agreed, they lack some depth for a similar surprise top4 finish that atalanta were capable of. their papu is deulofeu lol
serie a had plenty of smaller teams starting some seasons strongly. i checked a few stats on transfermarkt:
- lazio started the '17/18 season with 6-1-1 and finished 6th,
- sassuolo were 2nd in '20/21 after 8 rounds and 8th by the end, or
- fiorentina lead the league after 8 rounds in '15/16 but finished 5th
the most memorable is probably chievo in '01/02 with delneri who were just promoted, were 1st after the 8th round, leading juve by 6 points at that stage, and chievo "only" finished 5th, 17 points behind juve (and juventini all remember THAT cinque maggio

). that was btw the best start by a newbie serie a team since transfermarkt has any stats, so in that sense delneri is a goat coach lol
btw udinese's current start isn't bad at all. since 2000, only the following clubs started the season with more than their current tally (19 points): atalanta (once, this season), juve (7 times), milan (3), inda (4), roma (1) and napoli (3). in previous years, none of those teams finished lower than 4th: inda with spalletti dropped to 4th in '17/18, all other teams finished in the top3. since 2000, teams starting with 19 points in 8 rounds always finished in the top5 lol