Inside Brescia: Tactics, Transfer Window and Promotion Hopes

There’s surely no better way to win a football match than a last-minute winner, even more so when you’re at home and the more unfancied of the two teams to pick up the win.

This is what happened on the opening day of the Serie B season when Destination Calcio rocked into the industrial city of Brescia to see the Rondinelle host Palermo on a humid August night.

With Palermo backed by the City Group and holding lofty ambitions of promotion and back into Serie A for the first time in nearly a decade, Brescia were viewed as the underdogs going into the curtain raiser at the Stadio Mario Rigamonti.

Yet that’s not the way it panned out. Both teams had their chances but Brescia were arguably better on the night than the Sicilian side and had the more clear-cut chances. With Ferragosto on the horizon, the Rigamonti wasn’t full, with many locals opting for the cooler climes, yet the Bresciani in attendance created a hostile atmosphere.

The home side had seemingly wasted all of their chances and any remaining goodwill, until in the dying embers of the game, right-back Lorenzo Dickmann’s sublime cross was met by the head of centre-back Davide Adorni, whose header was directed away from Palermo goalkeeper Sebastiano Desplanches and into the net. Cue scenes of pandemonium all around the Rigamonti.

Yet since those jubilant scenes, Brescia’s form has been patchy. They’ve lost to Cittadella and Reggiana, but beat Sudtirol, leaving the side just outside the top half of the table after four games. The hope will be to aim for the play-offs, just like last season. Consistency will be the key in the second half of the campaign.

Transfers In: Niccolo Corrado, Matthias Verreth, Trent Buhagiar, Ante Juric, Lorenzo Dickmann, Gennaro Borrelli.

Best performers: Lorenzo Dickmann, who arrived on loan from SPAL last season but was signed permanently in the summer, has been one of Brescia best players in the opening weeks of the season, and provided the winner for our visit to the Rigamonti against Palermo on matchday one. Matthias Verreth has also impressed, while Niccolo Corrado scored the second in the 2-1 win over Sudtirol. 

Tactics: Rolando Maran started the season implementing a 4-4-2 system, and the former Chievo coach retained that formation for the opening three games. However, in the impressive 2-1 away win against Sudtirol just before the international break, he shifted to a 3-5-2. The manner of the display will no doubt convince Maran to keep the 3-5-2 for the foreseeable future. Brescia’s games post-break aren’t the easiest, with matches against Frosinone and Pisa, both of whom are tipped to either gain promotion or at least make the playoffs, on the horizon.

Yet should Brescia pick up valuable points against both, then Maran just might keep the 3-5-2 permanently. But what we might see, which is typical of coaches in Serie B, is a mix of systems depending on the opponent at hand. Yet 4-4-2/3-5-2 could be the way forward for Maran and Brescia.