2026-09-27
Two draws and a defeat from Bologna's first five Serie A matches represent exactly the kind of return that validates what the board chose when they moved on from Tedesco and appointed Raffaele Palladino — an unresolved question of whether the squad reflects the new coach's structural ideas or simply the ones inherited from the previous regime. The 2-2 home draw with Sassuolo at Renato Dall'Ara offered that tension in its clearest form: enough attacking intent for Federico Bernardeschi and Artem Dovbyk to each register a Serie A goal this season, not enough defensive cohesion to hold what the attack had built. The 0-1 away loss to Napoli at Stadio Diego Armando Maradona and the 1-1 home draw with Torino at Renato Dall'Ara left Bologna on two points from nine available, conceding four goals against three scored across those three fixtures, and per Goal.com and Football Italia, Jens Odgaard is now out for four weeks with a muscle problem — a loss that narrows Palladino's forward options precisely when the role structure he wants on the pitch is still being settled. Sunday 11 October at Via del Mare, where Lecce sit on six points from five games, will tell the Palladino project whether its shape is his or merely the one he inherited.