Brescia at home and Reggiana on the Via Emilia, two games in three days to consolidate at the top and spend the end of the year in the best possible way. The last iron mini-cycle of the first round can give Catanzaro another boost in the standings and in morale. Above all, the club needs to understand who to rely on in the second round: the many key players in the squad will remain where they are (and God forbid), the starters and first alternatives will not move, however there are some elements that did not perform as expected and now that winter is coming they can take on a different perspective. Because someone played little and when he did he convinced partially or not at all.
In short, January could be the time for a change of scenery unless, in the next one hundred and eighty minutes, they manage to induce Vivarini to guarantee them another opportunity. And this time make full use of it. Four of them, up to this point, have not met expectations.
These are the two experienced additions who arrived in the summer, namely Donnarumma and Krajnc, the only reinforcement from a year ago, namely Brignola, and the under with the most hype, namely D’Andrea. Distinctions need to be made for all four, but the substance unites them: they could and should have given more.
Let’s start with Donnarumma, haunted by bad luck and injuries, stopped in the last two games due to a calf problem. The striker was starting to hit the ground running until he broke his nose, so he would have to be seen on the pitch again with continuity, but up to that point (the match against Modena) he had only collected 390 minutes broken up into eleven matches, of which only four as a starter. It’s true that he scored two heavy goals, but from one with over ninety hits in Serie B… Some ailments also held back Krajnc, who slipped behind Veroli in the defense hierarchy which has now left him room due to injury. The Slovenian is the only one of the quartet who has seen the field with a decent amount of playing time (689′) in nine matches, but without ever fully convincing with continuity: he did reasonably well against Pisa, he wasn’t up to par in Ascoli. Yet he has won Serie B several times, has been in Serie A and has worn the shirts of historic or more ambitious clubs than Catanzaro, he should have guaranteed a leap in quality to the back pack, but so far he has not done so.
Even Brignola, 357′ in ten games of which just three as a starter, had no impact: Marassi’s winning goal will remain in the history of the club, he entered Ascoli willingly, for goodness sake, and you can see that he wants to try to carve out more space for himself, but he too didn’t make a difference.
As for D’Andrea, considering he’s 19 years old he has a lot of excuses: on his debut he surprised with the play that got the penalty decisive against Ternana, then he got lost and in four months he added just 175 minutes to his CV (never as a starter). In Ascoli he was launched in the final quarter after four games on the bench: perhaps against Brescia and Reggiana he will have more space and will be able to convince the coach, otherwise it is not unlikely that Sassuolo, having ownership of him, will not take him back and send him elsewhere.
Yesterday afternoon the team began training in Giovino, where a double portion of work is scheduled today.
