Since taking over the reigns of Genoa on January 21, coach Davide Ballardini has picked up right where he left off in 2011 when he was wrongfully and ridiculously replaced as the team’s manager.
In the Italian tactician’s first stint with the club in 2010-11, Ballardini took over for Gian Piero Gasperini after the recently sacked Palermo boss could only pick-up 11 points from his first 10 games.
On a side note, Gasperini holds the title for the longest tenure as Genoa coach under owner/president Enrico Preziosi at four years, three months and roughly 10 days. That’s nealy unbelievable that Genoa could have a manager for that long.
Meanwhile, Ballardini went on to collect 40 points in Genoa’s remainder of games in ’10-’11, and helped the team secure tenth place. That tenth place was not good enough to keep him in the job as Preziosi sacked him, and as written previously, set the wheels in motion for the last 18 months of chaos and decline.
After making amends for his previous mistakes – admittedly or not – Preziosi has been justified in returning Ballardini to the helm of the Grifone. And Il Mister showed the draw he masterminded at Juventus a week ago was no fluke. Much like against Juventus, Genoa came out with an energy that the team had lacked for much of the last 18 months. The team’s new 3-5-2 formation continues to show-off the strengths of the players at hand, and at the same time, it covers up the weaknesses that Genoa possess.
Rigoni was one of nine January signings.
Against Lazio the back three contained two January signings in Thomas Manfredini and Daniele Portanova. Manfredini has been suspect in his previous outings for the club, and again was at fault for Lazio’s opening goal scored by Serigo Floccari. However, that was his only mistake of the game and placed next to Portanova and Andreas Granqvist, the Italian defender was better than in previous weeks.
For much of the first half the back three were rarely at risk as the five man midfield featuring Juraj Kucka, Matuzalem, Mattia Cassini (went off prior to halftime with an injury), Emiliano Moretti and Marco Rossi were outstanding and helped clog the midfield.
This kept Lazio’s attack from troubling goalkeeper Sebastien Frey. Though Lazio did make the correct adjustments and completely changed the game in the second half as Genoa’s energy faded and became fatigued.
Genoa took their foot off the gas pedal after halftime and due to Lazio’s resurgence, Marco Borriello and Andrea Bertolacci’s brilliant early goals will be nearly forgotten. Both goals were outstanding and proved Ballardini correct in pairing the two together, rather than the usually preferred Borriello and Immobile combination.
Despite these fantastic goals it will be Marco Rigoni’s goal in the fourth minute of second half stoppage time that will be remembered. Ballardini, like Vladimir Petkovic, made the correct adjustments in his own right, brining new-boy Marco Rigoni on for Rossi with 20 minutes to play.
The substitute got the winning goal at the death and made the club’s coach and hierarchy look like geniuses. That goal moved the club out of the relegation zone for the first time since before Christmas, and has put Genoa on an upward trajectory that is coming at the right time of the year.
Ballardini’s ideas have re-vamped Genoa’s Serie A survival hopes.
In Genoa’s miraculous win on Sunday, six of the team’s nine January signings made an appearance in the game. Those six players have completely changed the side for the better and credit must go to the Genoa front office for putting deals in place to get these players. Unfortunately, four of those players plus Borriello are all on loan.
Right now la salvezza is the most important thing and nothing else matters until that happens. But hopefully Genoa can make these moves permanent to prevent the club from going through another mass-shuffle in the summer.
The moves that were made in January now shows the deficiencies the team had at the beginning of the season under former manager Luigi De Canio. Though his playing philosophy was much different than the two managers that have followed him.
The questions of ‘what if’ will most likely be on most of the lips of Genoa fans. What if Ballardini hadn’t been sack in 2011? What if these players had been acquired last summer? What if Luigi Delneri had never gotten his hands on Genoa Cricket and Football Club?
Regardless, Genoa is out of the relegation zone and with a struggling Parma side, winless in there last four, up next, Genoa could continue to improve under Ballardini. Upon taking the job, most believed he would be replaced before the end of February. Now, there are plenty of fans hoping he is around for some time to come.
Follow Drew Farmer on Twitter @CalcioFarmer, Drew is the Forzaitalianfootball.com Genoa correspondent and also hosts the Forzaitalianfootball.com weekly Club Focus podcast.
