Serie B Defender Of The Season
2021/22: The fans had their say. It’s time for the facts.
One thing in particular that Serie B is renowned for is a solid defence. Lecce won the league in 2021/22 boasting the lowest total of goals conceded and was thus duly awarded top-flight status for 2022/23.
Great defensive records alone won’t necessarily attain promotion, as Monza (2020–21), Cittadella (2019–2021) and Cremonese (2018–19) found out.
Pordenone, with 71 goals conceded, was deservedly relegated to Lega Pro alongside Crotone (61). Incredibly, Ternana claimed 10th position — just 4 points adrift of the PlayOff Zone — yet equaled Crotone’s poor record courtesy of 5 own-goals, the most of any team in 2021/22.
Curiously, Pordenone didn’t concede one.
Ascoli was the strongest team on the road (35 points). Predictably, Lecce did most of their damage at home with 44 of 71 points secured at the Via del Mare.
But which individual defenders were the very best of Italy’s second division?
Recently, Lega B put it to the fans to vote for the Serie B Best XI for 2021/22. The tifosi chose Samuele Birindelli of Pisa at right back, his Nerazzurro cohort Pietro Beruatto on the left side, and the centre-half pair of Cremonese’s Caleb Okoli and Federico Gatti of Frosinone.
And after assessing the limited statistics available on the FBREF.com website, we’ve listed the most consistent defender of each Serie B club for 2021/22.
Criteria
Must have played the whole season in Serie B and a minimum of 25 games (roughly two-thirds of the 38 games). 59 players qualified.
Here are some data points for most minutes, goals, assist, yellow cards and red cards.
Centre Half Pairing
Time to enlist two pillars to stand firm and lead the backline. And what a debut Serie B season for Frosinone’s Federico Gatti, who, until 2020, was laying bricks for a living.
After just 18 games for the Canarini, Juventus came in during the January window to snap up the 23-year-old for €4.5m and allow him to conclude the season on loan with Fabio Grosso’s side.
Unlikely Hero
The competition was fierce for the other centre-half spot. Shading Antonio Caracciolo, Fabio Lucioni and Caleb Okoli is Andrea Cistana.
With three quality seasons behind him, the Biancazzurro dynamo commanded his troops on 37 occasions and showcased attacking quality with 4 goals while only receiving 6 cautions.
Close calls: While Caleb Okoli displayed vision with superb vertical passing and marauding runs forward, his stats simply didn’t match it with those more experienced candidates.
Honourable Mentions: Antonio Caracciolo, Elias Cobbaut, Fabio Lucioni, Filippo Sgarbi, Caleb Okoli, Eric Botteghin, Gianluca Di Chiara, Maxime Leverbe and Enrico Del Prato.
Lega Football Central Defenders: Andrea CISTANA and Federico GATTI
Right Back
The most consistent throughout the campaign was Samuele Birindelli. He provided tireless running up and down the right flank, tracked back in good time and was such a team leader that he was named captain by Luca D’Angelo.
Now linked with a Serie A move to Monza and could follow in his father’s footsteps. Alessandro Birindelli won three Scudetti for Juventus between 1997 and 2008 and was capped by Italy on six occasions.
Honourable Mentions: Lorenzo Dickmann, Luca Vignali, Leonardo Sernicola, Gaetano Letizia, Federico Baschirotto and Tommaso Cassandro.
Lega Football Right Back: Samuele BIRINDELLI
Left Back
Another tough pick. However, both Marko Pajac and Carlos Augusto were pipped by Pietro Beruatto who was simply sensational for Pisa. On loan from Juventus, the Nerazzurri are keen to bring him back on a permanent deal.
The genes of the Beruatto family are impeccable. Pietro is the son of former Lazio and Torino defender, Paolo, and his sister Greta is a Miss Italia finalist for Tuscany.
Honourable Mentions: Bruno Martella, Carlos Augusto, Daam Foulon, Marko Pajac and Emanuel Valeri.
Defender of the Season 2021/22
Federico Gatti: Capping off the term with 35 appearances, Gatti contributed 5 league goals and made his national team debut for Italy against England, maintaining a clean sheet against the likes of Tammy Abraham, Raheem Sterling and Harry Kane.
U23 Group
We don’t double up at Lega Football, so any under-23 players selected for the senior Serie B Best XI are not considered for the Serie B U23 squad.
The beauty of the Italian Second Division is that there are so many talented youngsters on show regularly. One standout player was Tommaso Cassandro who excelled on the right side for Cittadella with Oddo-like precision when crossing centrally.
Carlos Augusto was arguably the man of the match against Pisa in the second leg of the PlayOff Final. Caleb Okoli and Elias Cobbaut were both magnificent for Cremonese and Parma respectively
Honourable Mentions: Filippo Sgarbi, Enrico Del Prato, Emmanuele Valeri and Daam Foulon.
Remarkable Coaching: Alvini
Freshly promoted from Serie C Lega Pro, Perugia’s backline ranked second only to Lecce, conceding 32 goals under Massimiliano Alvini and his 3–5–2 formation which featured Christian Dell’Orco, Marcos Curado and Fillipo Sgarbi.
Ending the season in 8th-place, the Grifone remained unbeaten against Lecce (two draws) while the other top 8 sides managed to collectively score just 11 goals against them throughout the regular season.
Lead-duration statistic: Perugia trailed their opponents for just 15.5% of match time on average, behind only Lecce, Pisa and Benevento. Of their eight defeats, Perugia lost by more than a goal twice only — remarkable for a newly promoted club.
Best Serie B Defence 2021/22
Lecce conceded 31 goals for a fantastic average of just 0.82 per game and finished with 15 clean sheets for the term, one behind Cittadella — further reiterating Leandro Chichizola’s claim for best goalkeeper.
Pisa was strongest at home, conceding only 13 times at the Garibaldi while Brescia maintained the best record on the road (15).
Best Young Defence: Pisa with Birindelli (22), Berruato (22), Leverbe (24).
Moving forward, we will examine the best midfielders, attackers and coaches of Serie B 2021/22.
Read about the Serie B Goalkeeper of the Season 2021/22.
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