Football Season Guide

Lecce

In


Brayan Vera Ramirez (def)(Leones); Yevhen Shakhov (mid)(free agent); Romario Benzar (def)(Steaua Bucarest); Gabriel Vasconcelos (gk)(free agent); Gianluca Lapadula (att)(Genoa, on loan); Luca Rossettini (def)(Chievo Verona, on loan); Simone Lo Faso (att)(free agent); Anto-nino Gallo (def)(free agent); Cristian Dell'Orco (def)(Sassuolo, on loan); Diego Farias (att)(Cagliari, on loan); Andrea Rispoli (def)(free agent)

Out


Simone Palombi (r)(att)(Lazio, end of loan); Lorenzo Venuti (r)(def)(Fiorentina, end of loan); Ma-nuel Scavone (sp)(mid)(Bari, end of loan); Antonio Marino (sp)(def)(Venezia); Cesare Bovo (sp)(def)(retired)

8 years after their last participation in Serie A ended with relegation first, and a subsequent fall to the third tier of Italian football due to match-fixing, Lecce return to the top flight, having been promoted as second from the past Serie B campaign. Just 1 point off Brescia, the winners. Fabio Liverani is the man responsible for dragging Lecce from Lega Pro all the way up to Serie A in just 2 years. He was consequently confirmed at the helm for the new season. The former Lazio midfielder had already had a taste of Serie A as a coach in 2013, when he led Genoa for a couple of months. He was sacked after 6 games, having managed just 1 win and 1 draw. During the transfer campaign, Lecce did not lose many of the protagonists of their promotion campaign. In fact, only Palombi, one of their best goal scorers, and Venuti, a right-back, had to return to their parent clubs. In order to be competitive at the top level, the management mostly looked for experienced players, while also adding a couple of younger talents. Gabriel has been touring around the peninsula for the past 8 seasons but he has not played many games in Serie A: nevertheless, he should be given a starting role between the sticks. The defence was strengthened by the arrival of two full-backs, Rispoli and Dell’Orco, and a centre-back, Rossettini, all players who are well known in Serie A. Not much was done for the midfield, where the newly-arrived Shakhov, an unknown quantity at this level, could join Tachtsidis and Petriccione in a 4-3-1-2 formation. For the attack, Lecce hired Lapadula, who has had few opportunities for playing at Genoa, and Farias, who ended up his stint at Empoli with relegation.

Target


Lecce are candidates for relegation as they have an inexperienced coach for this level and an incomplete squad, still in need of a forward and a new midfielder.