Having completed the regular season in the best possible way compared to how things had gone in recent weeks, for Catania it is time to work to turn the page and better approach the national phase of the promotion playoffs, a lottery in which the rossozzurri want to participate without appearing like an appearance team, without art or role.
A year of few “highs” and many “lows”, experienced in the absence of constant references in the team group, between players and staff. This was in fact the season of Tabbiani, Lucarelli and Zeoli, but also that of a whirlwind of players who have followed one anotherincluding summer arrivals, winter arrivals and free agents hired to deal with other absences. Something changed in the management with the farewell of Laneri, the increasingly central role of Lodi and then the Grella-Carra tandem, while Pelligra did his part on the investment level. Clearly there are many other professionals who have worked to the best of their ability.
Returning to the context of the team. Only one common thread that has not experienced alternating phases: the commitment put into play in the Italian Cup of the category. A competition that unites the three brackets on the Etna bench this year.
Luca Tabbiani was the great bet of the Catania management, and it was not a successful bet. Despite having sought the way of the game, exploiting the qualities of the more technical players, it has probably been lacking the management of the group, never really assembled and decimated by injuries with long recovery times, an aspect that must also be linked to rough management of the pre-season training camp.
Called to give an emotional boost to the team and also to build the group that could aim for promotion in the future, Cristiano Lucarelli also managed to do worse than his predecessor. Arriving in triumph after two other parentheses at the slopes of Etna, the coach from Livorno disappointed expectations. After a positive impact, in fact, the team lost verve and confidence, until the dismantling in January which did not change the cards on the table but, on the contrary, worsened the inertia of a championship which saw Catania rack up scandalous numbers away from home and disappointing even within friendly walls.
The desperate cure for Catania’s ills was to choose him as a technical guide a man who knew the boys, the management and the whole city: Michele Zeoli. Experience is not on his side, as far as the role of coach is concerned, but it is up to him to have the most difficult task, to arrive in the best possible way at the definitive breakthrough of the 2023/24 season.
It’s complicated to do an overall analysis, moreover each phase was important for some reason. The results of the journey in Group C are truly disappointing, the playoffs are an opportunity. Would it have been possible to start from scratch by uniting for a single objective?
In the most delicate moments something came out, a sort of reaction of pride, a call to arms that is now needed more than ever and it will have to be a constant because every match is worth an in or out.
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