Having established themselves as a regular mid-table team over the last few seasons, Bologna have made a dramatic jump this term and remain in the top four spots going into the home stretch of the season. With an eye-catching playing style and some very exciting individuals in attack, they have been the neutrals’ favourites in Serie A this season.
By Neel Shelat
As the UEFA Champions League expands to a 36-team format, Europe’s top two leagues will get an extra fifth spot to the tournament. Serie A is currently looking likeliest to be among them, so Bologna have a golden opportunity to return to Europe’s premier club competition after a sole appearance back in 1964/65.
The Rossoblù are a storied club with a 114-year history and seven Serie A titles in their cabinet, albeit six of them came before World War II. Their success waned thereafter, and after their latest league title in 1964, they have been a bit of a yo-yo club alternating between Italy’s top two tiers for half a century or so. Their ninth-placed finish last season was just their second in the top half of Serie A in over a decade, but even after that, few could have seen them going as well as they have done this term.
Much of the credit for their success has gone to head coach Thiago Motta, who was hired very early on last term. His previous track record as a coach in Italy at relegation-battlers Spezia and Genoa was far from stellar, so his appointment at Bologna did not make worldwide headlines.
After quietly building towards success in 2022/23 with a solid top half finish, Bologna and Motta’s tactical ideas have exploded in popularity thanks to consistently fantastic performances this term.
Solid Defensive Base
Bologna’s eye-catching possession-play has made all the headlines, but from a statistical perspective, their defensive work has been more impressive. They are among the top three teams in Serie A when it comes to goals conceded and clean sheets, and their underlying numbers are just as impressive.
Motta tends to set his team up in a 4-1-4-1 or 4-2-3-1 high/mid-block, with the intention of staying compact between the lines and often player-marking opponents through midfield. By doing so, they restrict their opponents’ chances of progressing through the middle and keep them as far away from the goal as possible, naturally restricting their scoring chances. At the same time, by not committing to an intense press, Bologna ensure their defensive line is not breached too easily.
Quite often, we see exciting mid-table teams’ chances of competing for a European spot undone by relatively weak defensive records, but thanks to these simple yet solid principles, Bologna do not have that problem.
Eye-Catching Possession-Play
Anyone who has carefully watched even a single Bologna match this season has surely been very impressed by their fluidity and silkiness with the ball. They are very much a possession-based team, keeping an average of over 58% of the ball in their matches.
The thing that stands out the most in Bologna’s possession-play is the movements of the centre-backs, who often step into midfield areas both in the build-up phase or further up the pitch. Meanwhile, the full-backs stay deep, while the more advanced midfielders spread themselves in the pockets between the high and wide front-three. Through these movements and rotations, the Rossoblù ensure that their ball-player always has options and open passing angles to securely find teammates and, if need be, play out of pressure.
This system has proven particularly effective in a league where player-marking is quite popular, meaning the movement of a centre-back into midfield has the potential to totally destabilise an opponent’s defensive set up. So, Bologna are among the most frequent and secure passers in Serie A.
Unlike Napoli, they rarely keep possession for possession’s sake and instead consistently threaten opposing defences. They stand out with their incision and clinicality in the final third, which is largely a product of their player quality in the attacking positions.
Individual Quality in Attack
The most impressive aspect of Motta’s coaching at Bologna has been his ability to strike a balance between establishing a set system that everyone on the pitch collectively executes while also ensuring every player has a good deal of individual freedom. The centre-backs’ rotations into midfield is one example of that, but the biggest role of individual quality in his system comes at the other end of the pitch.
The star of the show is Joshua Zirkzee. The young Dutchman was quite highly-rated when he came through Bayern Munich’s youth academy, but he never really cut it for the senior team. His first taste of success at the senior level came on loan at Anderlecht under Vincent Kompany, whose team benefited by over 20 goals thanks to Zirkzee’s output. After that, he was snapped up by Bologna on a permanent basis in the summer of 2022.
Under Motta this term, Zirkzee has thrived in a role that perfectly suits his unique profile. He has been used as a central attacking hub for the team as he often drops back and receives forward passes using his excellent close control to retain the ball before turning away from defenders and linking up with his teammates on either side of him. The 22-year-old striker also goes on to pose a shooting threat in and around the box, but he is not a pure number nine and rather a more well-rounded striker in the style of Harry Kane.
In fact, Bologna’s biggest shooting threat – be it in terms of shot volume or xG – is not their starting striker but instead Riccardo Orsolini. The Italian attacker always starts wide on the right wing, where he likes to receive the ball in space and drive at full-backs. After forcing them to retreat, his signature move is to cut inside and fire a curling shot away with his favoured left foot, which has dealt a lot of damage so far.
Zirkzee and Orsolini have been well supported by the likes of Scottish international Lewis Ferguson, young Giovanni Fabian and ex-Milan winger Alexis Saelemaekers, so Bologna have enough attacking quality in their squad to mount and sustain a top-four charge.
(Cover image from IMAGO)
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