Football Season Guide

Returning to the top flight of the Italian football after some absence, in the past campaign Empoli represented a bit of a surprise. In fact, their play often turned out to be the most spectacular in the whole league. However, despite dominating several half-times, even against some top teams, the Tuscans ended up collecting less wins than they might have, reaching a comfortable safety but not much else. Due to their lack of experience and some physical inferiority to their opponents. At the end of the campaign, coach Sarri, who had been admired for all the good done while at Empoli’s helm, decided to accept Napoli’s offer and left together with several of the protagonists of the season. In fact, having to rely on a rather tight budget, Empoli have to build their squad mostly obtaining some promising youth from the bigger clubs. And they regularly end up leaving at the end of each campaign. This summer was no exception. Sepe, Bassi, Vecino, Verdi and Rugani, who had all been protagonists of the campaign at a different degree, returned to their parent clubs while Hysaj and Valdifiori joined their former coach in Napoli for cash. Moreover, their record-scorer, Tavano, was released after an impressive career in Tuscany. Giampaolo was hired to replace Sarri in charge of the team and this could be bad news. In fact, his last experiences in Serie A were disastrous to say the least. He should confirm the 4-3-1-2 formation adopted by Sarri, opting for a 3-5-2 system of play as an alternative. For the goals, they hired Skorupski, who rarely had the chance to taste the pitch while with Roma. Bittante should be contending with Laurini at right-back with Rui stepping up at left-back. Costa will be expected to replace Rugani in the heart of the defence, together with Tonelli or Barba. Croce, Ronaldo, Maiello and Zielinski will be rotating in the midfield with Saponara confirmed as the attacking midfielder. In the attack, Maccarone and Pucciarelli will still be the starters, with hardly any alternatives. Empoli seem to be a bit of a work in progress and they might still be lacking some depth in all the departments.