U.S. Lecce is now in third place in the Serie B following their 0-2 Matchday 7 win against (former) league leaders Hellas Verona; a very impressive away win for Fabio Liverani’s side. This win sees Lecce go a point behind Hellas Verona and only 3 points behind new league leaders Pescara. A huge part of this rise up the table is Lazio-loanee Simone Palombi.
The young Italian striker has had a excellent start on loan at Lecce. He has 4 goals in only 5 Serie B appearances and another one in the Coppa Italia giving him a great ratio of a goal every 97.4 minutes. This great run of form has made him a regular starter for Lecce, which wasn’t the case at the start of the season. Palombi has now played the full 90 minutes in 3 of his last 4 games and played 78 minutes in the other game. Liverani trusts him and he’s returning the trust with solid performances.
After scoring a brace in both Matchday 4 and 5 Palombi has gone scoreless in his last two. There’s no need to panic for Lazio and Lecce fans, however, as Palombi is contributing in more ways than just goals. In the 3 games that he played less than half a game (0′, 0′, 19′) Lecce have a record of 0-2-1 (W-D-L). But in the 4 games where he has played in more than half a game (90′, 78′, 90′, 90′) they have a much better record of 3-1-0. This shows that he brings a surge to the squad when he’s playing, and even when he doesn’t score he still has a good game.
Manager Fabio Liverani went with a 4-3-1-2 formation against Hellas Verona and played Palombi in his natural striker position alongside Andrea La Mantia with Marco Mancosu in the trequartista role. After a relatively uneventful first 45 minutes, first half stoppage time produced a breakthrough as striking-partner La Mantia put the Giallorossi in front. In the 68′ minute Mancosu, the provider of the first goal, gave Lecce an insurance goal. Palombi did eventually get on the scoresheet, but in the discipline column as he received his 3rd yellow card of the season and one of Lecce’s 4 yellow cards on the night.
Hopefully there’s more to come after an exciting start to the season for both Simone Palombi and U.S. Lecce.
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