Preview: Genoa – Palermo

By: Steven | January 30th, 2009

Sunday, February 1st, 2009 15.00
Stadio Marassi, Genova

I warriors, brigate rosanero, siamo forti e vinceremo!

Preview

Sometimes, I have the feeling that I’m telling the same thing week after week. ‘Must win’, ‘doing great’, ‘unfortunate’, ‘WTF? Guana? STFU!’, ‘Grande Cavani’…things like that. The Genoa game can be added in the same category. Let’s summarize: they’re five points ahead of us, they’re a team that resembles ours, we lost to Roma in an unfortunate way, Miggs is out so Guana will be featured in midfield and Cavani scored another on Wednesday. See, being a Palermo-fan is a routine.

Or not, because this season we have been everywhere. We went all the way down in the first week, before going back into the top 4 a few games later. After that, it was a lot of midtable horror, but now we seem to be shooting for a European spot again. That is, if we can take all three points from Genoa. We might have lost to the minchia from the capital, but that doesn’t matter. We still have the competition within eyesight. And that’s why the following three games are so important. Genoa and Napoli are where we are, battling for Europe, and beating them would give us the opportunity to have a foot in when the real battle begins. The Reggina game is a must-win, because you can’t afford to lose to the worst team in Serie A.

Squad Status

Palermo

We’re a little handicapped here. With Balzaretti still suspended, Savini is destined to take his place. He didn’t do bad against Roma, but he’s not even half the player Balls is. With Miccoli still being his usual unpredictable self, there’s two options. I’m expecting that our two acquisti won’t be able to play just yet. First option is the Christmas Tree, with Batshit replacing Miggy in the five man midfield and Cavani as the lone gunman. Second option is the classic 4-4-2, with Bresc – Fabio² – Nocerino in midfield and a partnership of Levan and Cavani up front.

Personally, I’d go for the latter. We know Genoa is gonna attack (Milito), so we have to fight them with their own weapons. And Levan’s hungry. If he breaks, we can always throw in Miccoli in the 50th.

Probable Lineup:
Amelia; Cassani, Carrozzieri, Bovo, Savini; Migliaccio, Liverani, Nocerino; Simplicio; Levan, Cavani

Genoa

J over at the Genoa Offside might be doing a preview. Lots of missing players: Thiago Motta will be out for at least two weeks and Matteo Paro, Andrea Gasbarroni, Alessio Scarpi and Alessandro Potenza complete the list.

Probable Lineup:
Rubinho; Vanden Borre, Biava, Ferrari; Mesto, Milanetto, Juric, Criscito; Sculli, Milito, Jankovic

Categorical Matchup

I Love AS Roma vs. Butterfingers: Palermo. Both have looked pretty iffy in the last couple of games, but with the possibility of an Oil Dollar transfer, Marco is gonna want to show himself to the Sheik.

Walls of Jericho vs. Meh: Palermo. Vanden Borre is good but not fantastic, Biava we know and Ferrari is solid. With Bovo and Moris wanting to make up for Roma, this is ours.

The Two Funky Fabio’s vs. Half and Half: Push. Sculli seems to score every game, Criscito is the new hope, the other two are back-up at best.

The South American vs. The South American: Push. Cavani is on fire, Milito as well. Might get interesting.

Final Analysis

Losing is not an option. We were on a roll with those three consecutive victories, and if we don’t take three points here, we’re back in the situation we were in three months ago. And we sure don’t want that. Too bad Genoa are unbeaten at home, and we’re pretty bad away from La Favorità to say the least.

Form Guide

Palermo
LWWWL

Genoa
WWWDD

Previous Encounters:

Dunno.

Prediction
1-1. Milito, Cavani.

MOTM:

Meh.