Lugano were the biggest and most pleasant surprise of the 2016/17 season but entered the new campaign with plenty of fears surrounding them after losing key men Ezgjan Alioski and Armando Sadiku as well as manager Paolo Tramezzani.
Pierluigi Tami was the man who replaced Tramezzani and the former Grasshopper manager struggled initially, as he got Lugano, who no longer had the attacking potential that they had last time around, to play a more pragmatic brand of football. Initially struggling near the bottom of the table, the Ticiners were also not helped by the fact that they had a small squad and Europa League group stage games to think about every other midweek.
However, Tami eventually managed to get the side to perform and Lugano ended the first half of the season in lower midtable, while also doing reasonably well in Europe, having been in with a chance of making the knock-out stage until the very last group stage game.
They started the spring season reasonably enough but had a steep decline in March and April and looked to be in genuine danger of going down, with their board deciding to part ways with Tami and make the risky move of replacing him with 29-year-old Spanish manager Guillermo Abascal, who became available after losing his job at Chiasso.
Abascal got the Ticiners to play a more attacking-minded brand of football and their results did improve enough for them to stay up. The jury is obviously still out on him and he will now have the summer available to make the squad his own and really show the Swiss public what he is capable of.
