of winning league doubles in Italy, the expectation is that Ronaldo’s addition should be bringing the UEFA Champions League trophy to Juventus.
Napoli
Two draws might have cost Napoli a chance at the league title in the 2017/18 season.
Finishing just 4 points away from the top could be an indication of what is coming for the team in Naples.
The departure of Sarri might not be such a bad move for Napoli. Carlo Ancelotti is a proven winner and arguably a better managerial record than any manager currently in the league.
Carlo Ancelotti short stay at Bayern Munich and the mega move by Juventus to sign Cristiano Ronaldo from Real Madrid might have taken the attention away from Ancelotti’s coaching resume. He is a proven winner and has pretty much done the job in the major leagues in Europe. His experience might be exactly what Napoli needs to make up those 4-points that cost them the league title last season.
It has been 28 years since their last league title. They got close but dropped the ball as they stepped closer to the finish line. Napoli will be looking to the managerial experience of Carlo Ancelotti to end the league drought.
There is a recipe for success for Napoli in the 2018 season.
Without the pressure that comes with title expectations, Carlo Ancelotti has the ideal scenario to use his experience while experimenting with new ideas with Napoli. Napoli is not as far away from being league champions as the excitement of Juventus spending over the summer might suggest. The players like Lorenzo Insigne, Marek Hamsik, Dries Mertens, Arkadiusz Milik, and co are not a team that should be underestimated against any side. With a proven title winner at the helm, this Napoli side could be the team to beat in the 2018/19 Serie A season.
The Chasing Pack
What we can expect from AS Roma, Inter Milan, and Lazio is to help in the reduction of the gap that created between the top two (Juventus and Napoli) and the rest of the league in the 2017/18 season. The managers of all three clubs have had ‘test-runs’ with their team in the past season, and are expected to have made the right adjustment over the summer break to be better league title contenders.
AC Milan, Atalanta, and Fiorentina would be expected to improve on their performance and extend the race for Champions League qualification to the final rounds of the season.
