From Filippo Inzaghi to Alberto Gilardino, Karma Works for Pisa

Alberto Gilardino concluded his story as the coach of Pisa after leading the team for only 23 weeks in the 2025-2026 edition of the Italian League. There was no longer any love for Gilardino on the first day of the "month of love" as he only managed to secure one victory for Pisa, leaving them stranded in 19th place.

The 1-3 defeat to Sassuolo, another promoted team this season, at the Garibaldi Arena on Saturday (31/1/2026), marked the end of the Gilardino era. The 2006 World Cup winner with the Italian national team struggled to lead Pisa in competing with the best teams in the "Land of Spaghetti."

"Pisa Sporting Club announced that it has communicated with Alberto Gilardino both personally and professionally to change the technical leadership of the first team. We sincerely thank Alberto and all of his staff for what they have contributed in recent months," stated the official announcement from Pisa, Sunday (1/2/2026).

Gilardino has become the fifth coach to be dismissed in Serie A 2025-2026. He follows Igor Tudor (Juventus), Patrick Vieira (Genoa), Stefano Pioli (Fiorentina), and Ivan Juric (Atalanta).

Together with Gilardino, Pisa has only secured one victory when they defeated Cremonese in the seventh week, on November 8. At least until the November period, Pisa's journey in the top-tier competition over the past 34 years has been going well.

They accumulated nine points in the first 10 matches, including holding AC Milan at the San Siro Stadium. Entering December, Pisa is increasingly struggling to break free from a winless period.

They only accumulated 14 points from 1 win, 11 draws, and 11 losses. Regardless of the final standings, Pisa's performance is also not yet worthy of competing in Serie A.

This is a difficult period for the team. We will continue to do everything in our power to win the match.

Holding the status of the second place in Serie B for the 2024-2025 season, Pisa failed to develop the team in order to reduce the quality disparity against the 17 Serie A teams that remained from the previous season.

In several statistical records of the Serie A edition 2025-2026, Pisa is among the bottom three teams. This can be seen from their possession percentage per game (40.3 percent), clean sheets (four games), goals conceded per match (1.7), goals per match (0.8), creation of shots on target per game (2.8), and goal difference (-21).

The presence of Pisa in the second-to-last position is also considered a noteworthy record. This is because they are one of the teams that frequently squander opportunities.

This is evident from the expected goals (xG) difference, which measures the expected goals against the actual number of goals scored by a team. Pisa recorded -12.9. This means that with their current tally of 19 goals, Pisa should ideally have scored at least 32.

"This is a difficult period for the team. We will continue to do everything in our power to win," said Gilardino in his final press conference as Pisa coach after the match against Sassuolo on Saturday (January 31, 2026), as reported by Corriere dello Sport.

However, the management of Pisa has run out of patience with Gilardino. Not only is the team suffering, but in reality, Gilardino is also tarnishing his record as a coach.

Pisa is his second team that he has managed in Serie A. Previously, he managed Genoa from December 2022 until he was dismissed in November 2024. With Genoa, Gilardino's win record was 41 percent.

During his time managing Pisa, he only achieved a four percent win rate from 25 matches. This statistical record is not something to be proud of, especially considering his status as one of the best strikers in Italy in the early 2000s.

From the beginning, Pisa made a significant and risky decision by appointing Gilardino as the first coach in Serie A after more than three decades. Gilardino is still quite inexperienced to compete in Italy's top-tier competition.

This was carried out by the management of Pisa following the resignation of Filippo Inzaghi, the coach who led them to promotion. Unlike Gilardino, Inzaghi has faced many challenges and difficult times as a coach.

Pisa is the second team that Inzaghi has led to secure promotion tickets to Serie A from Serie B. He previously took Benevento to a higher division in the 2019-2020 season.

According to Il Tirreno, Inzaghi decided to leave Pisa despite still having a contract until June 2027 due to differing visions. Inzaghi wanted the freedom to shape a team to compete in Serie A.

However, Pisa wants to maintain its focus on promoting young players. This situation led Inzaghi to decide to accept the offer from Palermo, which is ambitious to secure a promotion ticket to Serie A from Serie B for the 2025-2026 season.

When Pisa is threatened with a return to Serie B, Inzaghi is on the right track for promotion to Serie A. Palermo is in third place in Serie B. They are five points away from the top two positions that can secure direct promotion tickets.

On the other hand, Pisa has been striving to strengthen the team by compensating for the lack of experience in Serie A by recruiting veteran players. Raul Albiol (40) and Juan Cuadrado (37) are expected to lead Pisa's young squad.

In reality, they are more often dealing with recurring injuries than playing. It is not surprising that Pisa's performance has not been able to improve from the winless period.

The management's decision to bring in four new players during this winter transfer window is also doubted to have a significant impact. The four new players, namely Rafiu Durasinmi, Rosen Bozhinov, Felipe Loyola, and Filip Stojilkovic, arrive without prior experience in Italian competitions, thus making their debut in Serie A.

According to Sky Sport Italia, Pisa have opened talks with former Lecce manager Marco Giampaolo about filling the vacant head coaching position. Giampaolo is unemployed after not renewing his contract with Lecce at the end of last season.

Can Pisa survive in Serie A? It seems that this is a difficult target to achieve, leading to the likelihood that Pisa will return to its habitat in Serie B next season.