What is xG in football, and how do you read it in Serie A?
Expected goals explained simply, with Serie A 2026/27 examples: xG against, xG difference, xG per shot, and what the numbers cannot see.
Why have Italy missed three World Cups in a row?
Most Valuable Italian Players in 2026: Who Tops the Ranking?
Sandro Tonali leads Italy's most valuable players at €80m, ahead of Bastoni and Calafiori. The full top 10 by Transfermarkt value, September 2026.
Why did Gazzetta put Kean, not Pio Esposito, on Italy’s defeat cover?
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Serie A Analysis: The table is lying after five matchdays, and these clubs prove it
Expected goals say Cagliari and Frosinone are overachieving while Bologna, Monza and Juventus are better than their Serie A 2026/27 positions.
Serie A Analysis: Roma, Inter and Lazio all have 13 points, so who is really leading?
Three teams share first place after five matchdays of Serie A 2026/27. The numbers say Roma are the real leaders, Inter are close and Lazio are not.
Which Serie A clubs supply Mancini’s Italy?
Atalanta, Inter and Roma lead Mancini's first Italy squad of 2026/27. Milan send nobody. The club-by-club breakdown and what it says about the league.
Catenaccio: a spare man behind the line
Helenio Herrera’s Inter put a libero behind four markers. Every attacker had an owner, and one defender had nobody to mark. It was called cynical for sixty years and copied for just as long.
Zona: Sacchi takes the markers away
Milan’s back four defended space instead of opponents, pushed the line up to the halfway mark and squeezed the game into thirty metres. Italy stopped defending deep because it had to and started defending high because it chose to.
Difesa a tre: both ideas at once
The modern Italian back three marks inside the box and holds a zone outside it. Every generation here argues about the same question: who owns the space, and who owns the man.
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I have followed Serie A and the Azzurri since I was a kid. By day I build content operations for global brands. This is where I write about the game without a brief.
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