Football Italia: Season 2: The good times keep rolling on

Season 2: The good times keep rolling on!

As we approach the business end of the season, we’re still flying high, performing better than I’d expect us to and virtually guaranteed a slot in the playoffs. I would, however, still consider us a huge long shot for promotion, which, honestly, wouldn’t be a bad thing to miss out on anyway!

Our strong run started with a big performance over bottom sid Potenza, with a hattrick from Owusu, repaying – immediately – the faith I had put in him to be my number one striker for the coming five or six games, at least. A perfect hattrick, starting with a penalty, then a left footed finish and a header where the only blot in the copy book was a late drop in concentration that spoiled our clean sheet. Owusu added his second hattrick of the week – this time all on his right foot – as we overcame Monopoli, winning the xG battle 1.13 – 1.89, reserving enough energy for a late onslaught that bore fruit in the shape of two lovely finishes for the young Ghanaian. It was that man again who rescued a draw against Turris, who’d been subjected a bit of a battering by us but had held on. The month was, obviously, all about Ali: 270 minutes. 3 goals. Strikers breed off confidence. He’s also a seventeen year old striker, who needed that confidence, too. Lots of positive praise and lots of rewards!

A late double from Owusu and Leone secured a somewhat surprising win over second placed Crotone, who came into the game in good form. It was a fairly even match, but I’d learnt from last time that I needed to keep them central and stop play spreading wide, which we did really nicely with some opposition instructions. Paolo Caso netted as we were outclassed and outgunned by Juve Stabia, having just 25% of the ball before to really solid 3-0 victories both boosted our morale but also our goal difference.

Foggia got the better of us before we began a run of two unexpected victories: an Owusu double saw us get the better of Benevento, who’d fallen off the pace and had lost the previous two before a backs-to-the-wall win over Pescara, ending their unbeaten season and, potentially, giving Crotone just a tiny bit of excitement that they could catch them. We allowed them to get their shots away, but our resolute backline restricted the quality to just an average of 0.09 per shot, restricting them to just 67 passes in the final third, way down on their average of ninety this season so far.

Owusu’s form continued as he scored against Gugliano but it was Firenze who scored late on to secure the three points for us and, almost certainly a playoff spot with Latina seventeen points behind with eight games to go.

Upon the last post, I decided to make just a few tactical tweaks – moving the DM(s) to a DLP(s), a move to a Positive mentality and removing the ‘Pass into Space’ instruction. Below are the stats from the initial analysis, eight games in, to now, showing the changes.

The pragmatic Italian manager in my despairs when the thought of being more open defensively comes into the question. However, I simply do not think that has been the case. With three centre backs, none of whom – at this point – are asked to do anything aggressive when in possession – are controlling the rest defence and making us hard enough to break down, regardless of our mentality. An increase in mentality has, as I’d hoped, increased the number of offensive actions, plus, by adding a playmaker, we’ve been able to create a bit more of a focal point in our build up. We now lead the league on dribbles per game, a highly rated statistical output in my shape and, despite losing possession nearly ten more times a game, we’re progressing – and playing – in the final third much more.

Pleasingly, we’re not just giving up a load more defensively as we’ve started to push on. We’re facing more shots and are conceding more in terms of expected goals, but we’re winning possession more often, making the use of the ‘Counter Press’ instruction that has been there all year and we’re restricting more teams from playing against us. Clearly, our form has been on an upward curve and these slight downward trends aren’t enough to suggest that this has been a bad idea.

Granted, our fixtures fluctuate in terms of difficulty that could be skewing these offensive outputs as much as the defensive ones but, currently, we now sit above the league average in six of the eight metrics measured on the right. A sure fire sign that I am coaching this team to get better.

– – –

We had a transfer window to negotiate, and, as I try to sure up my plans going forward for negotiation and recruitment, I missed out on remembering about the present: an enforced sale of Paolo Caso as I’d allowed him to stay on a youth contract to save wages. There’ll be a full financial run down at the end of the season but, given the plight we are currently in, I went to the DoF suggestions in order to ascertain a list of youngsters, ideally on cheap loans, who’d be able to come in.

   

Veratti has settled very nicely into the right wing back slot and is among my key players in this half of the season so far. It’s unlikely I’ll be able to keep him long term as he’s from SPAL – a Serie B side – rather than one of the big clubs, but he’s improved us. Cocconi and Spinacce are still finding their feet and their match fitness whilst Carboni has slotted nicely into the playmaker role of the team, coming up with four goal contributions, too.

Longer term, I am going to be using recruitment meetings to identify players, who are then added to a  shortlist – there for a centre back – and here for a new ‘keeper. I will then create a 1-5 ranking of my preference and hand over to the DoF to get a deal done. This will, hopefully, sit alongside their recommendations, which come in the form of offers – to which I can make the choice to reject or continue with. We’ll see how this runs!

Forza biancoscudati!