Football Season Guide

With unknown 30-year-old coach Carlos Cuesta in his first year in charge, last season Parma looked like candidates for disaster, especially considering their poor start to the campaign. In fact, they won only 1 out of the initial 11 games, as they had serious problems scoring. They kept on flirting with the bottom zone until early February but, afterwards, also thanks to wise winter signings, they managed to drag themselves out of troubles and closed the season decently, in the 13th place, 11 points above the abyss. It is quite astonishing how Parma succeeded in avoiding relegation if we consider that they scored only 28 goals, just better than relegated Pisa and Hellas Verona. On the other hand, they were quite solid defensively, conceding 46 goals. Cuesta, who proved to be smarter than expected, reverting to defensive tactics once clear that the hyper-offensive ones did not work, was thus confirmed for the new season but it is still unclear what kind of squad he will have to deal with since Parma were rather passive so far in the transfer campaign. In fact, a big question mark is who will be their new starting goalie, with Suzuki leaving for Paris Saint Germain. Corvi replaced the Japanese international when injured last season and he could have earned himself the number 1 shirt, with Daffara, coming from Juventus, and Rinaldi contending as his understudy. At the back, they saw no reason for changes yet as they have plenty of choice, while left-back Carboni was signed permanently from Inter. They lost 1 protagonist of the past campaign in attacking midfielder Oristanio, who returned to his parent club, while back-up midfielder Estevez was let go after failing to leave a mark. On the other hand, Nicolussi Caviglia and Cremaschi, who spent most of the campaign sidelined, were signed permanently too and are expected to earn more playing time in the new season. Up-front, key striker Pellegrino could be sold and they are thus looking for a replacement, but more is needed also for the bench.