Serie A Preview — Will the Lecce Yo-Yo Stop This Season?

Serie B cham­pi­ons Lecce have once again made the jump to Serie A, two years after fin­ish­ing nine­teenth and being rel­e­gated.  Prior to that they spent two years in Serie B, pre­ceded by three years in Serie A.  As you can see, Lecce has made a habit of bounc­ing up and down the ranks, mak­ing every sea­son dra­matic for the Gial­lorossi fans.  This sea­son, the club looks to estab­lish a foothold in Serie A, but does the club have the play­ers to do so?

Man­age­ment: Luigi De Canio is enter­ing his sec­ond full year with the club after com­ing on board late in the 2008–2009 sea­son to try and save the club from rel­e­ga­tion.  He was unsuc­cess­ful and was ini­tially let go, only to re-up with the club a few weeks later.  He is known as a “sal­va­tion spe­cial­ist” as he helped Siena and other Ital­ian clubs avoid rel­e­ga­tion in the last decade.  He is known for get­ting the most out of young play­ers, and will not be over-matched in Serie A.

Trans­fer Mar­ket: The club’s goal in the trans­fer mar­ket so far has been to acquire play­ers who, even if they lacked a large num­ber of Serie A min­utes, have enough top flight expe­ri­ence to add qual­ity min­utes to the club.  Their best sign­ing then may have been for­mer Juven­tus mid­fielder Ruben Oliv­era.  The Uruguayan national has eight Serie A goals in 42 matches, and adds needed tal­ent in the Gial­lorossi attack.

All told, they have three play­ers on loan from the Serie A Big Three.  They were also able to take on loan Schalke 04 defender Tore Reginiussen.  The Nor­we­gian, who can also move up to the mid­field, was the vic­tim of a num­bers game in the Bun­desliga club and wanted to play more min­utes.  He does have eight caps with the Nor­we­gian national club.

Key Play­ers and For­ma­tion:  A major con­cern for Lecce fans is the start­ing keeper Anto­nio Rosati.  The 27 year old has his only Serie A expe­ri­ence with Lecce but has appeared in 37 matches for the club since 2002.  For­tu­nately for him, the defense in front of him has some qual­ity play­ers.  Inter loa­nee Giulio Donati, who was recently called up for Italy’s U-20 match against Hun­gary, will likely pair with Reginiussen, U-21 and for­mer Fiorentina defender Davide Brivio, and Brazil­ian Gus­tavo.  If this is the start­ing back­line, then all four start­ing defend­ers will be new to the club this year.

Cap­tain Guillermo Gia­co­mazzi anchors the mid­field for the Gial­lorossi.  He is the record-holder for more Serie A appear­ances with the club and has 27 career goals for the Apulia-based team.  If Oliv­era is moved for­ward then tak­ing his place in mid­field will be another Uruguayan and Schalke prod­uct Car­los Gross­muller, who has twenty-five career goals.  Another mid­field option is career Serie B player Gianni Munari or the young­ster Andrea Berto­lacci.  Although 19, the Roma loa­nee has eleven caps for the var­i­ous Ital­ian national youth clubs.

Expect Oliv­era to be moved for­ward in De Canio’s for­ma­tion as the lack of qual­ity for­wards is a con­cern head­ing into the 2010–2011 sea­son.  The most tal­ented player is Daniele Corvia, who had sev­en­teen goals for the club last sea­son.  His pre­vi­ous sea­son high, how­ever, had been six.  Brought in to bol­ster the attack is Igna­cio Piatti, who has expe­ri­ence in Serie A, Ligue 1, Turkey, and Argentina.

Out­look: The com­bi­na­tion of a poor attack and a poor keeper leads to rel­e­ga­tion, and unless the club addresses these issues in the trans­fer mar­ket I would not expect much from Lecce.  There is some tal­ent on this club, how­ever, and they will bat­tle to stay in Serie A the entire year.  They have rein­forced the squad, but need addi­tional help to achieve sal­va­tion once again.

Tagged as: AS Roma, Bundesliga, Fiorentina, Inter, Juventus, Lecce, Luigi De Canio, Ruben Olivera, Serie A 2010-2011, Siena