Football Season Guide

After a few turbulent seasons, characterized by disastrous beginnings and some brilliant second halves of the campaign, with Montella in charge Catania succeeded coming real close to making history. In fact, up to some stage they seemed to be capable of reaching an unpredictable and unhoped-for qualification to the European competitions. Eventually, right when consistency was needed from them, they started losing several games in a row and so it was the end for their dreams of glory. And they even fell out of the top ten. Unfortunately for them, coach Montella decided to leave after one season only and he joined in a richer Fiorentina. Catania management opted for a seasoned replacement even though with no experience at all in the top flight of the Italian football. 49-year-old Maran made some impression when he reached the Serie B with Cittadella due to the aggressiveness and the quality of the play offered. After some not particularly bright experiences, he obtained some plause while at helm of Varese in the past season. Maran will be given an almost unaltered squad comparing to the past campaign. In fact, apart from Carrizo, who returned to Lazio, and Motta, who ended up in Bologna, only some fringe players left the team during the summer. In goals, Frison from Vicenza, at his first experience in Serie A, seems likely to make the starting eleven. Alvarez, who is back after spending some time with Zaragoza, should make it back as a right-back. Maran usually adopts an hyper-offensive 4-4-2 and this could mean some main change for Catania, who have been playing in a 4-3-3 formation for several seasons. In the attack, Bergessio and Gomez could have an alternative in Morimoto and Antenucci, who are both back from some spells on loan. Thanks to the return of several loanees and to the arrival of a few new youngsters, Maran could have to deal with an excessively wide squad.