Venezia sack Stroppa after six defeats, Serie A's fourth sacking in six matchdays

Venezia sacked head coach Giovanni Stroppa on Tuesday after six defeats in six Serie A matches left the promoted club bottom of the table with zero points. He is the fourth coach to lose his job in the division this season, and according to Opta data reported by Sky Sport, Serie A had not seen four sackings within the first six matchdays at any point since 2000.

The last straw

The sixth defeat came on Monday night in Bergamo, the first match after the international break. Atalanta led 3-0 after 30 minutes through a Kessie goal and a Krstovic double; Hainaut pulled one back in the 37th minute, but Venezia lost 3-1. They have scored 5 goals and conceded 16 in the league so far.

The club had publicly backed Stroppa in recent weeks, and he had renewed his contract in the summer until 30 June 2029, according to Il Gazzettino. After the match he said: "At the end of the game we were greeted by whistles, as is right: we can't react only after taking slaps." He added: "I'm very disappointed, but the daily work gives me strength."

In its statement, Venezia thanked Stroppa and his staff and recalled that under him the club won promotion to Serie A in the 2025/26 season.

Four sackings in six matchdays

Fiorentina were the first to change, dismissing Fabio Grosso on 6 September after three matchdays and replacing him with Paolo Vanoli. Bologna followed ten days later, swapping Domenico Tedesco for Raffaele Palladino, and on 27 September Parma replaced Carlos Cuesta with Alberto Gilardino.

The contrast with last season is sharp: at this stage nobody had been sacked, and the first change came only after matchday eight, when Juventus dismissed Igor Tudor. For Stroppa it is a familiar point of the calendar: Monza also let him go after six matchdays, in September 2022.

Nicola or Zanetti

General manager Filippo Antonelli is working to appoint a successor before Saturday's home match against Napoli at the Penzo. ANSA reports that Davide Nicola is the favourite and that the club's American board is voting on his candidacy, which would require Nicola to terminate his contract with Cremonese. Il Gazzettino named Paolo Zanetti, who led Venezia to promotion in 2021, as the front-runner, with Nicola also sounded out; both men watched Monday's defeat from the stands.

Nicola's case rests on his record in desperate situations. At Crotone in 2017 his side took 20 points from the last nine matchdays to stay up, and he took over a Salernitana side that was bottom and eight points from safety in February 2022, securing survival on the final day.

History against them

Venezia are four points from safety, with Udinese, Monza, Genoa, Parma and Fiorentina all on four points. No Serie A team that lost its first six matches has ever stayed up, ANSA notes: Venezia themselves in 1949-50, Legnano in 1951-52 and Benevento in 2017-18 all went down.