After two seasons in Serie B, Cremonese secured their promotion to Serie A following a long and gruelling 2024/2025 campaign, which saw them defeat Spezia in the play-off final.
It is essential to emphasise that Spezia were ahead of Cremonese in the standings by five points.
Still, despite this, Cremonese managed to defeat their direct opponent in a two-legged competitive battle, ultimately winning 2-3 in the away leg.
This result means that I Grigiorossi are back in Serie A after two years of absence.
With the signing of experienced Serie A head coach Davide Nicola, the club and its fans hope to guarantee their stay in Serie A for the following season and avoid relegation.
But to succeed in achieving that, Cremonese’s mission will not be easy, as the competition is high between the teams that usually play to avoid relegation.
This tactical analysis article aims to identify Cremonese’s transfer market needs that suit Davide Nicola’s philosophy.
The analysis will also examine Nicola’s playing style at Cremonese, assessing whether he can help the team avoid relegation.
Davide Nicola Style Of Play
Nicola is a former defender who has been coaching teams since 2010, starting from Lumezzane.
In 2016, he attracted the interest of Serie A newcomers Crotone and became their head coach.
He ensured that they remained in Serie A that season and avoided relegation by finishing in the 17th spot.
Following that season, he joined both Udinese and Genoa, but without notable success, before moving to Torino and helping them escape relegation after Marco Giampaolos sacking in January 2021.
Nicola was then appointed head coach of Salernitana in February 2022 in an attempt to help the team avoid relegation.
He succeeded in doing so by winning 18 points in 15 matches.
This experience has helped Nicola gain a remarkable reputation as a head coach who excels at assisting teams to escape the relegation zone and preventing those just starting in Serie A from facing relegation again.
That’s one reason Cremonese opted for Nicola’s profile instead of another Serie A head coach.
The idea is to have someone who is accustomed to these kinds of situations and who would not start experimenting without considering the risk of relegation.
Nicola also led both Empoli and Cagliari to safety after battling to avoid relegation, which further confirms the Italian head coachs experience in such missions.
It is also safe to say that he is actually considered the man of miracles in Italy, thanks to his numerous successful missions to avoid relegation with the various teams he coached.
Cremonese also decided to sack Giovanni Stroppa following their promotion to Serie A, mainly because Stroppa had previously shown himself to be more suitable for Serie B football and less successful in Serie A.
Nicola is a head coach who prefers playing with a very low defensive block, using physically powerful and aggressive defenders, especially inside the box, while ensuring that the defensive lines are very close to each other.
He also prefers dynamic midfielders with defensive abilities to help extensively in the defensive phase, while not overlooking technical midfielders.
In fact, Nicola prefers midfielders with both defensive and technical skills, but values those who are dynamic and capable of helping in covering, marking, and defending, especially when out of possession, against those who are more static and less dynamic.
This makes his teams more complicated to attack.
This idea helps Nicola’s teams reduce the spaces inside his teams own half, with the defensive lines constantly moving and closing the spaces for passes or penetration attempts.
Davide Nicola Defensive Tactics
The following example illustrates Nicola’s use of a compact defensive line comprising five players, with a second line of four players positioned just behind the defensive line.
This means that he transforms his 3-5-2 formation into a 5-4-1 formation in the defensive phase.
Attacking-wise, Nicola believes in the importance of exploiting both wings and works a lot with the wingers to play wide as often as possible.
That’s why wing-backs often excel under his management, and the danger is usually created from those sides.
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