Serie B Striker of the Season and Best XI Revealed
But first let’s add a trequartista and striker
Determination, brute strength and the ability to beat the man at the near post to nod in the winner — that’s what it takes to transcend into any League’s best attacker.
No prizes for guessing who is the Lega Football Striker of the Season for 2021/22. Massimo Coda deservedly wins the award with 20 goals for the term, that’s 6 more (or 30% more) than all other rivals in the division.
Without Coda, Lecce simply wouldn’t have climbed the stairway to Serie A Paradiso.
So, into the Lega Football Best XI he goes. But we still have the task of finalising two other attacking positions. Stick with us as we sift through the Italian second tier to find out which dynamos will supply to Coda in our 4–2–3–1 formation.
Prima di andare avanti, here is a link to the Lega B TOP XI as chosen by fans on Twitter.
Their three-man attacking midfield consists of Gabriel Strefezza (Lecce) on the right side, Alessio Zerbin (Frosinone) on the left, with Gianluca Gaetano (Cremonese) sitting in front of the double pivots.
This article is dedicated to choosing the best Attackers in the Italian second division and is the final slice of Lega Football’s Best XI panettone for 2021–22.
Criteria
Candidates must have played a minimum of 25 games (roughly two-thirds of the 38 games) in Serie B. Forwards and wingers are covered in the Best Forwards of Serie B edition.
Therefore, 64 midfielders qualified. Gianluca Lapadula and Gabriel Charpentier fell short of the required minimum to make our Best XI, yet still etched their names onto the Benevento and Frosinone clubhouse walls by top scoring for their respective sides.
Here’s a list of each club’s most influential attacker in 2021/22.
Coda, Strefezza, Vázquez, Donnarumma and Corazza hit the back of the net the most often.
Appreciation: from turning in a cheeky backheel to rifling home from the penalty spot, here are all of Massimo Coda’s goals for 2021/22.
Best Attacking Midfielders and Wingers
It seems as though Gabriel Strefezza has been knocking about for a decade but the dual-national (Brazilian-Italian) is only 24. Following his brilliant campaign with Lecce — contributing 14 goals from the right wing — the ex-Spal man is a certainty for our Best XI.
Franco Vázquez is allegedly 33 years of age, however, the €15M-man (Palermo to Sevilla in 2016) sliced apart defences like a machete through a rainforest. Oh, and he loves to catch a goalkeeper off his line.
It’s not just about scoring goals from deep positions for Strefezza and Vazquez as both accumulated 6 and 4 assists respectively. Anthony Partipilo of Ternana led the division with 13 while Cittadella’s Mirko Antenucci provided 7.
Here we are with our final XI, adding Coda, Vázquez and Strefezza into the mix alongside Gaetano.
Of this team, Chichizola, Gatti, Birindelli, Gaetano and Coda have changed clubs and only six will remain in Serie B.
Chichizola will rotate with Buffon at Parma, Gatti was bought by Juventus and Birindelli by Monza. Gaetano returns to parent club Napoli, Coda moved to Genoa while Hjulmand and Strefezza will line up for Lecce in Serie A.
Moving on to the Gioventù (youngsters).
Top U23 Strikers
Monza’s Dany Mota was the standout kitty of the litter with 11 strikes while Manuel De Luca and Gabriel Charpentier both ended the campaign with 10 goals each. Splitting the pair was one solitary assist however the Perugia centrovanti featured in 33 matches, the Canarini attacker just 22.
11 goals for Dany Mota (Monza), 10 Manuel De Luca (Per) and Gabriel Charpentier (Fros), 9 Alessio Zerbin (Fros), 8 Luca Zanimacchia (Crem), 7 Gianluca Gaetano (Crem), Nicolò Cambiaghi (Por) and Matteo Tramoni (Bre), 6 for Lorenzo Lucca (Pisa), Adrian Benedyczak (Par), Samuele Mulattieri (Cro) and Lorenzo Colombo (Spal).
U23 Wingers
Luca Zanimacchia and Gianluca Gaetano assembled 5 goals each to facilitate Cremonese’s promotion. Meanwhile Nicolò Cambiaghi, Lorenzo Lucca and Giuseppe Caso (Cosenza) concluded with 4 assists.
Alessio Zerbin was the most prolific u23 winger, slotting 9 goals in a debut season of Serie B that subsequently earned him an unlikely Italian national team call-up by Roberto Mancini in June.
Cambiaghi has since signed for Empoli, Caso for Frosinone, Lucca for Ajax while Gaetano and Zerbin are back with parent club Napoli. Zanimacchia — owned by Juventus — will play a second consecutive season in the same kit.
Vi presentiamo the Lega Football U23 Best XI of 2021–22
Now that’s a stunning line up, of which only Cobbaut and Cassandro will remain in the division.
