Leading Bologna where they belong

A bittersweet finale, this is the best way to describe how my first season with Bologna ended.

But let's go in order, we have one game left, a problematic away game, 7th placed Lazio are our opponents, meanwhile 3rd placed Napoli (only one point behind us) play at S.Paolo versus Fiorentina, 5th in Serie A.

If we finish 3rd we'll play the Champions League playoff, finishing 4th would mean Europa League...

Honestly I wasn't so confident in our chances cause this second half of the season our form wasn't brilliant and if we're still so high in the table was mainly due to our rivals doing worse.

Lazio destroyed us 3-1 while Napoli obtained a narrow 1-0 win, enough for them to finish 3rd.

Obviously complaining about a 4th place with a team predicted to finish 15th would be crazy, so I'm still glad about this outcome, we're back in Europe and the UCL would have been a bridge too far.

Europa League qualification is a step in the right direction but there's a lot to do here, our 4th place doesn't mean so much, too many big clubs had a nightmare season and it won't happen twice...and Juventus won the league with 99 points!

As I said, our form progressively declined in the second half of the season, Mattia Destro and Donsah injuries played a role in that, anyway we should improve how we cope with away games, we badly lost to Napoli (0-5) and came back with only one win on the road in the last 19 games, an unimpressive record and something to think about.

On a positive note I've been voted as Serie A Manager of the season, my W-W tactic deserved some praise.

Mattia Destro is without doubt my best player and when the season started I had great hopes about him, unfortunately injuries created many troubles, he's been clinical in the first half of the season, 10 goals scored, but then he never fully recovered from his injury, a torn hamstring in February, so I can't be satisfied with his scoring record at the end of the season, he's still our best scorer but 12 goals are not enough.

The highlights of the season have been my youngsters: Godfrey Donsah, Malang Sarr (he's unhappy though and want to leave for an EPL club), Adam Masina, Jordan Larsson, Erik Pulgar, Emil Krafth and Yehvann Diouf above all.

They're the the spine of the team and I really hope they could stay here for many years.

If I had to cite only one name this season, I'd say Jordan Larsson, this guy is quality, the Swedish teenager immediately found his feet in the new league and looks to have still plenty of room to develop.

Too see the 2016-17 overall players stats, click here.

The W-W formation served us well, but now I'm tempted to explore and try something else, maybe a tactic without proper wingers, the first idea that springs to mind is a 3-4-1-2 with wingbacks.

Do you want to try the old one?

Feel free to download the tactic and use it as a solid base for your team and don't be afraid to make some experiments with it. No refund and no return policies.

A tip for you, the defensive line is a powerful tool in this tactic, tweak it to control space and strangle your opponent.

To do that I'd have to sell all my wingers, mainly Krejci (5 goals + 7 assists), Mounier (6 + 6) and Di Francesco (2 +1), because Simone Verdi is a natural Amc and could play in the hole behind the strikers in the new tactic, I'm aware that leaving a working tactical shape could seem a bit odd, but I really want to change how we play the game.

Stay in touch and spread the word about the blog, I'm back to the drawing board!