Forlì, hunt for lost solidity For now, the numbers fail the defense

by Simone Casadei

The match that was supposed to be the ‘redemption’ for Basketball 2.015, in Verona, turned out to be a brusque misstep that further exacerbated the red and white difficulties. A handicap start, despite the two initial victories over Chieti and Fabriano, which clearly highlights the work in progress in via Punta di Ferro. Overall, in the seven official outings between the Super Cup and the regular season, Forlì has only won the two aforementioned successes, at the beginning of the championship, against five knockouts. Nothing irreparable, but clear evidence of the state of the art at Unieuro.

The management of Dell’Agnello has historically been characterized by its defensive solidity, by the biting and aggressive character of the red and white group, by the collective watertightness. This is what Forlì has built most of its fortunes on in the last two seasons, at least until the closing stages of last year. Precisely what in this initial part is often lacking in Giachetti and his companions.

The Unieuro in fact travels at 76.3 points conceded per game. It is certainly not a blunder, but it is still a much higher figure than that of the first of the class (71 points suffered on average for Scafati, just 68.5 for Ravenna) as well as compared to that of Verona itself (69) which counts same roadmap of the red and white (ie two successes and two knockouts). In these first four outings, Forlì has never suffered less than 70 points, ‘turning’ twice around 80 (Fabriano scored 81, Tezenis 79 last Sunday). To have a yardstick, in the first four games of the last championship – coinciding with the start of the red and white positive row -, the Forlì people suffered just 67.3 points per game, with a bump over 70 (74 to be exact) granted. only to Chieti.

Even within a single match, Forlì often took some time to register the defensive maneuver. All this was evident at the Agsm Forum in Verona, where the Scala players – strong with high shooting percentages – closed with the beauty of 50 points sent to target at the stroke of the long interval. Previously, however, also Chieti (41) and Fabriano (40) immediately made the proverbial seven shirts sweat the red and white team.

In addition, there were also problems with rebounds in the last match, in which Unieuro allowed itself to be overwhelmed by the physicality of the Venetian yellow-blues, even ending up knocked 49-31 (with only 4 offensive carom players captured) in the fight in the painted. A logical consequence of the progress of the challenge, certainly not a structural problem. But it is by settling these problems, thus returning to exploit the real strengths of Dell’Agnello’s team in the recent past, that will be able to ‘trigger’ the recovery in Forlì sauce. Perhaps starting from Sunday’s match, at the Unieuro Arena, with Tramec Cento, in order not to lose too much ground.