Davide Ballardini had a positive start to his second spell as Genoa coach when on Saturday he steered the team to a battling 1-1 draw against Juventus.
An away fixture in Turin in his comeback represented a tough challenge for Ballardini who was out to prove that he is the right man to steer Genoa out of trouble as he had done a couple of years before.
In fact, Ballardini has already achieved the feat in the 2010/11 campaign.
During that season he had replaced Gianpiero Gasperini with Genoa languishing in the lower half of the standings. But under Ballardini’s stewardship, Genoa showed clear signs of revival and ended the campaign in a safe 10th place.
However, Genoa supremo En-rico Preziosi still deemed that Ballardini was not the right man to coach Genoa in summer of 2011.
He sacked the coach and in came Alberto Malesani. The decision, however, was to haunt Preziosi for most of the time that season as Genoa experienced a difficult campaign.
Malesani was replaced by Pasquale Marino in Christmas but reinstated on April 2 only to be dismissed again a few weeks later. The team eventually completed the season with Luigi De Canio as coach.
De Canio retained the job but a poor run of results (two wins, three draws and three defeats) forced Preziosi to seek a new man last year – Luigi Del Neri.
Like his predecessors, however, the former Juventus coach also failed to deliver as the team only managed two wins and two draws in 13 games.
Languishing in the drop zone with only 17 points from 21 matches, last week Preziosi felt it was again time to sack his coach, turning again on Ballardini to revive Genoa’s challenge.
Last weekend, Ballardini gave a strong indication of his battling qualities as Genoa were not awed by the away trip to the Juventus Stadium. Luck did smile on them but their bold efforts were rewarded when Marco Borriello netted a late equaliser.
Genoa are only two points adrift of fourth-bottom Pescara and more spirited performances like the one of Saturday could very easily see the team through.
Genoa only have two wins and three draws in 11 home fixtures so far this season.
So, Ballardini’s first task should be to improve the team’s dire record at the Ferraris stadium, starting from this weekend’s difficult match against third-placed Lazio.
Also, key to Genoa’s survival mission this season will be the direct encounters in the bottom half of the standings.
Such basement clashes will be decisive for most of the teams battling to avoid the drop, including Genoa who will look at Ballardini’s nous to fashion a winning mentalty and an escape route from the bottom rungs of the Serie A.