Returning to the Serie A after a twenty-year-long absence, Cesena were considered a certain candidate for relegation. In fact, considering that very little had been invested during the transfer season, the squad was a rather inexperienced one and coach Ficcadenti's CV was not an extraordinary one either. He had actually been sacked after a few rounds in occasion of his previous experience in Serie A, with Reggina. However, in the initial rounds of the season, Cesena succeeded impressing the critics and the opponents for the quality of their offensive play. From mid-September on, they started falling down the table, due to several defeats in a row. Apparently doomed to relegation, all of a sudden they started making it back towards safety from mid-February. They ended up losing only three times out of the last thirteen matches played, thus obtaining a rather unexpected permanence in the top flight also for the next season. The key to such a result can certainly be found in the decision of confirming the coach despite the negative results. For sure, with only 38 goals scored, Cesena's main problem was the offensive fragility: Bogdani, Budan and Malonga were far from top scorers and so the team had to rely mostly on the goals scored by the midfielders. Jimenez, Parolo and Giaccherini made the difference and undoubtedly deserved the praise of the critics. On the other hand, the contribution of players like Appiah and Felipe, whose experience in Serie A was a great one, was not particularly brilliant.
