This is post four of a wider series. A series for FM23.
“Everything I did, the world applauded. Once upon a star.”
In-game date: 26 May 2024
I’ve had every accolade bestowed on me
It’s May 2024, and the end of Scutari’s second season in charge of Sampdoria.
Before we talk about the football, it’s the end of the glittering career of a certain Zlatan Ibrahimovic, 42 and Fabio Quagliarella, 41. Zlatan may have only featured 23 times in his sole season at Sampdoria with 21 of those appearances from the bench (one goal and one assist), but his presence in the dressing room alongside captain Quagliarella is said to have been invaluable in what turned out to be a record points season for the Genoese club.
Footballers are used to the much-loved initiation event of standing on a chair and singing a song when welcomed to a club. The idea of players singing to their team mates on the day they say goodbye though, is a little more unorthodox. The song choice is usually an old favourite like Stand by Me or Ain’t No Sunshine, but the two striking veterans Ibrahimovic and Quagliarella decided to share the stage at Sampdoria’s annual award ceremony and belt out a duet rendition of Matt Monro’s absolutely perfect version of If I Never Sing Another Song in order to bid farewell. While the retiring superstars gave it their best, the vocal performance was ironically far from perfect.
As funny as it was to witness, the lyrics are touching and melancholic. It’s a beautiful song about your star fading. Perfectly apt for a pair of iconic footballers retiring after long and distinguished careers.
I’d urge you to listen to it above. Even let it play while you read on if you feel compelled.
“If I never sing another song
It shouldn’t bother me
I’ve had my share of fame
You know my name.
If I never sing another song
Or take another bow
I would get by
But I’m not sure how.”
I’m not crying, you’re crying.
What happened?
At the end of Enzo Scutari’s first season in charge at Sampdoria, the club clawed back from a horrendous run of 11 matches without a win to finish in a respectable 10th position in Serie A. £7million January arrival Dimitris Nikolaou shored up the defence while Ciccio Caputo fired in the golazzos at the other end.
The 23-24 campaign was a very different story. A story where 1991-esque glory was in sight, but never truly within our grasp.
Scutari’s new and improved Sampdoria topped the charts for High Intensity Sprints and Shots on Target % in all of Serie A. Being hard-working and clinical are two key tenets of what make Enzo’s Samp tick.
The narrow 4-4-2 which saved last season morphed into a more direct counter-attacking 4-3-3 after the January window, which then evolved back to a more possession-based system variant by the end of the season.
Incredibly, with 27 of the 38 games played, Sampdoria sat TOP of Serie A by a single point. By this time, Juventus had sacked both Max Allegri and then Mauricio Pochettino (the current Juve manager is now Ruud van Nistelrooij). Both Simone Inzaghi and subsequently Diego Simeone were dismissed by Inter. Maurizio Sarri left Lazio and Milan got rid of Stefano Pioli to replace him with ex-Barcelona boss Ernesto Valverde, who ultimately led them to the Scudetto.
Scutari’s overperforming Sampdoria were undoubtedly causing ripples in boardrooms up and down Italian football.
Sadly the ageing legs of the Sampdoria squad (weighted squad age of almost 30, impressively the oldest squad in Serie A) and true lack of quality squad depth caught up with I Blucerchiati and we ultimately finished fourth, qualifying for the UEFA Champions League.
Qualifying for Europe is absolutely transformative in our Sampdoria journey, while finishing 11 places above bitter rivals Genoa kept the ultras happy.
Since the last update, experienced former Lazio goalkeeper Thomas Strakosha joined (£2.6m) to battle Emil Audero for the number one jersey, while Verona forward Gianluca Caprari arrived for £1.8m to bring some much-needed pace and trickery to our often static frontline. Right-back Samuele Birindelli joined from Monza for £3m to replace Bartosz Bereszyński who pushed for a move to Real Betis (£1.4m) and imposing Centre Back Omar Colley left for Girona for £1.2m.
