Five rounds into the Serie A season, the early pressure is not confined to the touchline. In the Fantacampionato scoring system, a coach’s return is shaped by results but also by the details that can turn a difficult afternoon into an even harsher score: bookings, dismissals and costly interventions from the bench. Venezia’s Giovanni Stroppa has felt that weight more than anyone.
Stroppa sits at the bottom of the coaches’ fantasy standings with an average of 0.1 after Venezia lost each of their first five league matches. His total has also been affected by a yellow card and by the Milan match, when a substitution was followed by Halhal’s own goal. For a side still seeking its first point, the fantasy figure mirrors a far more serious concern: Venezia have yet to give their season a foundation.
Just above him is Daniele De Rossi, whose Genoa have taken only one point from five fixtures. His fantasy average stands at 0.2, with a booking adding to the poor return. Genoa’s opening stretch has left little room for comfort, and De Rossi is now working from a position in which every point matters both for the table and for the mood around the club.
A difficult opening group
Kostas Runjaic and Udinese have collected four points from their first five matches, continuing an uneven start that has produced a fantasy average of 1.1 for the German coach. Monza, under Juric, have recorded the same league total and the same average, another indication of two teams whose early campaigns have yet to settle into a convincing rhythm.
Torino coach Abate completes the five lowest-rated managers after the opening five rounds, carrying an average score of 1.3. The margins are narrow in this particular ranking, but the wider message is clearer: the first month has placed Stroppa, De Rossi, Runjaic, Juric and Abate under the sort of weekly scrutiny that Serie A reserves for coaches when results refuse to build momentum.
In Fantacampionato, coaches receive no points for a defeat, while a yellow card costs 0.5 points and a dismissal costs one. Further one-point deductions apply when a substitute is sent off, misses a penalty or scores an own goal after entering the match. Those rules have made the opening numbers especially unforgiving for the teams still trying to find their place in the season.
