Serie A: Cremonese vs Sassuolo! A miraculous coach excels against strong teams but struggles against weaker ones?

Today, our first discussion is aboutSerie A: Cremonese vs Sassuolo!

To begin with, I truly respect Cremonese’s coach Nicola. In my personal opinion, he is the strongest coach in football history when it comes to avoiding relegation, and I hold his coaching career in high regard.

But I honestly thinkthat appointing him as head coach immediately after Cremonese’s promotion reflects a lack of ambition.

Although in the first leg they surprisingly defeated a giant like AC Milan, I still find it hard to fully trust them today.

Because there is a question here—Why is it that Nicola’s ability to keep teams from relegation is so extraordinary, yet he rarely stays long at a club, often stepping down after achieving survival?

Let’s first look at how he manages to avoid relegation.

Nicola is most famously known for his five times finishing 17th in Serie A, where 18th place means relegation, yet he always manages to survive by the skin of his teeth.

On a psychological level, he is extremely skilled at motivating his team, using various stories, vows, promises, and goals to pump up the players.

But what is the downside?

The downside is that this kind of motivation cannot be sustained for a long time.

So we often see his teams suddenly explode in form for a period, winning 5 or 6 matches in a row, but then collapse abruptly, like when they lost 8-2 to Atalanta.

This is one reason why he struggles to coach the same team long-term; the motivation is always short-lived.

And tactically? What were his tactics during those five 17th place finishes in Serie A?

They ranged from 4-4-2, 3-4-2-1, 3-5-2, to 5-3-2 formations. Although slightly different, the core idea was always the same—defensive counterattack, with a focus on defense first and counterattack second.

This style works well for survival because it can be quickly formed and solidified.

But experienced fans know well this clearly goes against modern football trends; strong teams rarely play like this anymore, and even many survival teams avoid such tactics.

Moreover, it is especially unsuitable against the “Green Barcelona.”

Who is the current coach of Green Barcelona?

It is the famously spirited and great left-back Grosso himself.

Grosso certainly understands Italian-style defense—how could he not? He is an expert.

After taking charge of Sassuolo,he retained some high pressing and triangle passing elements left by De Zerbi but overall created a more balanced system between offense and defense, without blindly chasing possession statistics.

Last season in Serie B, Sassuolo’s possession rate was 52.4%, not very high, yet while maintaining strong attacking power, they also kept the second most clean sheets in the league, showing a very well-integrated team.

Of course, his tactics also have many weaknesses.

For example, during high pressing phases, their 1v1 man-marking can be fragile against strong teams because of low budget and weak individual player skills, making them easy to be outplayed.

But this very Cremonese,with no individual skill advantage or complex attacking plans, in their last game against Milan, relied mostly on counterattacks and various crosses and headers.

Although beating Milan is an impressive result,they only managed four shots in the entire match, scoring one header by luck and one stunning bicycle kick, so luck played a big role.

With this style, if they don’t get lucky, ending a match without any goal is quite normal.

So, as you can see, despite the big gap in first-leg results, Sassuolo still earned considerable respect, which aligns with the basic facts.

Now, can Sassuolo satisfy their fans? What do you all think? I’m hoping they fight for at least a draw or a win!

Alright, for other matches today, I will share my written opinions with you all tonight. If anything is unclear, feel free to ask me. Let’s watch and understand football together! Don’t miss it!

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