Palermo’s start to the season is not what fans and club would have expected. As he writes The Courier of Sport one of the problems that the pink club continues to drag along from last season is the vulnerability of the back line. The pink team, which started this championship with the handbrake on, still does not give the impression of being a solid team when the opponents have the ball. Four games and 4 goals conceded are an alarm bell. The numerical comparison with last championship is eloquent. In 2023/24, after the first 4 rounds of the championship embellished with 3 wins and a draw, Corini’s Palermo had conceded only one goal (away against Reggiana) and kept a clean sheet on three occasions. In this cadet tournament, however, except for the challenge in Cremona, the team has always conceded goals. A repetitiveness that requires reflection.
Often, the defense is the most vulnerable department. In this case, some mechanisms must be refined in a sector that, already at the beginning of the season, had problems. The injuries of Gomis (out for 6 months) and Lucioni (stopped with a hip problem), a key defender, weighed heavily.
The muscular injury of Baniya, a new signing, has also complicated the situation. Individual and team errors have so far affected a defense in search of an identity. Ceccaroni has done well adapting to the right, but Nikolaou has not yet reached his usual level.