Serie A Lowdown: Genoa

GENOA

League position: 16th
Form: L L D L D
Serie A top-scorer: Gianluca Scamacca (2)
Last time out in Serie A: Genoa 1-2 Torino (Scamacca; Sasa Lukic, Luca Pellegrini)

Their season so far: Life under coach Rolando Maran - who joined Genoa this summer - began perfectly with a 4-1 victory over Crotone on Matchday 1 but the Grifone haven’t won since in Serie A.

Their only subsequent win came in the cup as they narrowly edged out third-tier Catanzaro 2-1 and their rearranged midweek loss at home to fellow strugglers Torino was their third defeat of the campaign.

As a result, Genoa sit 16th in the table but while things certainly haven’t been easy, there have been positives for the men from Liguria - especially in the recent form of striker Scamacca.

The 21-year-old - who joined the club on-loan from Sassuolo at the start of October - has scored in each of his last three games in all competitions and found the back of the net in both of his two Serie A starts during that run.

His goals could prove invaluable for a team that has so far scored just six - the joint-fewest in the league going into Matchday 7 alongside bottom two Udinese and Crotone.

Maran has moved to a four-man defence for his side’s last two outings, ditching the 3-5-2 formation that the 57-year-old adopted out of necessity due to a swathe of coronavirus cases in his squad at the start of the season.

He's likely to continue with that same tactical setup on Saturday, but may have to change tact with Christian Zapata testing positive for coronavirus on the eve of the game.

Genoa are also without injured trio Francesco Cassata, Stefano Sturaro, and Davide Zappacosta - the latter of course joining Genoa after spending the 2019-20 campaign on loan at the Olimpico.

What they've said:

“We have to do more than our best, we have to be perfect. We must try not to concede anything, to be precise in our desire to field the performance, not to lend our side to a very formidable team. We have to give more than 100 per cent because in matches like these we certainly need more.

“They have incredible physicality, this makes them dangerous. They scored against teams that man marked and used zonal marking, so there is nothing that takes away their threat. We have to work on our things and increase our attention on certain situations. This will be very important, to try not to have too much difference in physicality on the pitch." - Genoa coach Maran