Genoa return to action following a three-week break after their clash with Inter was postponed due to floods in the city. The Rossoblu are now looking to return to winning ways and continue the good home run against struggling Novara, who is finding in increasingly hard to cope with the demands of top flight football.

Genoa can do better

After getting tired of watching the team in mid table season after season, Genoa owners decided to make some changes, hoping that the Rossoblu would manage to mount a serious challenge for European places. In came talented coach Alberto Malesani as well as several quality players, but Genoa haven’t been able to live up to the expectations. The squad is now filled with talented players, but most of them lack the experience of playing at the biggest stage and that is proving to be quite a problem. Genoa are doing pretty well at home, with eight points from four games a solid return for a mid table side, and they won’t get much better opportunity than this one to improve on their home record. Alberto Malesani had a lot of time to work with his players during the international break and that should bring some improvement as it is evident the team have yet to gel properly. The boss is expected to make some changes to the starting line-up, as several players have lost the credit after some under-par performances.

Kakha Kaladze remains suspended, whereas Ze Roberto is the only player on the injury list. Andrea Caracciolo and Cesare Bovo should return to the starting line-up.

Little hope for Novara

Newly promoted Novara are currently struggling to escape the relegation zone, but, in all fairness, I really don’t understand how they were planning to survive with this squad. Attilio Tesser’s side clearly lack the quality needed to compete at this level, so nobody is really surprised that they have just seven points to their tally after ten Serie A rounds. After beating struggling Inter at home, Novara have picked up just three points from next seven games, and you can imagine how the players are feeling after such a poor run. Numerous injuries to the playing squad are creating additional problems, whereas team’s away record doesn’t give Novara much reason for optimism before the trip to Genoa. Having picked up just two points from five away games, Attilio Tesser’s side cannot be expected to improve on that record against very motivated Rossoblu.

Samir Ujkani and Andrea Lisuzzo are definitely out, whereas Ivan Radovanovic, Carlo Ludi and Massimo Paci are major doubts.

Verdict

Genoa have played some good football this season and with all the quality at Alberto Malesani’s disposal, they are likely to get even better. Novara, on the other hand, clearly don’t have enough quality to play at this level and they are showing it week in week out. Clear home win for me.

Our prediction: Genoa with -1 Asian handicap

Odds: 2.02 (51/50)

Bookmaker: 188BET