Brescia Calcio – Season 4, part 4

 

The Return

After an unfortunate set back where I lost 5 months of progress in my Brescia save, I decided to take a break from the game. It was disheartening as not only would that time be lost have to be replayed, but also the various tweaking to tactics and recruitment sets ups. I also won our first major trophy in that time.

But, after a break which has last much longer than anticipated, we’re back in the saddle in the hopes of recreating the previous success.

I did have to replay the last two game outlined in the previous update. Previously, I picked up a plucky draw against top of the table Inter and a cheeky win over Juventus. This time I lost against Inter and drew against Juventus… so we’re already at a 3 point disadvantage. 

Marvellous.

Player Update

Obviously, one of the issues with having a few months off is that you forget about the intricacies of the day to day running of the team. Which players are doing well? Who’s disgruntled and why…

So, for your benefit (and mine), here’s a quick recap. 

Goalkeepers: 

Ivor Pandur, a £6.5m signing from Fortuna Sittard, was our number one with Alessandru Plizzari was the back-up who has been a huge pain the back side. Constantly pestering for more game time, but never performing well enough to back up his claims, my patience is wearing thin with Plizzari. Despite a rocky start to his Serie A career, Pandur has performed consistently since and I’m confident in his ability.

Defenders:

One area I’ve struggled with throughout these 4 season in Brescia is Right Wingback. And this season is no different. Alexander Jallow, our Swedish unsung hero who’s constantly performed above his attributes has been unhappy with his minutes and salary. Although he’s a player I have great fondness for, I don’t think he’s the player to take us to the next level. After all, it’s important I now think of us like a big team in order to keep progressing. He’s currently behind new signing Diogo Spencer in the pecking order,  wants to leave and he’s had numerous teams interesting in his services for a while. 

Speaking of Diogo Spencer, he’s also unhappy as – for some reason – my Director of Football, Joachim Low, promised him he’d play in his preferred role as an inverted wingback. We don’t use that role and never have. Nice one Joachim. 

Another problem in defence is Houboulang Mendes. My first choice on the right of the three central defenders, he wants a new contract on which will almost double his salary. I stood firm and we’re currently at loggerheads. 

Midfielders:

The two mainstays of my midfield have been Donny Van de Beek and Giovanni Fabbian. Donny has been mostly used in a deeper role than I’d like due to lack of defensive midfielders and a plethora of attacking players, but I’m eager to get him further up the pitch. Giovanni, initially signed to be a midfield enforcer, has developed into more of a box to box player. However, he wants to leave to move to a bigger club due to the constant interest in him and we’ve come to an agreement that a bid of £18m would be adequate (which I don’t think anyone will match!).

Attackers:

We’re looking pretty settled here compared to everywhere else. Our high-powered strike duo of Flavio Junior Bianchi (23 goals last season) and Stefan Feiertag (13 goals last season) are still here and have been joined by former Angers wonder kid Mohamed-Ali Cho who is on loan for the season from Real Sociedad. With an optional fee of £12m, Ali could be a versatile addition if he does well. 

The Transfer Window

As you can see, there’s plenty of potential volatility in the team so I wan’t to make sure we’re stronger and more settled when the window closes. I was lucky enough to be given a huge £18.5m to spend by Karol Poborsky in order to push us on to the next level and keep us challenging in the Champions League and Serie A. 

Let’s see how we did.

The Midfield Orchestrator 

The biggest signing of this season could be the cheapest. In what I think is a stunning move, we’ve secured the signing on Tomas Handel for a mere £950k from Vitoria de Guimaraes in Portugal. Known for his creative prowess and ability to control games in the centre of the park, he should be a linchpin for us and, more importantly, allows me to free Donny Van de Beek into a more attacking role. With elite passing, vision and composure he should be a press-proof defensive midfielder with enough defensive ability to add a layer of protection to the back three. 