Goal of the Season 2021/22
Adriano Montalto staved off the challenges of Franco Vazquez, Anthony Partipilo and Adrian Bernabe to claim the award after lobbing Gianluca Saro in the Crotone goal to score the winner for Reggina at the Oreste Granillo on Matchday 22.
Coach of the Season Awards
Massimiliano Alvini pushed Perugia all the way to the PlayOffs on a shoestring budget, getting the best out of Leandro Chichizola, a youthful defence piloted by Filippo Sgarbi, and those ten goals squeezed out of Manuel De Luca.
Alvini, who has taken the Cremonese job, is awarded the bronze medal. Let’s see how he molds Le Tigre in 2022–23.
*At this point I must make special mention of Ivan Javorčić who shattered European records to elevate FC Sudtirol from Lega Pro to Serie B for the first time in the club’s history. The former Brescia midfielder — teammate of Roberto Baggio — has subsequently seized the Venezia position for 2022–23.
Silver: Fabio Pecchia decided to vacate the Cremonese bench at the season’s end after clinching second place and commanding a youthful Grigiorossi outfit back up to Serie A for the first time since 1996.
Pecchia achieved this by getting the best out of the entire squad, harnessing the talents of u23 giocatori Gaetano, Fagioli, Zanimacchia, Okoli and Carnesecchi instead of a reliance on veterans Carmine and Ciofani to simply survive relegation.
Let’s see if Pecchia can do the same at Parma in 2022–23.
Gold Medal: Giovanni Stroppa is Italian football’s adaptation of Die Another Day. The former Crotone boss of 2020–21 is back to lead another side into the Italian top flight for the second time in three years.
On the back of missing out on automatic promotion, Stroppa still rose above the expectations imposed upon him by the media, Adriano Galliani, and Silvio Berlusconi to win the Serie B PlayOff Final in May after galvanising his squad.
Stroppa is the Serie B Best XI Coach of the Season for 2021–22.
Bolstered by prestigious signings like Caprari, Sensi, Pessina and Cragno, Monza will contest its debut Serie A season under Stroppa’s tenure in 2022–23.
Thanks for reading Lega Football analysis of Serie B strikers and attackers.
Stay tuned for the 2022–23 Serie B Best XI, coming your way in 2023.
Click to read about Serie B Best Goalkeepers of 2021–22, Serie B Best Defenders of 2021–22, Serie B Best Midfielders of 2021–22.
Here is the Guide to Serie B Promotion.
Here is where we covered the final rounds of Serie B 2021–22 and the PlayOffs.
Coach of the Season Awards
Massimiliano Alvini pushed Perugia all the way to the PlayOffs on a shoestring budget, getting the best out of Leandro Chichizola, a youthful defence piloted by Filippo Sgarbi, and those ten goals squeezed out of Manuel De Luca.
Alvini, who has taken the Cremonese job, is awarded the bronze medal. Let’s see how molds Le Tigre in 2022–23.
*While I’m at this I should make special mention of Ivan Javorčić who shattered European records to elevate FC Sudtirol from Lega Pro to Serie B for the first time in the club’s history. The former Brescia midfielder — teammate of Roberto Baggio — has subsequently seized the Venezia position for 2022–23.
Silver: Fabio Pecchia decided to vacate the Cremonese bench at the season’s end after clinching second place and commanding a youthful Grigiorossi outfit back up to Serie A for the first time since 1996.
Pecchia achieved this by getting the best out of the entire squad, harnessing the talents of u23 giocatori Gaetano, Fagioli, Zanimacchia, Okoli and Carnesecchi as opposed to relying solely on calcio veterans Carmine and Ciofani to simply survive relegation.
Let’s see if Pecchia can do the same at Parma in 2022–23.
Gold Medal: Giovanni Stroppa is Italian football’s adaptation of Die Another Day. The former Crotone boss of 2020–21 is back to lead another side into the Italian top flight for the second time in three years.
On the back of missing out on automatic promotion, Stroppa still rose above the expectations imposed upon him by the media, Adriano Galliani, and Silvio Berlusconi to win the Serie B PlayOff Final in May after galvanising his squad.
Stroppa is the Serie B Best XI Coach of the Season for 2021–22.
Bolstered by prestigious signings like Caprari, Sensi, Pessina and Cragno, Monza will contest its debut Serie A season under Stroppa’s tenure in 2022–23.
Thanks for reading Lega Football analysis of Serie B strikers and attackers.
Stay tuned for the 2022–23 Serie B Best XI, coming your way in 2023.
Click to read about Serie B Best Goalkeepers of 2021–22, Serie B Best Defenders of 2021–22, Serie B Best Midfielders of 2021–22.
Here is the Guide to Serie B Promotion.
Here is where we covered the final rounds of Serie B 2021–22 and the PlayOffs.
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