Brescia lost the category by a lot last season in Serie A and in this season things were not going better in Serie B. So far. The Lombard team has gone from looking at the low places of the table to stabilizing in the middle of it and being three points from the playoff zone thanks to the results reaped since Pep Clotet's arrival on the bench.
Pep Clotet arrived in Brescia amid a tide of skepticism and doubts, a foreign coach landed, Spanish to be exact, who did not know Italian football despite his already important career abroad. The Brescia lived a difficult situation and the third change of coach of the course was observed with reluctance to deposit the responsibility. Del Neri started the course in office, but was fired after the second game by the always volcanic Cellino He was replaced by Diego López, who had already led the team last season in Serie A. But the Uruguayan coach was fired again in December after a losing streak and Daniele Gastaldello covered the position on an interim basis until he took over from Davide Dionigi. .
But another disastrous streak of losses caused a new change in the incumbent of the bench and in January Pep Clotet landed. The Catalan coach had resigned from his last year of contract with Birmingham at the end of last season and received a call from a Cellino, president of Brescia, who had known him from their time together at Leeds. So much change to bet on a foreign coach did not make any grace between the fans and the critics of The swallows. But Clotet has changed the face of Brescia, giving it its own personality and results.
Cellino's foreign bet was reluctantly viewed. It arrived, and quickly a much more serene team has been seen with the mentality of going for the game and not waiting timidly as with its predecessors. Despite this defensive zeal, Brescia was a team that fit in very easily. The penultimate worst defense of Serie B with 35 goals conceded until the arrival of the Spanish. Since then, there have only been five more to score in eight games. So much so that the four games he has now chained without conceding are considered among the Rigamonti fans as almost a miracle.
And all with a technician with a refined taste for the prominence with the ball and the control of the game from possession. Clotet has put an end to the defensive festival that, among other things, condemned Brescia to Serie B, although it also does not hurt to say that the return of Cistana, a defender who aimed at a great and who has been out due to injury for many months , has also helped him. Installed from the first day in a 4-3-1-2, Clotet has found the balance, with an extremely attentive and intense group that comes out with the ball played and that has ended all previous reluctance. Clotet's Brescia plays, both at home and away, in the same way as coaches like Paulo Fonseca or De Zerbi do, but with its important nuances both in drawing and in conception. Clotet takes risks, but it is appreciated that he always plays to win against anyone. In Brescia they talk about the “Spanish style”, highlighting their commitment to quality players.
“Clotet is demonstrating, in addition to interesting ideas, intelligently handling a reality that he did not know, and not only that, he does it with humility, something that is appreciated in Brescia because he proposes ideas without becoming the transcendental, without wanting to look like a genius. found the right point to fit his ideas into the reality of Italian football, he is innovative and at the same time pragmatic ”, explains to As Erica Bariselli, a journalist who follows the team for the Giornale di Brescia, the reference medium of the city. The Catalan coach also lets his staff do and what was imposed by Cellino, he could not select his team of collaborators. But the tune is complete, especially with his second Daniele Gastaldello, a former Serie A defender who advises him a lot in the defensive phase. Also with the language. Clotet, little by little, is handling in Italian, but began in Brescia developing in English, as in his previous experiences outside of Spain. 17 points from eight games speak for themselves, although there is still a lot to do. Years ago, another Pep, Guardiola, seduced Brescia in the field with the same idea that the other Pep is now putting into play from the bench, although he has only just begun.