The Young Gun

Also joining on the day the window opens is young Chinese-Canadian attacking midfielder Dai Zhong. Costing £1m up front from Lecce, with a further potential £1.7m to come, Zhong joins an already crowded stable of attacking midfielders and will go out on loan to Spezia for the rest of season. If he can kick on and develop a little more he could turn in to a real asset. 

Three outgoings

David Pereira Da Costa to Valencia (Loan) – As mentioned above, we have a plethora of attacking, creative midfielders. One of which is Frenchman David Pereira Da Costa, who we signed from RC Lens for £3.2m two seasons ago. Despite being a lovely player, he’s shared the advanced creator role with Michele Besaggio but has failed to outplay the Italian enough as his reputation suggests. Struggling to make in impact this season, he’s found himself on the dispensable list and joins Valencia on loan for the remainder of the season, with a £9m option to buy. 

Alessandro Plizzari to Cagliari (Transfer) – You’ll not be surprised that Plizzaro has left. The fellow Serie A side offered £1.6m up front, rising to £2.1m. He had plenty of chances and failed to take any of them. 

Alexander Jallow to Bodo/Glimt (Transfer) – Putting an end to his four and a half season career in Italy, Jallow has secured a move away where he’ll get the regular first team football he deserves. Averaging 7.01 in his time, and notching up 20 assists in his three seasons under my management, he goes with my best wishes. The £2,9m fee helps too. 

REJECTED! TWICE!

There is one problem with thinking like a big club: competing against big clubs!

In order to boost both our on-field performances and off-field reputation, I tried to make not ONE statement signings, but TWO. 

Firstly was to finally put an end to the Right Wingback problems by signing a player I’d had on my shortlist ever since this save began: Filippo Terracciano. A player I first targeted when  we got promoted to Serie A, he would’t even entertain a move to us from Hellas Verona due to interest from Napoli, where he eventually signed for £10m. Quick, powerful and good in the attacking phase he’d be perfect in my system so I went in for him again, had a bid of £9m accepted and agreed a contract.

Then the sweaty palms started when the story was leaked to the press.

A week later he signed for Borussia Dortmund who hijacked the deal. 

As if one rejection wasn’t enough, a second was soon to come. 

Eager to add pace and guile to my attack I made a bid for PSG starlet Bradley Barcola. Once again, a fee was agreed (£15m) and we hammered out a contract which suited both parties. 

Once again there was a leak to the press.

Once again we lot out on a player as a result, as Brighton swooped in. In fairness, they offered him more money than I could have hoped to but still… it’s infuriating it’s happened twice.

Obviously, this initially led to a panic. A hurried scramble through my scouting shortlists to see who else I can throw money at… before realising it’s a time for a calm head. The last thing I’d want to do is make emotional signings for too much money who might not be the players I need.

So, putting the fury aside I played a couple of matches and then reassessed the situation. 

Another Portuguese Signing… after another rejection!

I had my next Right Wingback target lined up. AC Milan’s Pablo Maffeo. A player I know well from his time with Pablo Machin at Girona. Unable to get regular football at the San Siro, I was able to get them to agree to a loan deal, which he was initially up for. However, the starter Davide Calabria then picked up an injury which would keep him out for over a month and Maffeo decided to stay and try to take his chance with Milan. 

So… eventually replacing the hijacked Terracciano deal, and smashing my transfer record, is Costinho. Costing £10m up from Real Sociedad, with another £10m in instalments, I’m confidence this can be the player to finally give me some stability and production from the Right Wingback slot. 

 

As you can see he’s got everything you’d want from a Wingback in a 5-3-2 system. Sound defensively, with the speed, work rate and final third abilities to make himself an attacking threat. His player traits are pretty ideal too. 

A goalkeeping option

Filling the back up Goalkeeper role is 35-year-old Marco Silvesteri. Coming in on loan from Udinese, he should provide a safe pair of hands and some competition to Pandur. 

I decided not to splash out any money on an attacking player as I couldn’t find anyone else in the Bradley Barcola mould. Instead, I’ll put my faith in the trio of Bianchi, Feiertag and Cho, with Van de Beek joining them as a more attacking force. 