I don’t think that just a list of ins and outs makes for the best blogging, but I felt the need to do a bit of housekeeping to keep you up to date before I move on.
Player analysis
Creative Output is an adjusted combination of Dribbles, Sprints, Crosses, Fouls Against, Open Play Key Passes, Progressive Passes and Chances Created.
Defensive Performance is Headers Won, Blocks, Clearances, Interceptions and Pressures combined minus Mistakes leading to a Goal.
Striking Threat is Non-Penalty Expected Goals, Shots on Target, Non-Penalty xG per Shot, Conversion Rate % and Goals per 90 minutes.
These are combinations of the same metrics I used in the last post and leveraged research from my article, ‘What does “good” look like?’
The important thing is not what the numbers are, but what they tell me. Statistics without context are meaningless, as I often say.
The key learns from the analysis which will shape future selection decisions are:
- Chabot and Nikoloau are a solid Centre Back pairing.
- Sabiri is the key to unlock opposition defences.
- Obiang’s quantifiable impact on games has waned considerably since last year.
- Signing Caprari as an agile runner to create chances differently to the options we had before he arrived didn’t really work as intended.
- Our Full-backs are absolutely key to how we operate and Guilbert is king among them.
Here is a ‘by position’ visual comparison of player performances in a gallery:
Lastly, below is a visual with all of the outfield players’ output combined. Obviously with 23 polygons on it, it looks bonkers at first glance. What it does help you to do is easily identify the statistical outliers in the squad for the five key categories of performance.
- Gabbiadini is the biggest striking threat, despite often being deployed out wide.
- Augello is the biggest creator of chances despite playing at Left-back when on paper we have more creative midfielders.
- Chabot is the most solid static defender, especially at nullifying aerial threats.
- Guilbert is such a key part of how we play at Right-back, as a gifted interceptor and offensive threat with the ball at his feet.
End of season (two) review
What’s next?
With Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Fabio Quagliarella retiring at a combined age of 83 plus Antonio Candreva, 37, moving to England for a career swansong with Danny Cowley’s Brentford and 36-year old Tomás Rincón moving to Brazil to Bahia, our squad will of course be significantly younger next season.
Unless Scutari panics and signs Kazuyoshi Miura.
23-year old former Benfica talent Tiago Dantas will return from loan to replace Todd Cantwell who despite a strong season in Italy has chosen to move to Belgium and sign for Genk for a fee rising to £5million.
Diminutive Venezuelan winger Yerson Chacón, 20, joins his compatriots Telasco Segovia and Andrés Romero at Sampdoria for just £425,000. A deal that feels destined to be a good one for the Italians.
There are four other summer 2024 arrivals on the way. The idea is that they will merge well with the tactical predilections of the existing group rather than fundamentally force a shift in system.
Hugo Vetlesen will cost £250,000 up-front, potentially rising to £2.8million and Tiago Dantas was £1.7million before being loaned back to Benfica. Yerson Chacón will be £425,000, as previously mentioned. The other three players are arranged as free transfers. Who is most likely to succeed at Sampdoria?
Save Goals Update
Finishing fourth in Serie A in Scutari’s second season is a huge achievement in my opinion. As is dealing with Genoa’s promotion back to the top division via 2-1 and 4-1 victories and a 32-point gap between the sides.
Getting two decent seasons from Fabio Quagliarella satisfies my desire to keep him playing into his 40s, while hopefully my tactical explanations and statistical analysis have been sufficient so far.
Still no sign of an elite youth prospect, I’m afraid. Our highest-rated youngster is a 15-year old Right-back named Jacopo Martino but it is way too early to thrust him into the limelight and track his development too keenly. We have continued to invest in our youth development infrastructure this year, which always brings hope of a brighter future.
I’ll open the next post in the series with a detailed squad sheet once all the summer business has been concluded.
So Sampdoria in the upcoming 24-25 season. Harder, better, faster, stronger? Perhaps not, but at least they will be younger.
I’m going back to listen to some more Matt Monro.
Thanks for reading.
FM Stag