What Cremonese is going through is certainly the worst period in the decisive moment of the season.
The performance in Venice, where the Grigiorossi in the first part of the match, despite the final defeat, held their own against the lagoon players, gave half a sign of recovery, but we are still far, at least on a nervous level, from a team that must go to field to give more than what can be expected, to secure a very important fourth place and to find that energy and courage to make a dream come true through the play offs.
Today at the Zini, in the match valid for the 36th matchday, Pisa arrives. Tough and well-organised team, looking for important points to qualify for the play offs. It won’t be a walk in the park, that’s for sure, and for this very reason Stroppa will have to find the solutions (tactical, technical or both) to restore ardor to the team and fire the dust of the grey-red attack. Coda hasn’t scored in six days in which we collected 4 points thanks to a paltry 4 goals. We’re not going anywhere like this. This is why today Cremonese, after 2 consecutive defeats at the Zini, can only aim for victory, and there will be over 11,000 spectators pushing them, of which around 1,800 coming from Pisa.
The day after the defeat in Venezia, the club immediately cleared away the rumors of a possible dismissal of Stroppa. An acceptable choice, at least for the fact of having brought the team to the play-offs, but certainly bound by the upcoming results. Stroppa, as announced in the press conference, could change the starting line-up again, to give some players a chance to catch their breath ahead of Sunday’s match in Parma, but above all look for new solutions, which could be suggested by Johnsen’s return from yet another disqualification. In defense Ravanelli will still be missing, while Saro seems to have reshuffled the hierarchies of the Grigiorossi goalkeepers, earning the coach’s respect.
The advanced lineup is the one about which there are the most doubts: Coda (who all the Grigiorossi fans would like on the pitch) according to Stroppa, has an autonomy of 60′, so Tsadjout could return to the starting line-up, perhaps supported by the dynamism and strength of Johnsen rather than Vazquez, who could rest ahead of Parma. In midfield Collocolo is now immovable while Castagnetti, not very brilliant in Venice, could give way to Majer.
The team coached by Aquilani occupies 9th place in the standings with 45 points, one point away from the play offs. In the last 5 matches they have collected 2 wins, 2 draws and one defeat. The team’s away form shows 5 wins, 5 draws and 7 defeats, with 19 goals scored and 23 conceded.
The first leg at the Arena Garibaldì ended 0-0, the Grigiorossi suffered a lot from the Nerazzurri’s game, which makes ball possession one of the most effective weapons (only Catanzaro and Cremonese record a better percentage) and boasts the seventh best attack in the league with 47 goals. Of these 10 were scored by Valoti, certainly the player who has the greatest impact on the team’s attacking maneuver, 4 are by Bonfanti and the rest divided between 11 players (3 or 2 goals), a true goal cooperative , which gives a sense of how the team’s game develops.
Aquilani deploys a 4-2-3-1, this gives solidity to the defense, in front of the excellent goalkeeper Nicolas, the former Grigiorosso Caracciolo and Canestrelli, while Barbieri and Beruatto are full-backs with great technical and running qualities. In the control room Marin and Esteves, while in the attacking midfield, in addition to Valoti’s imagination and dynamism, Arena, D’Alessandro and Tramoni alternate alongside him. In attack, Moreo and Bonfanti are strikers who are very good at putting themselves at the service of the team and creating space for the midfielders to come on.
Aquilani is a young coach, but above all a former top player and knows the pitfalls that can hide in a match like this: “Cremonese is a strong team, they have an important squad, they play well and I am convinced that they will be fighting for promotion to Serie A until the end; so it will certainly be a difficult match and I’m not interested in the discussions regarding the results they have achieved recently.”
CREMONESE (3-5-2): Saro; Antov, Bianchetti, Lochoshvili; Zanimacchia, Collocolo, Castagnetti, Pickel, Sernicola; Johnsen, Tsadjout. All: Stroppa.
PISA (4-2-3-1): Nicolas; Barbieri, Canestrelli, Caracciolo, Beruatto; Esteves, Marin; Arena, Valoti, D’Alessandro; Bonfanti. All: Aquilani.
PROGRAM 36TH DAY SERIES B:
Wednesday 1 May 2024:
12.30 pm: CREMONESE-PISA
3.00 pm: ASCOLI-COSENZA CATANZARO-VENICE COMO-CITTADELLA SPEZIA-PALERMO SUDTIROL-TERNANA BARI-PARMA
6.00 pm: FERALPISALÒ-BRESCIA LECCO-SAMPDORIA REGGIANA-MODENA
THE SERIES B RANKING:
Parma 73; Como 68; Venice 67; CREMONESE 60; Catanzaro 57; Palermo 52; Brescia 47; Sampdoria 46 (-2); Pisa, Cittadella 45; Sudtirol, Modena, Reggiana 43; Cosenza 42; Ternana, Spezia, Ascoli 37; Bari 36; Feralpisalò 32; Lecco 26
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