Just Trying to Keep Up

By: Jeremy | October 27th, 2008

After a woeful 0-5 start to the season, the Isolani have managed to right the ship a bit and have now taken points in three straight matches, including two wins against relegation rivals Torino and Chievo. While we are now out of the relegation zone, these recent results show that a disastrous start can be tough to overcome and that we must continue to work for points as we are clearly seeing a big log jam at the bottom of the standings and just like last year, there wont seem to be a team that is clearly worse then everyone else and that all three relegation spots are going to likely be determined the last couple weeks of the season.

What can you say about Inter owned Robert Acquafresca. He is slowly getting more playing time and gaining Allegris confidence. His strike in minute 30 was probably the best goal of the weekend and set the tone for the win against Chievo. As he goes this year, so where we will be playing next year be determined. Games at home are always a little different as that extra effort and performance seems to happen at home. While that can be said of all Serie A teams, something about Sardinian soil seems to get the team a little pumped up to get the result. Dont get too excited however until they steal points at home against teams at the top half of the table.

These are three points that were a must. Chievo is pretty bad and will no doubt be there wanting to claim one of the three relegation slots, so a win against them at home, especially after a slow start, solidifies our place in Serie A for now and does not make us the first team people automatically think of when looking at the worst team in the league. I mention this because while there is a little bit of renewed confidence at the club, Allegri makes it clear that this win just really gets us back to level playing ground with our relegation rivals and we must still step up to get closer to safety.

Analyzing the weekend performance only makes me wonder how we could not get points off Lecce and Siena earlier in the year as they are no better then Chievo. Teams like Cagliari will piss points away one week and then look strong the next even though the teams they played were pretty equal. Ultimately it will be the offensive performance that decides where we are going and if Acquafresca is going to start performing this early as compared to last year in which it was midseason before he was scoring goals, we might actually be in a better position this year as Serie A, atleast in the bottom rung of clubs, is not as strong as it was last year.

Lets look at where we are with just over 20% of the year played. With Reggina and Cagliari winning, they bottom group of clubs are that much closer and the relegation battle is wide open. With Roma and Sampdoria not really in the relegation discussion, even if they are on level points with Cagliari, all the other teams below Palermo are still threats to be relegated. Reggina sits at 5 points and is no worse then any other team that is considered for relegation. Torino and Chievo seem like real relegation favorites at 6 points, Bologna is on 6 points and this club could go either way, but remember they are new to Serie A this year so they cant be assumed to prosper and survive without many ups and downs like they have shown so far, Cagliari is on 7 points and recent good performances have only kept them in the mix because of the bad start so they must do more, and with Siena and Lecce sitting on 9 points and inconsistent as ever, they cannot feel safe even though both teams are probably pretty happy with their performance so far this year. Basically its wide open so no team can really feel out of it at all.

With Cagliari playing their next four games against Genoa, Bologna, Catania, and Fiorentina, the schedule starts to get a little tougher. Genoa is beatable but expecting points on the road will be tough, even with our momentum. Bologna is beatable at home, Catania is still Catania and we have to feel like we can steal point there even if they are up in the standings a bit and typically a good home team, and Fiorentina is at home so we cant rule out points despite their obvious talent superiority.

While wanting to be more then relegation fodder should be any teams goal, our bad offseason, combined with our bad start, has made this seasons start a little tough to swallow and any other goal then survival simply unrealistic. However, we are now feeling more in the mix and there are multiple teams that have their own issues and who are now as big or bigger favorites then we are to go down. Therefore we must see if players will emerge to help get points where they may not be expected. Despite the results the past three weeks, we are still a team of holes that needs to get Acquafresca some help. We cannot expect him to carry this club although he is a born goal scorer. Its nice to see us take 6 points off relegation rivals and we owe a big part of it to his ability to simply finish his chances.

Enjoy him while you can because the sky is the limit and he is too big a player for Cagliari to keep any longer then they already have.