Team Focus: Can Chievo Pen Another Fairytale Under Maran?

“Donkeys will fly before there’s a derby in Serie A,” Hellas fans used to sing. If you’ve ever wondered how Chievo got their nickname, there’s your answer. Rolando Maran knows the chant well. A former player with the club, he joined Chievo shortly after they had been promoted from the inter-regional leagues to the fourth division back in 1986. A decade later, ‘Rolly’, by then a much-loved talismanic figure, left them on the Hillary step of the Italian game otherwise known as Serie B.  

Maran, a veteran defender in the autumn of his career, wasn’t a member of the team Gigi Delneri sherpaed to the top flight in 2001, nor did he figure in one of the great fairytale stories of recent memory. For not only was there a Derby della Scala, but Chievo, third at Christmas, finished fifth in their first ever season in Serie A. Hellas meanwhile went down and wouldn’t make it back for 12 years, an eternity to their supporters.  

Thoughts have inevitably turned to that period over the last fortnight. Chievo have spent it as the capolista - the leaders in Serie A. “Just imagine if it were like this on the final day,” Maran allowed himself to think after his team beat Lazio at the Bentegodi for the first time since January 2002. “Obviously it was a joke,” he clarified in Il Piccolo. “We’re well aware it’s only the second week of the season, just as we’re all too aware of what we’re good at and what our limits are. We know what our level is. Our objectives for the future won’t change. There’s still a long way to go.”  

In light of Maran’s history with Chievo, his connection with the club, moments like the ones he is experiencing now have a greater resonance even than those he had in Sicily with Catania, who he guided to a record points total (56) and 8th place finish only two years ago. “I’ve got to admit it,” he said, “for me coaching Chievo has a special taste to it. The joy I feel at getting these results is quite unique. But it’s also true that there’s added responsibility on my shoulders. Still, the pride that I feel today in leading this team after playing in it for so many years is something extraordinary.”  

Maran got the job last October after another Chievo legend, Eugenio Corini, was sacked. A 3-0 defeat to Roma was their fifth in their opening seven games. The Flying Donkeys couldn’t get off the ground. They were languishing in the relegation zone. While Maran figured things out, crucially he got Chievo to beat the teams around them: Cesena and Cagliari. They also edged Verona 1-0 in the derby. Then little by little, things began to come together.  

After all the tinkering and shape-shifting under Corini, he settled definitively on a team and a system - a classic 4-4-2. He promoted the veteran goalkeeper Albano Bizzarri in place of the young and error prone Francesco Bardi. Got Ervin Zukanovic to play as an enterprising left-back and whip plenty of crosses into the box for the strikers and had midfield pairing Mariano Izco and Perparim Hetemaj hunt down opponents with the same inexplicable enthusiasm shown by dogs chasing cars. The emphasis was put on making Chievo hard to beat and Maran achieved it.  

Bizzarri was a candidate for goalkeeper of the season. A no-name defence kept 12 clean sheets and ranked fourth at the end of the campaign. Zukanovic’s cross accuracy of 38% was the highest in the league. Maran also spoke to La Gazzetta dello Sport of his delight that “after Juventus, we are the team making the most ball recoveries in the opposition’s half.” Chievo lost only four times after February 11 and two of those defeats came when they were already safe.  

They survived comfortably, their only regret being that the four points they took from Hellas weren’t enough to finish above them. Just how tight Chievo kept things in order to stay up was underlined not only by how few goals they conceded (41) but how few they scored (28) as well. They really went against the grain in a year when Serie A was the highest scoring of Europe’s top five leagues. Only Torino in 2006-07 confirmed their top-flight status with fewer goals scored (27). Aside from these two teams, no one else has managed to survive with a sub-30 total.  

So it was clear where Chievo needed to improve over the summer. And yet with the exception of Lucas Castro and Paul-José Mpoku, signed from Catania and Cagliari respectively, they didn’t greatly upgrade their forward line. It comes as a real surprise then to see Chievo not only leading the league on maximum points, but also top of the scoring charts. They came back from a goal down to beat Empoli 3-1 on the opening weekend and then hit Lazio for four without reply the following Sunday. Three of their seven goals have been headers - they only nodded in five throughout the entirety of last season - and all of them have been scored and assisted by the same three players: Alberto Paloschi, Valter Birsa and Riccardo Meggiorini. It’s not quite Gre-No-Li (Gren, Nordahl and Liedholm) or Ma-Gi-Ca (Maradona, Giordano and Careca) but the trio has so far combined to devastating effect.  

Meggiorini’s back-heel assist on the half-volley and Birsa’s free-kick against Lazio are already right up there among the highlights of the season so far. “I’ve tried it in training,” Meggiorini told La Repubblica. “It’s instinct. Intuition. Something you can’t learn or be taught. I’m like that. I’ll never be a great goalscorer but there are some things I can do.”  

When Serie A resumes this weekend, the fixture that catches the eye aside from the Milan derby is a testa-coda, a clash between the head and the tail. Table toppers Chievo go to champions Juventus who are still without a point after making their worst start to a season since 1912.  “It’s like the world has been turned upside down,” Maran smiled. “You’ve got to laugh,” Meggiorini added. Chievo have only twice opened the season with back-to-back wins in Serie A. The first time was in their first ever year in the top flight in 2001. Curiously Juventus were the ones to bring their perfect start to an end in Turin in Week 3.  

So is this when the natural order begins to re-establish itself? You’d imagine so. Chievo have never claimed victory over Juventus in Turin, but with a more or less unchanged team from last season they have a stability and understanding that even the champions are envious of at the moment. Donkeys might fly before Chievo beat the Old Lady under the Mole. But guess what? Under Maran they already are.

Can Chievo maintain their great start to the season when the face Juventus this weekend? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below