Football Season Guide

There was a moment last season, at the end of week 5, when Lecce found themselves on the 3rd place and they started dreaming of making history. Then, they won only 1 out of the following 17 games and were put back to their place. In fact, despite providing a pleasant and proactive football, they were just too fragile defensively, they would not keep a clean sheet between week 6 and week 28, while their strikers simply did not score enough, too often misfiring. Not too surprisingly, with just 32 goals in their tally, they did fare only better than Empoli. While they were sliding down the table, at the end of week 28, coach Roberto D’Aversa head-butted a Hellas Verona player and he was immediately sacked for disciplinary reasons. Thus, he was replaced by Luca Gotti, who was expected to immediately tighten the defence. With the latter, things immediately got going and Lecce eventually reached a 14th place finish. With Gotti confirmed at the helm also in the new season, Lecce faced a relatively calm summer. The squad lost only very few protagonists from the past campaign. Starting centre-back Pograncic, who really had a great season, left for Fiorentina for very good money and he should now be replaced by Gaspar, coming from Estrela Amadora. Then, they saw starting right winger Almqvist, who had a campaign partly limited by physical issues, returning to his parent club. 22-year-old Marchwinski, after being very bright at Lech Poznan, or Tete Morente, who has a good season in La Segunda, should replace him, provided they both adapt to Italian football straightaway. Last but not least, back-up striker Piccoli, who scored 6 goals overall, returned to his parent club and he was not properly replaced yet. Considering that Krstovic, their main striker, is far from prolific, he only scored 7 last season, that is an area where they need more depth. Lecce are still on the hunt for a defender and, a midfielder, although newly-arrived Pierret and returning from loan Maleh could find some space