Empoli: Salvation is still possible despite injuries

by Simone Cioni EMPOLI Seven games to play and two points to recover. Despite a season that to define as unfortunate, from the point of view of injuries, is an understatement, theEmpoli still has the salvation within reach. Even if he comes from sixteen games without a win in which he has collected just five points, although three of them in the last five games. At this moment the judgment on the blue season is easily influenced by the trend of the results, where the first excellent four months have been followed by equally disastrous ones, on which it is objective how the numerous absences have weighed, but if we analyze the team's performance in a more in-depth way we can realize how many blue players have already played one of their best seasons in their career, with still 630 minutes to play between now and the end of the championship.

First of all thatArdian Ismajli who, thanks to his high-level performances, has proven himself to be one of the best performing defenders in the entire A league: in the top spots for number of saves or duels won. Unfortunately, as has happened in previous seasons, this year too he has been subject to some physical problems that are limiting his use in this second part of the season. Not to mention the young defenders Saba Goglichidze and Luca Marianucci, both born in '04, who in their first experience in the top league have immediately attracted the attention of the big clubs. The Georgian, after a decline in the second half of the season, has returned to playing at the levels that had made him one of the most beautiful surprises of this Serie A with Cagliari. The central defender from Livorno has absorbed the double jump from C to the top Italian stage well, proving to be reliable every time he has been called upon and managing in the last few games as a starter to also not make the absence of Ismajli felt too much.

If we then talk about pure numbers, even though they have been dry for some time now, even 22 year olds Sebastiano esposito e Lawrence Colombo under the management of D'Aversa they are having their best year. The striker from Castellamare di Stabia, in his first real experience in Serie A, has beaten his own record for goals in a single championship while his 'twin' from Vimercate has equalled the number of participations in a goal recorded so far in the top division. But Pellegri himself, sidelined in December by a ruptured cruciate ligament, with his 3 goals scored had already done better than in all the previous years among the 'big boys'. If we then also look at the continuity of use, as well as performance, players like Pezzella, Grassi, Gyasi and Henderson are travelling on minutes never touched before.