Serie A 2007/08- Where will they finish....

Prepare yourselves for some long and boring posts.


Serie A officially starts in some....errr....~45 hours. Mercato isn't closed yet and new transfers can happen.
I'll take the risk and i'll give my predictions 8 days before mercato is closed.

My view on the best teams in Italy and my prediction of their position in the standings at the end of the season.
You can/will disagree with some of my predictions and i bet no one will like the predictions. That's why you're free to reply and of course, to give your own predictions.
But please, write at least a sentence or two to back your opinion.

We start with the best - Juventus

JUVENTUS
This time they’ll have to start as outsiders in the scudetto race which is unusual starting position for Del Piero, Buffon, Trez and the likes.
There are a lot of question marks and it’s impossible to predict what will Juve do this year…..but I’ll try to make a successful prediction 
Many new faces and a new coach usually mean a slow start of the season. They need time to get to know each other. The fact that both central defenders are new comers , just like the both central midfielders, will certainly be a problem at the beginning and exactly the beginning, the opening 15-20 rounds, is the period where I expect Juve to lose the scudetto and find themselves some 15-20 points behind the leaders.
By comparing the quality of the team with the quality of what Inter or Milan have we’ll see that the difference isn’t huge as many think but Milan players know everything about their team mates, Inter kept the team that was playing excellent football, Juve on the other hand will need minimum 4-5 months to get at least close to the perfection of the Milano teams. And even if the quality difference isn’t huge, it’s still there. Juve never really replaced Ibrahimovic (Iaquinta), Zambrotta (Chiellini), Vieira (Tiago) , Emerson (Almiron), Cannavaro (Andrade) , Thuram (Criscito), Mutu (Palladino) and without top quality in every position it’s hard to expect a scudetto win against Milan and Inter.
And lets not forget, like Deschamps said “ A homicide needs to happen for the refs to give us a penalty” . Understandably , no ref will have the guts to give a 50-50 call to Juve after Calciopoli. I don’t blame them, but it’s important for my preview and my prediction to know that Juve will be totally opposite of what they used to be – referee’s pet.

Juve will play only 1 match per week and that’s their main adut. They’ll be the most motivated side in serie A and that’s another plus. Squad depth is smthg that Juve finally won’t lack because there are many quality players who’ll look for their chance from the bench . Experienced Iaquinta, Salihamidzic, Zanetti, Zebina and exciting new talents and members of Italian u-21 team, like Nocerino, Criscito, Palladino will certainly add more competition and quality to the team.

But if the scudetto race is over for Juve before it even began, the fight for CL is wide open. Some may disagree with me but I think that with players like Buffon, Del Piero, Nedved, Trezeguet and Camoranesi Juve should be considered a favorite to win the 4th place in front of Fiorentina and Lazio. These guys are old wolves. They won so much in their lives and they are now hungry for more victories. I’m sure each one of them will give 101% and I expect them to win the so much wanted CL spot.
As one famous countryman of mine, the NBA ex-Houston Rockets and LA Lakers coach, Rudy Tomjanovich, once said when he unexpectedly won the NBA title : “Don't ever underestimate the heart of a champion!"

Starting XI :
Buffon
Grygera-Andrade-Criscito-Chiellini
Camoranesi-Tiago(Zanetti)-Almiron-Nedved
Trezeguet-Del Piero


Prediction :
1st place : /
2nd place : /
3rd place : 15%
4th place : 50%
5th place : 35%