Born in Naples on 03/10/88, graduated in Philosophy and Politics from the Oriental University of Naples. He has been working for TMW since 2008 and was deputy editor for 10 years. Sent to follow the national team
Bologna returned to the Champions League sixty years after the last time. This evening they will play their second English away match after the one in Liverpool. After the home draw with Shakhtar and the defeat against i redsVincenzo Italiano’s team will face an Aston Villa that this year is only receiving confirmation from an Emery project that is going swimmingly even with the highest bar.
For three years now i villans they grow rapidly but steadily. In Bologna, however, the exploit was decidedly more sensational and sudden. A year ago at this time no one in Emilia could even imagine qualifying for the Champions League, the goal in September was access to the Conference. Then what happened happened: a triumphant ride, a dream ending.
One win in the first ten games
The awakening, however, was more abrupt than expected. In the first ten games of the season, Bologna has achieved just one victory: it is the team with the highest percentage of draws in the top European leagues, an ‘X’ sign from which it did not deviate even on Saturday afternoon when it seemed in full control at Marassi of the match. And instead it ended 2-2 against Genoa. “Unfortunately this year we are punished for the first mistake”, said Vincenzo Italiano who today – like other protagonists – is on the defendants’ plate because in the difficult task of replacing Thiago Motta he did not skimp on errors.
Italian has his faults for one draw from which Bologna is unable to free itself, but digging a little deeper, the coach does not seem to be Bologna’s main problem today: one has to wonder why, in the summer of the historic return to the Champions League, the club has decided to operate in this way.
Erlic, Casale and Dallinga to replace Calafiori and Zirkzee
Giovanni Sartori has been one of the best Italian managers around for years. A year ago, for the third time in his career, he was the protagonist of a true miracle by bringing a team to the Champions League that had never been Champions until then. He succeeded with Chievo, it was repeated with Atalanta and then the coronation in Bologna. The third clue to definitively prove his skill.
However, given that we live by news and not by history, today Sartori, together with Di Vaio, is the manager who in the summer of Bologna’s historic return to the Champions League should have improved Bologna and instead didn’t. On the contrary.
Advanced playmaker, team man but also capable of reaching double figures, last season Joshua Zirkzee was the fulcrum around which all of Bologna’s fortunes revolved: he was replaced by Thijs Dallinga, a Dutchman from Toulouse who had just scored two seasons in double figures in Ligue 1 who in Italy, at the end of October, still hadn’t signed up. And so he ended up behind Castro in the hierarchies.
Things went even worse in defense because two players took the place of Riccardo Calafiori – the best defender of the last Serie A season: on one side Erlic, fresh from relegation to Sassuolo, on the other Casale, Lazio’s reserve. The results are there for all to see.
It wasn’t a Champions League transfer market
Bologna had to confirm themselves after having surprised and enchanted, they had to take a step forward and instead they risk taking two steps back. Without any experience in the Champions League, he had the task of replacing those who positively turned around last season with players of a higher level, who knew the double competition well and what it meant to play every three days.
Instead, a transfer market exactly identical to the previous ones was set up, with few certainties and many bets to win. A transfer market that is good when you play once a week, when you have no pressure or particular objectives, but much less so when you are already playing for the season at the end of October. Yes, because the matches for the rossoblù are already starting to have a very high specific weight: tonight at Villa Park defeat is to be avoided at all costs and on Sunday in the championship we will need to improve a ranking that currently reads thirteenth place.