Collecchio, 15 November 2024 - Play before anything, but with particular attention to the solidity of the defensive phase. This is the concept that summarises the work of Fabio Pecchia and his technical staff in the last three years. A daily commitment that has shown results, as the numbers confirm, positioning Parma Calcio in 12th place when it comes to goals conceded with 18 goals conceded. All thanks to the defensive department of the gialloblu, which boasts 268 defensive clearances and 551 recoveries.

Diving specifically into the data allows for us to see things clearly: Woyo Coulibaly has 48 recoveries, while Botond Balogh has made 58 defensive clearances. Both are at the top of their respective categories. Obviously we can't forget the rest of the defenders: Yordan Osorio, Lautaro Valenti, Emanuele Valeri, Gianluca Di Chiara, Enrico Delprato, before getting to the young-star Giovanni Leoni who made his debut in Serie A in the last match against Venezia in the 2-1 win.

Returning to the captain Delprato, one particular statistic stands out: the gialloblu has scored two goals in this Serie A campaign, Giovanni Di Lorenzo (three) is the only defender who has done better; additionally, both of the goals from the Parma Calcio captain have come in the first three minutes of play and he is the only player to have scored more than once in the first three minutes of play in this Serie A campaign.

In terms of youngsters, only Francesco Camarda (16 years and 244 days) and Honest Anahor (16 years and 22 days) are younger than Giovanni Leoni (17 years and 325 days) when it comes to players that have played in at least one match from the start in the Serie A.

Speaking of the defence, thought must also be given to between the sticks, therefore, Zion Suzuki: one of the goalkeepers to have made at least 15 saves in this league campaign, only David De Gea (80.56%) and Devis Vásquez (72.97%) have a higher save percentage than the gialloblu (72.92%) in the current league campaign.

Another statistic that confirms the growth of the defensive phase, which focuses on some specific players, but which, always speaks volumes of the whole team under Fabio Pecchia.