Pisa Fly High as Big Names Struggle in Serie B

Simone Inzaghi’s Inter Milan aren’t the only team playing in black and blue currently top of the league in Italy. In fact, they’re not even the only team managed by a member of the Inzaghi family to be top of the league.

Filippo Inzaghi’s Pisa head into the international break top of Serie B with eight points after four games, ahead of Juve Stabia and Spezia on goal difference.

Similarly, Inter lead Serie A with seven points after three games, their superior goal difference placing them ahead of Juventus, Udinese and Torino.

But while the Serie A champions have simply picked up where they left off in May, Pisa’s bright start is more surprising.

The Nerazzurri finished 13th in Serie B last season, but have hit the ground running, beating promotion favourites Palermo and Reggiana and drawing against Spezia and Cittadella.

Coupled with a 3-0 against Frosinone in the Coppa Italia, it made for a near-perfect summer for Inzaghi.

Sacked by Salernitana in February after just five months in charge, the former AC Milan manager has made an immediate impact in Tuscany.

Pisa have hitherto tied their colours firmly to the mast of counter-attacking football and average almost two goals per game, despite losing last season’s top scorer Mattia Valoti, who returned to Monza after his loan spell ended.

The challenge for Inzaghi will now be to integrate late summer signings Alexander Lind and Oliver Abildgaard, who arrived from Silkeborg and Como respectively.

Newly-promoted sides make a splash

Newly-promoted Juve Stabia have also caught many by surprise after racking up eight points in the first four matches.

Guido Pagliuca’s men built their promotion campaign last term on being hard to breach and the trend has continued in Serie B, where the Stabians have conceded just once in 360 minutes of football.

If a rock-solid defence has been the foundation of Juve Stabia’s start to the season, set-piece prowess is the cornerstone of Spezia’s success so far.

Five of the Ligurians’s six goals have come from dead-ball situations, propelling them to third in the table heading into the international break.

Reggiana, Mantova and Cittadella are all a point adrift of the leading trio. After losing in Salerno in the opening game of the campaign, the latter have already recorded statement wins away against Brescia and Modena and have held league leaders Pisa to a draw.

Much as Pagliuca has done with Juve Stabia, Mantova manager Davide Possanzini has also stayed true to the brand of football that secured promotion last season.

His side remain committed to playing out from the back and taking risks even if as the defeat against Salernitana showed, their approach can occasionally backfire.

Big names struggle

At the other end of the spectrum, meanwhile, Palermo, Sampdoria and Bari have endured a dismal start to the campaign.

City Football Group have spent over €10m on players this summer as the Rosanero look to return to Serie A for the first time in seven years, but the investment is yet to deliver.

Under Alessio Dionisi, Palermo have lacked a precise identity. Away defeats against Brescia and Pisa were unexpected early setbacks, while the draw against bottom of the table Cosenza at the weekend took the shine off the previous week’s win against Cremonese.

Dionisi proved to be an astute manager at Sassuolo and in the likes of Roberto Insigne and last season’s club top scorer Matteo Brunori he has two of the best forwards in the division.

The question is, can he put it together? The same applies to Andrea Sottil, who replaced Andrea Pirlo at Sampdoria after the former Juventus manager was sacked following two defeats in the first three matches.

Pirlo led the Blucerchiati to the playoffs last season, but lasted less than a month of the current campaign after losing against Reggiana and Salernitana.

Sottil’s era began with a stalemate draw against Bari, which he described as a good start considering Samp played 75 minutes with 10 men and had a penalty awarded against. 

In Gennaro Tutino and Roberto Coda, Samp signed two players with a combined 300 Serie B goals under their belt. That alone should put them among the favourites for promotion, but reality has been vastly different so far, despite Coda scoring twice in four matches.

Bari’s miserable run continues

If Sottil saw the silver lining against Bari, there were precious little positives for his counterpart Moreno Longo.

The Galletti are penultimate with two points in four matches, only above Cosenza, who have been deducted four points.

It seems incredible to think that Bari were 120 seconds away from promotion to Serie A only 14 months ago. 

Their slide since losing to Cagliari in the play-offs has been nothing short of dramatic, with the Pugliese avoiding relegation to Serie C only via the play-outs last season. 

The blame for the collapse lies squarely with the ownership and Aurelio De Laurentiis, who purchased the club in 2018 after it had gone bankrupt.

But Napoli’s president has never made a mystery of the fact Bari aren’t his main priority, going as far as describing them as Napoli’s B team.

He has acted accordingly and the Galletti have had to operate on a budget in the last several summers, much to the ever-growing discontent of their supporters. 

Elsewhere, history provides a cautionary tale for Frosinone. The Canaries were relegated to Serie B on the final day of last season and have only three points to show after four games.

Vincenzo Vivarini’s squad remains talented enough to harbour lofty ambitions, but consecutive relegations aren’t that uncommon as Crotone in 2022 and Benevento in 2023 can attest to.

Of the other two newly-relegated sides, Salernitana have made the steadier start and sit ninth on the table with a respectable six points in four games.

Sassuolo, meanwhile, head into the international break on a downbeat note after being thrashed 4-1 at home by Cremonese.

The defeat was a blow to Fabio Grosso, whose team was just starting to show signs of adjusting to its new surroundings after 11 consecutive seasons in Serie A.