Parma vs Genoa: A Battle of Winless Strugglers in Serie A
Two of Serie A’s strugglers walk into the same storm on Sunday. Only one of them might walk out of it.
At the Ennio Tardini, Parma and Genoa — both still winless in the league — meet in gameweek five with the table already starting to squeeze, and the margin for error shrinking by the week.
Two clubs, one problem
Parma’s season has been stuck in neutral since mid-August. That 2-0 Coppa Italia win over Catania briefly hinted at momentum; everything since has pushed in the opposite direction.
Four defeats in their last five across all competitions tell the story. The most damning detail lies in the scorelines: no goals in Serie A losses to Cagliari (1-0) and Juventus (2-0), then a 2-0 cup exit to Cremonese at the start of September. The attack has not just misfired, it has disappeared for long stretches.
There is, at least, a flicker. Parma finally picked up their first league point in a 1-1 draw with Monza on matchday four, then pushed Champions League debutants Como before slipping to a narrow 2-1 defeat on Monday night. Not enough to change the narrative, but just enough to offer Carlos Cuesta something to cling to.
The context does not help. Parma have not beaten Genoa in three years and are winless in their last four meetings with the Ligurian side. If this is to be a reset, it comes against a club that has quietly become a problem opponent.
De Rossi under early pressure
On the opposite bench, Daniele De Rossi walks in with the weight of a name and a growing list of questions.
Genoa arrive in Emilia-Romagna off the back of a midweek cup victory over Sudtirol, a useful release valve in a season that has quickly tightened around them. Those domestic cup wins against Ascoli and Sudtirol are their only successes so far; in Serie A, the slide has been relentless.
De Rossi’s men are nine league games without a win. The last taste of three points came against Pisa — a 2-1 victory over a side now relegated. Since then: six defeats, three draws, and a steady drop down the table that leaves the Grifone second-bottom after four matches of this campaign.
The numbers are brutal. Genoa have scored just two league goals, the joint-worst tally in the division alongside Parma. At the other end, they have conceded eight, the fifth-worst record in Serie A behind Venezia, Monza and Fiorentina (all on 11) and Udinese (10). Soft at the back, blunt up front: a combination that drags teams into trouble early and keeps them there.
The one sliver of optimism is their first clean sheet of the season, recorded in that Sudtirol tie. If Genoa can build on that, they might finally snap a league run that threatens to define De Rossi’s early tenure.
A win could lift them as high as 13th, depending on other results. That is the carrot. The stick is obvious: fail again, and the table starts to look less like a snapshot and more like a verdict.
Goals at a premium
Both coaches know exactly where the fault line lies.
Parma have lost last season’s nine-goal forward Mateo Pellegrino to Fiorentina and have yet to find a replacement spark. After four league games, only Simone Lontani and David Romero have found the net for the Emilians. Everyone else has been stuck on almost.
Cuesta at least has a nearly full squad to work with. Hans Nicolussi Caviglia misses out with a groin issue, but that is Parma’s only confirmed absence. The structure is clear: Corvi in goal; Delprato, Troilo and Carlos forming the back three; Britschgi, Bernabe, Keita and Valeri across midfield; Toure supporting Lontani and Romero up front. It is a side built to compete, but it now needs to hurt opponents, not just contain them.
Genoa’s problems are more scattered. Johan Vasquez, who scored against Frosinone and then struck the winner against Sudtirol in midweek, is suspended after his dismissal last weekend. He leaves a sizeable gap at both ends of the pitch.
Elias Havel (ankle) and Lorenzo Venturino (knee) are also unavailable, trimming De Rossi’s options further. Milutin Osmajic, the only other Genoa player to score this season, steps into the spotlight. His solitary goal came in a 4-1 defeat to Como in early September; on Sunday he carries the burden of turning half-chances into something more.
De Rossi is expected to line up with Bijlow in goal behind a back three of Marcandalli, Ostigard and Otoa. Ehizibue and Ellertsson offer width, with Frendrup and Sow in central midfield. Baldanzi should operate between the lines, trying to supply Osmajic and Colombo in attack.
A stalemate in the making?
Strip away the names and the history, and the matchup looks stark: two sides who do not score, one of them leaking too many, the other still searching for conviction.
The last two meetings between Parma and Genoa ended goalless. The pattern, on current evidence, has every chance of repeating itself.
With both attacks short on confidence and short on ideas, this could turn into another tight, anxious contest where the fear of losing outweighs the desire to risk everything for a win.
Prediction: Parma 0-0 Genoa.
If that holds, the noise around both clubs will only grow louder. How long can two proud institutions live with the idea that a point, and no goals, is the ceiling of their ambition?
