Football Italia: Season 3 – Much to be excited about.
Share this:
Season 3: Much to be excited about!
Just a quick one as I’m packing my laptop away for a spell out of the country and off FM. Unfortunately, the real world calls and a nice family holiday will help me reset. That being said, I’m really enjoying the process here at Messina and think we’re building something that could be very special!
Firstly, I was happy with Triestina because I knew of the €104k participation fee but I did not know the level that we would absolutely destroy our Serie B opposition. 4.55xG, including a penalty that sealed debutant Merola’s hattrick was an utterly outstanding start to the season. But it got even better! Travelling to Serie A side Frosinone to face players I’ve actually heard of (!!!) – Loris Karius, Ryan Yates and Tiago Gouveia included – we prepared for the worst, taking the appearance fee and scarpering. But no! 2.30xG was just 0.07xG better than the opponents but, at the end of the day, we emerged with three goals, thanks to back-to-back hat tricks, surely a record for a player on debut, for Merola in the shadow striker role. Over €250k in gate receipts from these games, nearly a quarter of what we brought in across the entire 2025/26 season, sets us up brilliantly for the next few months. In December, we, as one of the two Serie C sides left in the competition, go to Monza – of Serie B – in a tie that we could actually win!
Our league form, judging by the difficulty of fixtures, has been really strong. Not only have we played three teams who finished inside the playoffs in September, we also faced, and beat, both relegated sides – Avellino and Bari. Ali Owusu’s six goals have been great but I’m happy that there’s been a shared element to this, as Lucenti – who now has longer term plans to maybe fill more of a deep lying role – has three to his name as well. Just the one blip as Taranto blew us away as they set the early pace this season. I must say that I’m feeling very confident about what is to come…
This is largely down to me feeling really secure with our tactical shape. As someone who has pretty much always favoured a four-at-the-back shape, moving to this has been an interesting change but has produced some moments of pure magic for me. We can defend in a five but, with the right adjustments – WB(s) to CWB(a) and BPD(d) to WCB(s) – overlap aggressively and our control of the central areas has been key. In Merola’s two hattrick performances, his movement, laterally and vertically, across the entirety of the final third, working in unison with Owusu, who pinned defences back and played on the last shoulder, was an absolute delight. We’re currently leading the dribbling rankings by over 2.5 a game, greater than any jump between other sides, and this is a key area for me as we look to take advantage of spaces and create overloads with the ball.
I’m really excited to see where this goes!
Forza biancoscudati!
