P8th (W17 D11 L10 GF64 GA56)
Coppa Italia: Round of 16 Team rating: 7/10 Top scorer: Domenico Berardi (16) Europe: N/A
Roberto De Zerbi chased a European spot in his last season in charge of Sassuolo. Kaustubh Pandey believes the Neroverdi have further evolved under the Italian tactician…
Neroverdi show
Sassuolo’s 2020-21 campaign began with Roberto de Zerbi’s men defying all the odds to vie for a Champions League spot early on. It raised eyebrows worldwide, as many gazed at this small club from Emilia-Romagna with keen intrigue. The Neroverdi lit up the league while playing possession football which relied on playing through the opposition press. With it, they scored some sensational goals.
They went eight games unbeaten at the beginning of the campaign and that streak included wins over Napoli and Hellas Verona, raising the expectations of close observers of Calcio. They were a pleasure to watch, but the Neroverdi fell to the mean soon, starting with a defeat to Inter. The rest of the season turned out to be full of inconsistencies and, apart from a surge towards the end of the campaign, De Zerbi’s men couldn’t sustain a push for a European spot.
The failure to finish in the top seven is a disappointment, especially considering that the De Zerbi project is now over as the coach moves to Shakhtar Donetsk, but the season provided a fair share of moments for the club’s fans. The win over Milan, the entertaining 3-3 draw against Napoli and the draw against Atalanta that handed Inter the league title were certainly ones to remember.
While there wasn’t a huge amount of improvement from the 2019-20 campaign in terms of the league position, the Neroverdi collected more points than they had managed in the previous season. They ended up increasing their expected goals tally too, improving their expected goals against metric as well. Allowing the opposition a higher number of chances was a big problem for them in 2019-20, but that is something they were quite able to fix thanks to the impressive performances from veterans Andrea Consigli, Vlad Chiriches and Gian Marco Ferrari.
However, a lot of their defensive improvement has come as a result of better ball retention. While Manuel Locatelli has undoubtedly stepped up a level, it was a season of emergence for young Maxime Lopez too. He has become an undervalued progressive passer who keeps play ticking, and likes to break down opposition lines from deeper areas. Ferrari has also shown a clear improvement in his passing, with summer signings Kaan Ayhan and Marlon also showing their ability on the ball.
While the heroic Francesco Caputo couldn’t play regularly due to injuries, the campaign will also go down in history as the season when young Giacomo Raspadori really shone. The youth graduate’s six league goals – two of them coming against Milan – helped him get a call-up for the provisional Italy squad at Euro 2020. While last season’s successes had a lot to do with Jeremie Boga’s rise, Domenico Berardi’s performances from the right wing have made sure that Sassuolo didn’t miss the ex-Chelsea man when he couldn’t deliver.
It was a promising campaign for Sassuolo, but De Zerbi’s exit will spark a significant transition at the club, potentially under Vincenzo Italiano, who has impressed with Spezia. Locatelli, Boga and some others are expected to depart but the amount of Sassuolo-associated players in the Euros squad is a fair reflection of how this regional club has left a considerable mark in the global game.
The coach – Roberto de Zerbi
Even though De Zerbi is heading to Shakhtar Donetsk, it is fair to say that the Brescian has impacted Italian football as a whole. He’s one of the reasons why Sassuolo and Serie A attracted an even more global audience, as even Pep Guardiola hailed the Italian and his approach to the game. He’d have expected his side to step up in multiple ways this season, but Sassuolo showed enough to threaten the bigger clubs regularly. Unfortunately for Calcio lovers, De Zerbi will continue his career away from Serie A as he agreed to become the new Shakhtar Donetsk coach.
Player of the Season – Domenico Berardi
Every single goal that Domenico Berardi scores become a fair reflection of why Monchi wanted him as a replacement for Mohamed Salah at Roma. Still 26, Berardi made sure that De Zerbi’s side never missed Boga’s impressive ball-carrying and creation, as he scored 16 times to match his tally from the 2013-14 campaign at the Mapei. His ability to cut inside, get the ball onto his stronger foot and come up with piledrivers could well earn him a regular spot in the Italian national team. Sassuolo’s approach of breaking quickly after drawing the opposition suits him quite a lot too.
Defining moment – Beating Milan
Any win for a club at the famous San Siro is meant to be remarkable. This game had a brilliant Hakan Calhanoglu curler and a brace from Raspadori, which allowed the youngster to establish himself as a name in the game. The Italian came up with two goals of a poacher. The first one came as a one-touch finish, while the second saw him take a touch to put the defender out of the equation before placing the shot into the net. Perhaps, it was a reflection of a generational change at the club, with Caputo not getting any younger with every passing day.
Did you know?
Although they didn’t qualify for Europe, Sassuolo established a new record for their highest points total, 62, one more than in the 2015-16 campaign, when they snatched a Europa League spot.
Read the full 2020-21 Serie A season review here.