The Italian Job

Only three teams from south of Rome have won the Scudetto. Two of those wins were from Naples. In 2012, a new ownership group took over Taranto with hopes of being the next team on that list however have seen failure after failure to get above Serie C. After issues with the coaching staff, the owners decided to shake things up and bring in an outsider. Previously at the University of New Hampshire, Joe Piabi, an American college coach, is here to turn things around for “i delfini”. While only 31 years old, Piabi has already seen success in the US on the collegiate level. Can he now compete in Europe? Can he meet Taranto's ambitions? We shall see in…The Italian Job.

Season 1 Pre-Season:

The bus was the team's second home as we played every pre-season match on the road around Apulia. Only one slip up in the first game against Bitonto meant ending in a draw 1-1 but we picked things up after finding our preferred formation. Rocking a 5-2-3, we scored 12 goals over four pre-season matches and only allowed two into the back of the net. 

Key Player to Watch:

34-year-old Mario Pacilli might play a bigger role than expected this season after scoring 4 goals, getting 2 assists, and a hat-trick in two pre-season matches.

Good start, will be following.

September 2021:

A poor start to the season for Il Delfini after only taking 6 points from 6 league games. 27 supporters showed up to the Serie C Cup game to start the stadium, making it difficult for the players to get excited in a basically empty 27,000-seat stadium. This likely helped cause their early exit from the cup. Prior to an away match at Palermo, someone slipped the book Zonal Marking under Piabi's hotel door and he stayed up all night reading it from front to back. The next day, at the tactical meeting he introduced a not yet seen 4-2-3-1 to the team, hoping this would help against the biggest team in the league yet saw them lose 4-0. Training the next day immediately saw a switch back to Taranto's standard 5-2-3.

League Position:

13th

Upcoming Key Match(s):

Away at Monopoli

Key Player:

Davide di Gennaro (Midfielder) with match rating avg. of 7.22

October 2021:

Well…an even more poor run of form lead to a 4-0 defeat on the road against Monopoli. The board met that night and decided Piabi's time was up. The American experiment clearly had failed.

Joe Piabi is now unemployed and likely to go back to the US for another try at coaching.

Editor's Note:

Not the start I expected to journaling my FM saves but we will be back again with something hopefully a bit more successful.