Football Season Guide

8 years after their last participation in Serie A ended with relegation first, and a subsequent fall to the third tier of Italian football due to match-fixing, Lecce return to the top flight, having been promoted as second from the past Serie B campaign. Just 1 point off Brescia, the winners. Fabio Liverani is the man responsible for dragging Lecce from Lega Pro all the way up to Serie A in just 2 years. He was consequently confirmed at the helm for the new season. The former Lazio midfielder had already had a taste of Serie A as a coach in 2013, when he led Genoa for a couple of months. He was sacked after 6 games, having managed just 1 win and 1 draw. During the transfer campaign, Lecce did not lose many of the protagonists of their promotion campaign. In fact, only Palombi, one of their best goal scorers, and Venuti, a right-back, had to return to their parent clubs. In order to be competitive at the top level, the management mostly looked for experienced players, while also adding a couple of younger talents. Gabriel has been touring around the peninsula for the past 8 seasons but he has not played many games in Serie A: nevertheless, he should be given a starting role between the sticks. The defence was strengthened by the arrival of two full-backs, Rispoli and Dell’Orco, and a centre-back, Rossettini, all players who are well known in Serie A. Not much was done for the midfield, where the newly-arrived Shakhov, an unknown quantity at this level, could join Tachtsidis and Petriccione in a 4-3-1-2 formation. For the attack, Lecce hired Lapadula, who has had few opportunities for playing at Genoa, and Farias, who ended up his stint at Empoli with relegation.