This decision leaves £8m remaining in my transfer kitty which I’ll carry over to the summer.

Hopefully this squad will be good enough to keep us in the top third of the table and progress into the knock out phase of the Champions League. 

 

Champions League

With the second half of the season comes the business end of European competition. Following Champions league victories over PSV (4-1), RB Salzburg (1-0), RB Leipzig (2-0) and RC Lens (2-1) we found ourselves in the Knockout playoffs phase where, once again, we’d face RB Salzburg. 

We already have a mental step up over them thanks to our 1-0 win back in November, where Michele Besaggio bagged a 75th minute winner. Despite winning the xG and possession battles I was nervy going into the game due to our poor and inconsistent run of form.

The first leg was away so it was important to try to control the game and take away the impact of the home fans. We did control possession, having 63% of the ball in the first half and more shots, however, we went into half time 0-1 down thanks to a Baidoo goal through a crowded box just before the break. We pulled level on 50 minutes through Feiertag, who then had a goal disallowed for a very narrow offside 5 minutes later. Despite hitting the bar twice in the last 3 minutes of the game we were unable to take a deserved victory.

A week later we welcomed Salzburg for the second leg which started terribly when Solet scored from a corner after just 2 minutes has passed. We looked the better team again and went into half time with a 2-1 lead thanks to two goals from Feiertag. Just as in the first leg, Feiertag had a goal disallowed for an extremely narrow offside, to deny him a hat-trick. Hwang Hee-Chan equalised against the run of play to take the game to extra time.

This is where our lack of quality depth (my own fault) showed as we tired quickly and we unable to keep up with Salzburg who took the lead through a lovely volley as they dominated the remainder of the game.

Our Champions League dream was over. 

Serie A

We entered January of 2026 in 9th place in Serie A. Not ideal. We’d need an extremely good run to get back near the Champions League places. Maybe our changes look better if we aim for the Europa League instead, where we find ourselves a doable 6 point behind the qualification places. 

The combination of league and European football was proving to a step too soon for this team, so I put out a weakened team in the Coppa Italia against Spezia and we lost 1-2 in extra time. 

January & February

We started 2026 by playing a massive 17 games in 8 weeks. – It’s therefore no wonder the results table below looks like a traffic light.

A 3-3 draw with Juventus was followed by an amazingly entertaining Super Coppa semi-final against AC Milan which saw 8 goals scored, 3 penalty decisions overturned and 1 red card. Just 3 days later we played the final versus Juventus where we lost 1-2. We put up a good performance but made two defensive blunders and they scored from both.

 (Annoyingly, the last time I played this game we won the cup by battering Fiorentina. I have photo evidence!)

A 3-1 win over Hellas Verona was followed by two truly dreadful games. Firstly the 0-1 Champions League defeat to Malmo and then a 0-5 mauling by Parma! PARMA!!! FIVE – NIL! Water bottles were indeed thrown!

RC Lens were beaten 2-1 in the Champions League and we gained another £2.5m in prize money. Every little helps.

Second place Napoli battered us 1-4 and we struggled to beat 18th placed Udinese before a 2-0 win over Empoli lifted our spirits once again. A last ditch 2-2 draw with AC Milan gave us more glimmers of getting back into some decent form but we when fell 0-1 to Sampdoria. The Sampdoria result looks bad, but they were actually 5th in the form table, compared to us in 15th… so maybe the result was right. 

We’ll brush over the Champions League games versus RB Salzburg as we know what happened where, other than to mention they sandwiched a 3-1 win over Palermo.

From pretty in pink, to pretty in purple, we next faced an impressive Fiorentina team who sat in 4th place in Serie A. It was a very closely fought game with both sides cancelling each other out for most of the game. It ended in a 1-1 draw thanks to goals from Bianchi and Colombo. 

Eleven Games Remaining….

