Only 19 Italian players are among the top 56 goal-scorers in Serie A this season, and just eight of them are centre-forwards.
Atalanta coach Gian Piero Gasperini made headlines on Tuesday during a pre-match press conference on the eve of a Serie A game against Inter. La Dea’s boss warned that Gianluca Scamacca is not yet a ‘big champion’ so it is a ‘problem’ to consider him as such.
As we have already analysed on Football Italia, Gasperini’s quotes are justified by Scamacca’s figures this season as the Italy international has only scored six goals in Serie A so far. However, the other side of the coin says that the ex-West Ham man is the second most prolific centre forward in Italy’s top flight after Sassuolo‘s Andrea Pinamonti.
The Neroverdi striker is also the best Italian goalscorer in Serie A alongside his teammate Domenico Berardi and Bologna winger Riccardo Orsolini.
After Scamacca and Pinamonti, there are just six other Italian centre forwards among the top 56 goalscorers in Serie A so far: Mateo Retegui (Genoa), Lorenzo Lucca (Udinese), Ciro Immobile (Lazio), Andrea Belotti (Fiorentina), Roberto Piccoli (Lecce) and Lorenzo Colombo (Monza).
Oddly, Napoli‘s Giacomo Raspadori is not among the top 56 goalscorers in Serie A but seems to be the most likely candidate to be Italy’s starting striker at Euro 2024, having started four games from six under Spalletti.
The Italian tactician has often been successful with a false nine in his career as proved by Francesco Totti at Roma in 2006-07. At the same time, Raspadori has played the best games this season with La Nazionale, but the efficiency of Italian strikers in the league is surely a matter of concern for Spalletti and arguably the biggest problem he’ll have to face on the pitch at the Euros.
Top Italian goal scorers in Serie A so far (Week 26)
Berardi 9
Pinamonti 9
Orsolini 9
Colpani 7
Bonaventura 7
Politano 6
Scamacca 6
Chiesa 6
Retegui 6
Lucca 6
Immobile 6
Mazzitelli 5
Pellegrini 5
Candreva 5
Belotti 4
Piccoli 4
Pessina 4
Colombo 4
Fabbian 4
Italy hasn’t produced a top centre-forward since the 90s
That list doesn’t inspire much confidence. But then who would have thought Italy would be European Champions last time. So, who knows?