Lecce-Cagliari

By: Jeremy | September 26th, 2008

Not much to say here as opinions are starting to get a little redundant on the Cagliari Offside. Lets keep it simple as it does not take a genius to see that this is an important game and even if Cellino is saying Allegri is safe until Christmas, I have to think a loss here gets him fired and a win only postpones the inevitable absent a dramatic turnaround.

Cagliari has lost its first four games and has not scored since opening week against Lazio. They have lost to teams that were beatable and are not in this position because they are getting beaten by the top sides in Serie A. The schedule only gets worse so if you cant win now, why will you be expected to win later. Lecce is really a must win, even this early.

Lecce is better then expected. They sit on 4 points with wins over Chievo and a draw with Siena. They played Inter tough midweek so they clearly arent the automatic relegation team everyone thought. Being at home this weekend should give them the advantage they need to pull out a victory.

With the goal being survival, Cagliaris current rivals for safety are Reggina with one point, Bologna with 3 points, and Lecce with 4 points. All three are still within range and other candidates sit on 5 points. A win this weekend gets us back in the mix so its way too early to assume we will be relegated. However, with a loss, we fall further back and will need streaks of wins against better clubs to get back in it. You can only fall so far before it is impossible to climb back up with the level of talent on this club. We are not a team likely to win 3-5 games in a row. Therefore we must stop the bleeding this weekend.

Allegri does not seem to understand the need for offense so unless Acquafresca starts and bags a brace, we will lose this game. We need more offensive minded players on the field and I have given my thoughts on who should play so I wont repeat the obvious.

I have lost confidence in this team and they have to show they can win a couple before we can get involved in the relegation battle that we all expect. I dont see it this weekend for us after the woeful performace in Bergamo, having to play a second consecutive road game, and Lecce feeling good about their performance against Inter. Lets hope I am wrong and we break out this weekend.

Allegri wil be axed before Xmas.

Prediction

Lecce 1-0 Cagliari