Antonio Di Natale is leading the league in goals scored. So I will admit that it is not really fair to make him the center of a debate about a player slumping or to in any way make him the focal point to his club’s recent struggles. But after the start that Di Natale had I figured the Italian national squad member would perhaps win the Golden Boot Award for all of the European leagues. Now I am not as confident in that prediction.
Di Natale has been great so far this year. In twelve appearances the striker has scored nine goals making him good for about one goal three out of four games, but considering Di Natale has not scored in his last five league appearences that number has drastically dropped down to where it currently resides.
In fact Udinese doesn’t necessarily play that much better when their star player does score. Overall the clubs record when Di Natale does score is 3-2-1. They have only won three matches in which Di Natale scored a goal one of which he scored a hat trick in order to assure victory. But in Di Natale’s defence, Udinese has only won four matches so far this season so he obviously was a critical part to their club’s success when it came.
But Udinese is currently in fifteenth place and their next match will not get any better after the international week break. Di Natale is suspended one match for his conduct towards the officials in his club’s 1-0 loss to Fiorentina. Without the league’s leading scored Udinese does not stand a chance afainst Juventus and pretty soon Di Natale will be knocking on two months without a goal if he doesn’t come through soon.
