This is post seven of a wider series. A series for FM23.
“Experience is the teacher of all things.”
In-game date: 23 May 2027
In the year 49 BC, Julius Caesar purportedly crossed the Rubicon. At that time, the river Rubicon marked a key political border between the Roman province of Cisalpine Gaul and the rest of Italy. Such a move was considered an act of war and treason on the state and is historically considered the trigger event which ultimately led to Caesar’s dictatorship of the Roman empire.
Fast forward 2,000+ years and the idiom “crossing the Rubicon” is still widely used to suggest “passing the point of no return.” That critical moment where there’s no turning back and what will be, will be.
For Enzo Scutari’s Sampdoria in 2027, that date was the 9th of February.
At this point in the campaign, Sampdoria had played 21 Serie A games without a single defeat. They had somehow squeezed into the Knockout Round of the UEFA Champions League and been drawn against domestic rivals Juventus in a critical double-header, and just a few days later, I Blucerchiati were taking on Daniele De Rossi’s AS Roma, in the Quarter Final of the Coppa Italia.
Scutari’s side were standing at the top of the hill, fighting on three fronts, and winning.
In the middle of the Juventus and Roma games was the small matter of an away day in a league fixture at the San Siro against Niko Kovač’s Inter Milan, who were chasing their fifth title in seven years.
This was the moment. We were crossing the Rubicon, but would we meet glory or disappointment on the other side? As Caesar said himself, “Experience is the teacher of all things,“ but which would way would it take us?
Invictus
Right to the very top, as it happens. Sampdoria won their first Scudetto in 36 years. Not only were Sampdoria crowned champions, but they completed the incredible feat of going the entire league campaign undefeated. Gli invincibili!
We squeezed past Juventus in the Champions League only to be knocked out by Paris Saint-Germain in the last 16, and our Coppa Italia campaign came to an end at the semi-final stage at the hands of AC Milan, but who cares about that when we have won an invincible Scudetto, bringing the trophy back to Luigi Ferraris for the first time in nearly 40 years?
Player Performances
I’m not going to dive into any detailed analytics with graphics in this post around individual performances or metrics, as I simply want the entire squad to be celebrated for their contribution. Though to immediately contradict myself, it would be wrong of me not to highlight the following simple bullet points:
- Boulaye Dia scored 41 goals in 42 games to continue his utterly insane goalscoring form. That’s 114 goals in 117 appearances in a Sampdoria shirt. What an icon.
- Abdelhamid Sabiri, one of the only players who was already at the club when Scutari took over in 2022, grabbed 18 assists this season, also finishing as the top chance creator in Serie A with 1.47 per 90 minutes.
- Dimitris Nikolaou finished the season as the top winner of possession per 90 minutes in all of Serie A, winning the ball back 20.7 times per 90.
- Nicoló Casale and Khephrem Thuram were our big signings this season. Casale arrived and immediately became the first-choice partner of Nikolaou at centre back. He was absolutely solid in his 51 appearances. Thuram rotated in for the dynamic Hugo Vetleson as our Segundo Volante in central midfield and has settled in well in his almost 1,300 minutes on the pitch so far. Both will be key players next season.
Tactics
There was one key change this season which I believe unlocked the true potential of our preferred system with this group of players. We retained our favoured 4-2-3-1 shape and high-press short-pass system, but observations led to this little tweak.
The eagle-eyed among you may notice that Vetlesen on the left side of central midfield is now a Segundo Volante on Support rather than Attack. The reason he was originally on Attack was to provide an extra box presence in the attacking phase, occupying an opposition defensive midfielder or even one of the centre backs, allowing Alvaro Fidalgo as an Advanced Playmaker to more easily move into gaps which inevitably open up in the opposition backline, especially with the two wide attackers aggressively coming inside for offensive overloads.
The challenge was that there was a push and pull effect of this duty on the Volante. Each time he drove forward into an attacking space, rather than accompanying him in that phase, the AMC would often drop deep to compensate. Now this is logical. Players of sufficient intelligence will always look to exploit space, but with an overwhelming number of attacking options, often the clever playmaker would be drawn towards the half-way line where the space would open up.
Now at first this was exactly what I wanted, but in the circumstances where we turned over the ball and lost possession, the combination of Vetlesen being so high on the pitch and Fidalgo unwilling to chase back towards his own box (understandably, because he is an Advanced Playmaker at 10) we were often in a position of vulnerability where the opposition attack were facing one defensive midfielder instead of the intended two when you choose to field a double-pivot.
A simple change of duty to Support for Vetlesen was the tweak we needed. He still got on the ball and drove forward into promising positions, but not to the degree where Fidalgo had to move out of the way to compensate. This allowed our chief playmaker into more dangerous areas to receive the ball as we entered the final third, yet we had more defensive rigidity in the middle of the park when not in possession.
Now Hugo Vetlesen is a player with a combination of attributes which make him a dangerous attacking threat that this tactical change was unfortunately nerfing, but it was a price worth paying to improve our system holistically.
End of season (five) review
Progress
Winning Sampdoria’s first Scudetto in nearly 40 years was the key end goal of this journey. In fact, other than successfully buying or producing a Roberto Mancini-calibre prospect, I think we are otherwise finished!
There are a few candidates for ticking this box in this save, but I don’t feel ready to do so just yet, so the story continues!
Here are a few outstanding youngsters to highlight who may help us close off that achievement.
Jacopo Martino is our highest quality academy intake product so far. He has 54 Sampdoria appearances under his belt already at just 18 years old. An aggressive right-back might not be the most thrilling prospect, but he’s certainly destined to be a consistent high performer.
Goran Jonovic is our first definitive ‘wonderkid.’ Bought from Vojvodina for just £1.5million at 18, he is arguably our highest quality attacking midfielder, a list including club favourite Yerson Chacón.
Emanuel Silva is one of those players who could define an entire save. Due to work permit restrictions, I had to loan him out to Olympiacos for six months after his £5.5million arrival from River Plate. He looks like he may be an absolute monster, and his existence alone is one of the reasons I am so keen for this Sampdoria journey to continue. Watch this space, as I reckon Boulaye Dia may soon have some fierce competition for that number 9 slot on the pitch.
Next season
Alongside continuing to see the above prospects develop into fully-fledged stars, in a nice bit of narrative we welcome Samuele Birindelli back to the club. After his £3m move to Sampdoria from Monza back in January 2024, he was later sold to Atlético Madrid for a staggering £22.5million. After just five appearances in 18 months, we managed to bring him home for a structured deal rising to £14million. Birindelli is 27, so the ageing Frédéric Guilbert (32) will relish the competition for places again.
In two other sensible transfers, we welcome pacey centre back Giorgio Cittadini from Atalanta (£7.75million) and left-back Riccardo Calafiori, who returns to Italy for a fee of £4.7million after a spell at Basel.
This means that the reigning Serie A champions (that feels strange to type or say) will enter the 2027-2028 campaign, Scutari’s sixth in charge of Sampdoria, with the following first-team squad.
We go again!
Thanks for reading.
FM Stag