The thing that makes it work is that their defense has to hold. Forget his brother, I still mostly think of Cannavaro in Serie B. But their D line, and not just their DM presence, has been solid enough to absorb a little pressure and spring great counterattacks. It will be interesting to see how teams line up to play against them as the season progresses, as they may have some real weaknesses that haven't been exposed yet. But thus far this season, they look pretty solid.