The enthusiasm of the Tuscans supporters for the return of Pisa in Serie B after a long time lasted little, after less than one year they are again relegated to Lega Pro having ended the season in
last position (with the same points as Latina but with a negative balance in the head to head games). It has been a very troubled campaign in which external factors were perhaps more determinative of the results on the pitch...proof of this was that supporters of the Arena Garibaldi applauded players and coach also after the arithmetic relegation. Pisa have been without an owner for many months and all staff and players have been long without receiving any compensation, there have been even problems paying for travel and accomodation in away games. Moreover, in the first weeks the team was led by the Primavera coach as there were problems in renewing contract to Rino Gattuso, only a few months before the architect of promotion from Lega Pro. Despite all this, the season of the nerazzurri had a promising beginning, in the first months they were constantly in the top half of the table showing immediately all the strengths and weaknesses that accompanied the team to the end...a very solid defense (they ended the season with the second best defense having conceded only 36 goals!) and too many problems in finding the way to the goal (they scored only 23 goals, by far the worst attack of the league!). After Christmas the situation deteriorated considerably also due to the many injuries to key players, they remained for long on the edge of the playouts, but then slipped further into the relegation zone and in the end came also the heavy blow of the 4-point deduction...at that point they also lost the will to fight that had marked them throughout the season. As we said the strength of the squad was at the back, they could count on one of the best goalkeepers of the entire league as Kosovan international Samir Ujkani and on experienced defenders such as Andrea Lisuzzo and Alessandro Longhi. There were problems in midfield where they coud count on good defensive midfielders, good the season of Francesco Di Tacchio, but not on playmakers or skilled players. Very disappointing was the attack, Inacio Varela and Edgar Cani were most of the time injured, the others proved not to deserve Serie B. Coach Gattuso has dealt with the many difficulties trying to spur the team and give it his usual competitive spirit, it worked for long but it wasn't enough. He mainly relied on the 4-3-3 system of play, sometimes switching to the 3-5-2.