So, a very inconsistent 2026 so far. Marred by injuries and a jam-packed fixture list which we simply don’t have the squad depth for, we really need to kick on if we want to play in European competition again next season. As you can see, we’re in 10th place and still 6 points behind 6th place. With 33 points to play for, we’re still well in there with a chance. 

I’ve given several players a week’s rest from training due to fatigue so I’m hoping their fitness levels can get topped back up and we can avoid those niggling injuries which have plagued the last two months. 

It’s vital that I get my team selections right so I wanted to dip into some analysis which I haven’t done before.

My three strikers have all done pretty well this season:

• Flavio Junior Bianchi: 28 (7) apps, 14 goals, 8 assists.
• Stefan Feiertag: 32 (3)  apps, 15 goals, 4 assists
• Mohamad-Ali Cho: 17 (20) apps, 7 goals, 2 assists

Therefore, I’m confident that if whichever two of them are playing at anyone time have chances created for them, we’ll score goals. So, I wanted to look at how all players involved in forward play are contributing to the creation phase.

The below chart shows: Open Play Key Passes/90, Chances Created/90 and Expected Assists/90.

 

Left Wingback:

Surprisingly, our most creative players (according to these stats) is back up Left Wingback Niccolo Corrado. He’s obviously played less minutes than Nkounkou (1,200 mins vs 2,000 mins) but that’s still some very impressive stats he’s putting up. I think these stats have earned a run of starts in the first team.

Right Wingback:

This is a tricky one. Spencer has performed averagely all season and Costinha has only just joined. Therefore I won’t use these stats as a barometer just yet.

Defensive Midfielder:

In our main tactic, the 5-3-2, our lone Defensive Midfielder is a Deep Lying Playmaker. Tomas Handel joined in January and as you can see, he’s putting up a good number of Open Play Key Passes per game. That’s pretty much his role and I’m pleased with his contribution as he gels with his new team. 

The Two 8’s:

The two 8’s in this system consist of a Box to Box Midfielder and an Attacking Midfielder. Even though the “B2B” is asked to get back more, and the other is leant on more for their attacking prowess, I think we can still use the above metrics to judge performance in terms of impact in the attacking phase. 

The cream of the crop of these players is Michele Besaggio. Despite missing over a month recently with a sports hernia, he’s producing some really good stats. He’s played in both of the 8’s over his 1,500 minutes season and his value is clear. He’s not been a regular name on the team sheet but, just like Corrado, he clearly deserves a chance. Having just returned from his injury I’ll have to manage him carefully. 

It’s pleasing to see than Nuamah is doing well when he’s given playing time, although he’s only played 500 minutes so far and therefore will take these stats with a pinch of salt, however, the green shoots are clearly there.

Giacomo Olzer is the next best. He’s played across the central midfield roles, attacking midfield AND played 3 games as Left Wingback when both Nkounkou and Corrado were injured. With 1,400 minutes under his belt he’s a great depth option.

Van de Beek is lower than I’d hoped, although his position probably reflects the fact he’s played the first half of this season as a defensive midfielder. Hence he’s notched up a good amount of key passes, but hasn’t necessarily had as many opportunities to create changes and xA. Hopefully this increases as the season goes on and he’s in more advanced positions. 

The last player to mention is Giovanni Fabbian. Considering he’s played mainly as a Ball Winning Midfielder and a Box to Box midfielder, I think his stats are pretty good. He covers a lot of ground and contributes in other areas but this shows he’s at least contributing in the creative aspect of the team. However, I’m going to play Besaggio in his role and see if that gives up greater attacking impetus. A decision made on the assumption that the defensive midfielder and three central defenders should give enough cover to allow the two 8’s to be more expansive and forward focused.

Strikers:

Bianchi has mainly been the Advanced Forward, however, he’s proved to be a better creative player than his partner Feiertag, who’s mainly been a Deep Lying Forward. Maybe it would be better if I swapped them round and see if this switch works more to my advantage. 

Conclusion:

There we have it, we have 6 points to catch up and desperately need to put together a good run of games to truly challenge for the European places.

How will we do?

Watch this space.