Should Pescara revert back to Zemanlandia?

They say you should never go back. They may well be words reverberating in the heads of Pescara President Daniele Sebastiani, and former Delfini coach Zdenek Zeman, who, weeks after being sacked by Roma, recently collected the Panchina d’oro Serie B prize for his achievements on the Adriatico bench last season, overseeing the Biancazzurri promotion to Serie A.

The style and manner in which Pescara won promotion was spectacular. With the players Zeman had at his disposal, the team was a magnificent case study of when the Czech’s tactical system works perfectly, with players surging forward en masse on the counter-attack, overwhelming their opponents. In total, they netted an incredible 90 goals. The next highest scoring team, Reggina, scored 63.

Now, half way into their first season in the top flight since 1992-93, and things look dramatically – if unsurprisingly – bleaker. Sitting second bottom of Serie A, four points adrift of safety, and with what is probably the weakest squad in the division, things look increasingly desperate. They are winless in six, having lost five of those games.

With Zeman now jobless, and having achieved so much at Pescara, the rumours linking him with a return to the Adriatico may not be unfounded. President Sebastiani isn’t doing much to quash any rumours, either.  “For those who have done well with us, the door is always open,” he recently told Radio Sportiva, as if offering him the job there and then.

No longer with the three key players which have come to signify Zeman’s Pescara – Marco Verratti, Lorenzo Insigne and Ciro Immobile – the Abruzzo club seem to have weakened, rather than strengthened – at least offensively – from their Serie B campaign.

But, Pescara still have players who can make Zeman’s system function. Vladimir Weiss and Juanfer Quintero are both extremely talented offensive players, who could easily be integrated, either out wide or in central midfield. Gaetano D’Agostino, a new signing at the Adriatico, is a veteran regista, who still has something to offer. He’s not Verratti standard, but isn’t too bad a stand-in.

Goalkeeper Mattia Perin, defender Uros Cosic, attackers Mervan Celik and Ante Vukusic all sit alongside Weiss and Quintero as talented, regular first teamers, all under the age of 24. Notoriously good at working with young players, more evidence for why going back to Zeman might not be a bad move.

Of course, any appointment of the chain-smoking coach comes with a certain amount of risk – perhaps more so than with any other coach. When he has the players at his disposal to make his high-tempo 4-3-3 work, it is superb – and effective, a point which is often overlooked. But, when he doesn’t, things can go quite badly wrong.

Ultimately, the key question Sebastiani must ask himself, is what’s the worst that could happen? That is he hires Zeman, and Pescara lose the rest of their league games comfortably. Given that that’s what they are doing under Cristiano Bergodi at present, he doesn’t have much to lose. They are a club in free-fall, with talent, but badly in need of a shake-up. And who is there better than to provide one?