There were scenes of pure jubilation on the Rosanero bench on Sunday evening when Mauricio Pinilla hit a wonderful fourth goal in Palermo’s 4-3 victory over Inter. The delight on Devis Mangia’s face was plain to see as he got his career in charge of the Aquile off to a flying start, despite doubts about the quality of players at his disposal.
Mangia, as expected, set his side up in a 4-4-2 formation, which surprisingly worked very well against Inter’s 3-4-3. Abel Hernandez and Fabrizio Miccoli started up front, with Josip Ilicic on the left of midfield, with new boys Francesco Della Rocca and Edgar Barreto in the middle, and Edgar Alvarez on the right.
There were concerns about the transfer dealings done by Maurizio Zamparini, with the 70-year-old president seemingly weakening the squad rather than strengthening it. In fact, every one of Palermo’s best players left, with the exception of Federico Balzaretti, who could have been off to Paris Saint-Germain with Javier Pastore and Salvatore Sirigu, who only stayed due to his girlfriend expecting their first child.
There were also worries about the 4-4-2 system, with it being a one radically different to the one used last season and its supposed incompatibility with the modern game, due to it being easy for teams to swamp the two central midfielders when playing more in the middle.
Despite the concerns, things worked well, in no small part to Edgar Barreto who was signed from Atalanta in the summer, impressing with his creativity, and on a number of occasions playing accurate balls over the top of the slow Inter defence to Fabrizio Miccoli, one of which resulted in a goal. As well as going forward he was impressive defensively, intercepting a number of Inter passes.
New coach Mangia has spoken of the importance of captain Miccoli playing the whole 90 minutes, due to the effect he has on the rest of the team. The passion shown by him on the field is obvious, but he also put in a brilliant performance against Inter, drifting to the left flank to stretch the Nerazzuri‘s three man defence when required, but also scoring two goals.
The right winger Edgar Alvarez caused Inter problems throughout the game, and was the most fouled player on the pitch by some distance, being fouled seven times overall – over twice more than any other player. He boundlessly made his way around the pitch and looked dangerous with his crossing ability.
Interestingly, Alvarez switched positions with Josip Ilicic for the second half, seemingly giving the Slovenian a more central role. I’ve written previously about how crucial Ilicic could be in replacing playmaker Javier Pastore, and he showed glimpses of this in the second half, threading through a wonderful ball through to Miccoli who squared it across for Abel Hernandez to score Palermo’s second.
Hernandez has often showed great potential but due to injury has never managed to have a consistent goalscoring season. Can this be the breakthrough year for the 21-year-old Uruguayan? Palermo will certainly be hoping so with their limited strike options.
Palermo’s Achilles’ heel recently has been the leaky defence, but Maurizio Zamparini would have been delighted watching on (if it was ever possible for Zampa to be anywhere near delighted with a performance), with former Catania man Matias Silvestre proving to be every bit the defensive rock that he was expected to be. His centre-back partner Giulio Migliaccio may be more familiar in midfield, but he didn’t look too out of place and debutante Eros Pisano looked solid at right-back.
One thing is clear, Mangia is an excellent motivator. It was evident that Stefano Pioli wasn’t, and failed to get the players on his side. Mangia certainly hasn’t had those issues, and things are looking surprisingly bright for a side which some were suggesting was only good enough for Serie B football.
Despite the good performance, Mangia isn’t counting his chickens. “Has President Maurizio Zamparini called me yet? I haven’t turned my phone on… The important thing is I think I’m going to have another game in charge.” I think so too, although you can never be sure as long as Zampa’s around!
Follow Jack Sargeant on Twitter: @sargeant_j and be sure to check out Jack’s sports blog as well.
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