The surprise: number 28. The swan Abildgaard: in the chair after Marin's expulsion

"Everyone is important, everyone deserves to play more." How many times, during press conferences, do we hear these phrases, almost automatically pronounced? Filippo Inzaghi is increasingly a keen master of communication, managing to use the media to pass on messages to the team or to rivals. Often, however, some phrases are mistaken for mere rhetoric, when they are pure truth. Since the beginning of the season, the coach has declared that he regrets not having been able to carve out the right space for Abildgaard, even if in reality the snippets granted to him had not fully convinced the spectators.

Yet, once again, Inzaghi was right: since Marin's expulsion against Salernitana, the number 28 has taken centre stage. Re-proposed from the first minute against Palermo, in the all-Danish midfield together with Hojholt, Abildgaard has proven to be the right dam in the middle of the field, guaranteeing physical depth and interdiction, but also charisma. Of course, it is difficult to match the charisma of a leader like Marin, but Abildgaard has the experience of last season's Serie B, won with Como, on his shoulders. He had arrived from the Lombardy team in the summer with some ailments, which he took months to finally get over: "Now I'm fine, I can play how I want and how the coach wants". In fact, he has also become a real tactical weapon: the goal against Salernitana is a testament to this.

The scheme is classic, also repeated at the "Barbera" several times: long throw not looking for the center of the area, but the first post, where Abildgaard is positioned, who using his one hundred and ninety-two centimeters heads the ball to the second post. Two weeks ago this little game was worth three points. Even though he has played just sixteen games, of which only seven from the first minute, experience has made him an additional starter. After all, the leitmotif is the same: no one is superior to the group. "We are twenty-five animals, we can play anywhere until we die" he declared in the belly of the "Barbera" on Friday evening.

The intent is to be united towards the objective, without shifting the focus beyond the next match: "Only finals await us from now until the end, we only depend on ourselves". Solidity, demonstration of a long and important squad, above all in continuous growth. A couple of months ago it would have been unthinkable to imagine a Pisa without Marin. And in the meantime Abildgaard is a candidate for the starting lineup against Cittadella too.

Lorenzo Vero