Expectations were far from high for newly promoted Siena this season. In fact, the Serie B runners-up were widely expected to head straight back down. Giuseppe Sannino was given the monumental task of replacing Antonio Conte who'd brought promotion last year. Conte was snapped up by Juventus while Sannino had never previously coached in Italy's top flight. However, he seemed to take to it like a duck to water as Siena made a decent start. Sannino usually opted for a classical 4-4-2 formation with emphasis on defensive solidarity. His team responded by keeping four clean sheets in their first seven matches to move into the top half of the table. In attack, Emanuele Calaiò was still their main man but the summer brought the loan signing of Italy under-21 international Mattia Destro who proved to be an excellent piece of business and did a great job supporting Calaiò in the early weeks. However, the goals started to dry up at the end of November, leading to a dismal December where they didn't score at all. They went five games without a goal and the winter break seemingly saved them from free-falling as legs grew tired.
They came storming back in January with a 4-0 thumping of Lazio with both Calaiò and Destro back on the scoresheet. Siena were far from spectacular every week but, then, they weren't expected to be. Sannino had been given the task of keeping them safe and they were picking up the necessary points to achieve that. Whenever it looked like Siena were headed for a relegation tussle, Sannino would be able to draw a performance out of his troops. This was no more so evident than when they were hammered 4-1 by Lecce in a relegation six-pointer in February - a result which would demoralise many teams but Siena were able to rally and produce three straight wins in the following weeks. Even the loss of top scorer Calaiò in March failed to dent the spirit of the Tuscans. Destro admirably stepped up to the plate to fire them to safety. His exploits have earned him a call up to the preliminary squad for Euro 2012 and plenty of suitors. The only man Siena will be more aggrieved to lose is Sannino who looks almost certain to take over at Palermo. Siena may struggle without his guidance next season.
