Lecce's first season back in the top flight ultimately ended with a return to Serie B but it was fun while it lasted.
Fabio Liverani brought the club up playing an attacking brand of football and he didn't compromise his principles for Serie A. Some would call it naive and others admirable. When they were hammered 4-0 by Inter on the opening day, it looked like the former.
Lecce started to pick up points and some decent results towards the end of the year. Just 1 defeat in 9 games where they won at Fiorentina whilst also picking up draws from Juventus and Milan. There weren't enough wins though, until a great run of three in a row in February. The highlight was a 3-2 win at Napoli and Liverani's men had a habit of ruffling the feathers of the bigger clubs
The Coronavirus pandemic appeared to come at a good time for the Salentini having suffered a 4-0 defeat to Roma followed by a 7-2 hammering by Atalanta but, when football returned, they continued to leak goals. 8 in the first two games back against Juve and Milan. Ultimately they conceded 85 goals, the worst defensive record in Serie A.
A loss against relegation rivals Genoa with just 4 games to go appeared to be the final straw but the Grifone began to falter and Lecce picked up 2 wins from 3 games to give themselves a glimmer of hope heading into the final day of the season. Rather fittingly they went out in a typical Lecce style, losing a kamikaze game 4-3 to Parma.
Despite drawing plaudits for his style of play and appearing to pledge his future to the club, Liverani has been let go. The hierarchy appear to be opting for Eugenio Corini, a more pragmatic coach.
Unsurprisingly given their defensive record, most of Lecce's best performers were attackers. The team scored an impressive 52 goals in the league. Marco Mancosu bagged 14 of them with 8 penalties. At one point he had a 100% record from the spot but missed a couple of crucial ones in a row. That doesn't take away from the captain's overall contribution. Injuries restricted new signing Gianluca Lapadula to just 25 league appearances but he showed his predatory instincts in the box to still tally up 11 goals. Things might have been different if he'd been fit the entire season. Riccardo Saponara and Antonin Barak arrived on loan in January, providing real quality to the midfield. Again one might wonder where Lecce would be if they'd been on board the entire season. They are surely too good to play in Serie B.
Difficult and uncertain times lie ahead for Lecce who will hope there isn't another 7 year gap until they reach the top table again.
