Control Lost… and Reclaimed

When the winter break arrived, we were living slightly outside our means.

Seventh place in our first season back in Serie B, playing a disciplined 4-3-3, felt less like a fluke and more like a reward for calm and confidence. The Disciplina & Controllo principles were holding: compact lines, intelligent pressing, structure over chaos. We weren’t dominating games, but we were competitive in all of them – and crucially, we were ahead of schedule, considering we were heavily tipped for relegation.

Then came the doubt.

Five league matches without a win. Four defeats. Confidence draining not in one dramatic collapse, but slowly – a missed duel here, a second ball lost there, a sense that opponents had begun to figure us out. The margins that had previously swung our way no longer did.

At this level, stubbornness is fatal. So rather than forcing the 4-3-3 to work, I changed the things entirely.

New Shape, New Belief

The new system wasn’t born from panic, but from preference.

I’ve always trusted a 3-2 build-up. It offers options in the first phase, numerical security against the press, and — when done correctly — control without possession for possession’s sake. The adjustment was about how we arrived there.

My first instinct was to revert to my much favoured 5 at the back. However, in an attempt to keep improving myself, I opted to keep up with modern trends and do something I hadn’t previously.

Within a 4-2-3-1 formation, the left full-back now inverts to form the back three, anchoring the first line. On the opposite flank, the left wing-back is released aggressively, attacking space with conviction as a standard wingback, while the left winger tucks inside as an inside forward to clear the channel.

On the right, natural width was reduced due to the inverting full-back naturally narrowing the pitch. So, the right wide forward stays honest, stretching the opposition and preventing us from collapsing into ourselves.

In midfield, the double pivot offers the security you’d expect – a classic defensive midfielder paired with a box-to-box presence – while ahead of them sits the most liberated role in the system: the free attacking midfielder.

On paper, it isn’t perfect. In practice, it changed everything.

Besaggio: Unchained

The free role was designed to influence games. Michele Besaggio took it and exploded.

Eight goals in eight appearances. Arriving late, ghosting between lines, striking with accuracy and confidence. He played like someone liberated to interpret the game rather than follow instructions. For a stretch, he wasn’t just our best player; he was the axis around which the entire system turned. He was voted into the team of the month, two months in a row.

Naturally, as he’s on loan, I tried to make it permanent.

The problem was reality. A £300k loan option looked harmless enough until the wage demands arrived: £14k per week. Triple our current top earner. A financial line we simply cannot cross without breaking the structure that got us here.

So contingency planning became necessity.

A Stopgap With Teeth

With Guccione leaving at the end of the season and Besaggio drifting out of reach, the question wasn’t who fits perfectly, but who can survive there.

Which is how Pietra found himself in a role he’s never truly owned.

He isn’t a natural attacking midfielder. He doesn’t float through games or demand the ball constantly. But what he does bring is intelligence, timing, and a willingness to occupy uncomfortable spaces. In three appearances, he delivered two goals and an assist – not spectacular, but decisive.

He may not be the long-term answer. He may not even be the right answer. But right now, he is the answer we have — and sometimes that matters more.

A System Still Developing

What’s striking is that this formation isn’t yet operating at full capacity.

Renzi, admirable as he is, isn’t an ideal inverting full-back. The double pivot, while secure, lacks a natural playmaker – which shows in our possession numbers, which are much lower than our previous 4-3-3. We don’t dominate the ball anymore, but sometimes, that’s ok.

I suspect the next evolution is obvious: introduce a playmaking profile deeper, someone who can connect first phase to final third more consistently and find the attacking midfielder in pockets rather than hopeful zones.

But even with its imperfections, the impact has been undeniable.

Eleven Games, One Direction

The results tell their own story.

Unbeaten in eleven league matches. Just six goals conceded in that stretch. From instability to structure almost overnight.

Perhaps most satisfying of all, the system revived Pattarello. Before the switch, he looked burdened — forcing things, chasing form, playing like someone aware of his own struggles. Since the change, he’s been decisive again: eight goals, four assists, and a constant threat from the right.

Confidence, it turns out, is often positional.

The league table reflects it too. From drifting in 11th to consolidating in 8th, with daylight now separating us from ninth place. Not spectacular. Not headline-grabbing. But real.

Within 11 games, I’ve switched from being happy with a top half finish to a feeling that we have to be in with a great chance of back to back promotions.

We’re the form team in Serie B and we head into the playoff with a Reggiana up first.

The dream is alive…

The End… but optimism…

We fell to a 0-2 defeat against Reggiana.

After Tavernelli hit the post after 6 minutes, their class and experience took over and they slowly took control of the game with their solid 5-3-2.

Yet, it was a tough loss to take as we had good chances, but ultimately, couldn’t break them down.

They took the lead on 64 minutes when a corner wasn’t properly cleared, leading to a brief game of pinball inside the 6-yard-box, which eventually fell to Ferriera to fire into the bottom corner past a helpless Piana in goal

We continued to pressure and the final nail in the coffin was delivered when Girma poked home another goal-line scramble in the 92nd minute.

Truthfully, getting promoted to Serie A so soon would likely have been a disaster as we have neither the squad, facilities or financial backing to survive.

Another season in Serie B is waiting, and we’re ready for the challenge.