Six things we have learnt about Serie A in 2024/2025 so far

In the last few seasons, the Italian Serie A has become the most competitive league in Europe. Teams take turns being champions, while in England, Germany, and Spain, almost the same teams win the titles.

In the 90s and early 2000s, Italian football had the prestige that the Premier League enjoys now as the competition that pulls the best players on the planet.

It had the likes of Diego Maradona and Zinedine Zidane, among other top players and it was an unpredictable championship for anyone to win.

However, the Premier League gradually overtook it as the best championship in the world. Nevertheless, most football fans still consider the Italian top flight too good not to watch.

The new players and managers competing in it have also made it special, and this season has been a good one.

Supporters who buy Serie A tickets have been treated to fine football from most of the teams, and we now have more clubs who play offensive football.

In the 1980s, 90s, and even 2000s, Italian football was known mostly for its focus on defending. It even popularised the sweeper position, which most teams used.

However, we now have managers like Thiago Motta and Gian Piero Gasperini who are committed to attacking football, entertaining fans from the start to the end of their matches.

This new season has come with lots of enjoyment and lessons. In this article we discuss six things we have learnt from the competition so far.

• Atalanta are not quite ready to be Italian champions

After winning the Europa League last season and reaching the final of the Coppa Italia while still finishing inside a Champions League place on the league table, we considered Atalanta ready to be Italian champions.

This is why we named them as one of the main dark horses in the race to win the title, but things look different.

The sale of Teun Koopmeiners and the loss of Gianluca Sacamacca due to a long-term injury has affected La Dea, and they have made a poor start to the season.

They remain a solid team, having kept Ademola Lookman and proved they could get a result in a tough game by nearly beating Arsenal in the Champions League, but La Dea is too inconsistent to win the Serie A.

Nowadays, becoming a league champion requires a team to be almost perfect and Atalanta ticket buyers know they do not have that capacity in them.

AC Milan has become worse than in the last few seasons

Stefano Pioli won the Serie A title with AC Milan in 2022, and his spell at the club was largely successful, including finishing second in the top flight last season.

However, even before the end of the campaign, there were rumours that he would be sacked at the end of the season.

AC Milan ticket buyers held their breath to know which manager will replace him and it turned out to be Paolo Fonseca, who had spent some seasons at Lille.

The Portuguese manager is highly regarded on the continent, but his start to life in Milan has been poor, and it is even surprising that he remains their manager.

Milan has not gotten any better and they seem to be worse than in other seasons, despite being one of the favourites to win Serie A this term.

Pioli made them solid at the back, and the likes of Rafael Leao were unstoppable, but they now concede goals easily, and Leao is a shadow of the player he was before.

Motta’s Juventus is not so different from Max Allegri’s

Juventus replaced Max Allegri with Thiago Motta in the summer because they wanted a better style of play with even better results.

The biggest problem with Max Allegri’s team was its lack of goals and the manager’s system was blamed as the reason why the likes of Dusan Vlahovic and Federico Chiesa struggled to score goals.

However, how different have things been since Motta became their manager and has shown himself to be a dynamic and innovative manager?

Juve has remained unbeaten after 8 league games, but the Bianconeri have clearly not been scoring more goals. Four of their league matches ended in draws, and three were goalless.

Even when Juve has scored, they have not scored more than three times in any domestic games so far.

There are still question marks over Vlahovic’s poor form, showing that Motta has not solved the same problem that cost Allegri his job.

Juve’s defence has remained solid, but even those who bought their match tickets last season experienced a superb defensive team.

Motta’s trust in youth means Juventus has some of the best teenagers in European football now, but things have not been much different from last season.

Bologna might regret qualifying for the Champions League

Thiago Motta did the impossible with the Bologna team last season as he finished in the Champions League spot with the little-known side.

That achievement earned him his current role as the manager of Juventus, and he is doing well in Turin.

However, Bologna has not recovered from his and the departure some of the players he worked with, so they are struggling this term.

Qualifying for the Champions League is a thing of joy to clubs who are not regulars in the competition, but when a team becomes an outlier, they usually struggle.

Bologna now has a long list of matches to fulfil, and they have a new manager and some new players who must adapt quickly.

It is hard for them to bring home positive results for the Bologna tickets buyers, and they might see qualifying for the UCL as a curse.

Inter Milan players look bored of winning

Inter Milan was absolutely dominant in Serie A last season, and every player on Simone Inzaghi’s team looked ready for business every time they played.

This played an important role in making them a team that could dominate the Serie A for a long time.

They did not have to significantly strengthen their team in the last transfer window because they already have a strong team, but was that a poor decision?

Inter Milan ticket buyers are now seeing the team struggle to defend in games, conceding silly goals they would not have conceded last season.

The levels of other teams have not significantly improved, so if Inter performs as they did last season, they would still comfortably top the standings.

However, the Nerazzurri players look bored of winning and have struggled to stay focused in games until the end.

A lack of European football puts Napoli ahead of others

A lack of European football makes life easy for a top European club in terms of fixture schedule, which hands them a huge advantage.

Napoli enjoys that in Italy and it could be the reason why they would become Italian champions at the end of this season.

Antonio Conte already knows how win the competition, having done so with Juventus and Inter Milan already, but this could be the easiest one for him to win.

Napoli significantly strengthened its squad in the summer. Although it does not have European football to serve fans who buy their tickets, that is a good thing.

Their players have more time to rest between matches and this explains why they are at the top of the standings after eight games.

There is still a long way to go before anyone wins the title, but if Napoli does not win, it will be because they did not take advantage of the good conditions they find themselves in.