We used Football Manager to predict Serie A season 2017/18. Will Juventus regain their title, how will AC Milan finish their campaign?
Serie A is already in its fourth round and it seems that again this season we'll be watching Juventus dominating the Italian Peninsula 7th time in a row. Does Football Manager share this opinion as well?
One of the most predictable leagues out of the big five is back and the first indicators tell us that Juventus will dominate their way through the Scudetto race and win the title for seventh record breaking time in a row.
But there are a lot of factors that might just spice up the title race and make it more competitive this time around.
AC Milan has brought in a handful of new players in this transfer window thanks to their new Chinese chairman. One of them coming from their main competitor for the title, Leonardo Bonucci. Unsatisfied with his status in Juve, Leo requested a transfer from the Italian champions and will now be the key player for the rossoneri. Will this enough for Milan to push for the first spot?
Other clubs that will likely be included heavily in the title race are for sure Napoli and Roma, while the second fallen giant from Milan, Inter, will be a competitor out of the shadows.
But let's go back to what Football Manager has predicted for this Premier League season. To get a more realistic outcome, we used the transfer update from Sortitoutsi.net. Their update is definitely the most accurate of all offered on the Internet, and over 800 people work on it daily.
Here’s the detailed breakdown:
According to Football Manager, it is Juventus who will win the Scudetto for the 7th record-breaking time, but it will be a tight race between them and the club from Naples. They both will finish the season being tied in overall points, but with Juve having, better results in head to head fixtures will see them reclaim Serie A once again.
Inter will finish 3rd with 5 points less than Juve and Napoli, and with doing so they will grab the last position that leads to Champions League qualifications.
Roma comes in fourth at the end and earns a place in the Europa League next season. They end their campaign with 71 points, 6 less than Inter.
Rounding up places that lead to European football is Fiorentina, finishing 5th and qualifying for Europa League.
Last team to qualify for Europa League is Lazio. They finished 9th but managed to secure TIM Cup title against Inter.
By now you are probably wondering where is AC Milan? Well, according to Football Manager their campaign will see them finish 6th, two points less than Fiorentina and will have no European football to look forward to next season. What contributed to the fact that the Milan club had another bad season was the sacking of the current manager, Vincenzo Montella, and handing the position of intern manager role to club legend Genaro Gattuso. Their woes might continue in the next season as they hire Rafa Benitez as their manager in June.
Clubs that get relegated to Serie B are; Verona, FC Crotone and Genoa. SPAL 2013 remain in Italy's top tier, finishing 17th with only two points more than Genoa.
Gonzalo Higuan is Serie A 2017/18 top-marksmen, finishing his campaign with 20 goals, one more than Napoli's Arkadiusz Milik and two more than his club teammate Paulo Dybala. Andrea Belotti snatched the forth place with 17 goals, and rounding up top 5 is Napoli's José Callejón with 16 goals to his tally.
The Final Serie A Table
