Serie A has fired a record six coaches in 11 rounds; all 20 Premier League bosses remain

Eleven rounds into the Serie A season, six clubs have already changed coaches, a record pace for the league, according to la Repubblica. In the Premier League over the same stretch, the number is zero: all 20 coaches who started the season are still in charge.

The latest change came Monday, when Sassuolo fired Alberto Aquilani a day after a 3-0 loss at Roma. The club announced Tuesday that Roberto D'Aversa, a 51-year-old with a track record in relegation fights at Parma and Torino, takes over on a deal through June 30, 2027.

The numbers left Sassuolo little room. They had lost six of their last seven league games, had not won since Sept. 13 and had conceded 28 goals, more than any team in Serie A, according to Gazzetta dello Sport. They go into the international break 17th with eight points, a point above the bottom three.

Aquilani was not some short-term hire on borrowed time. A month ago he was being talked about in Italy as one of the league's most promising young coaches, even as a possible successor to Cesc Fàbregas at Como.

Fiorentina fired Fabio Grosso after just three games and bringing back Paolo Vanoli, who coached them last season. Bologna replaced Domenico Tedesco with Raffaele Palladino, Parma swapped Carlos Cuesta for Alberto Gilardino and Venezia replaced Giovanni Stroppa with Davide Nicola. Kosta Runjaic was replaced by Paolo Zanetti, and now Sassuolo.

That is six of 20 benches, or 30% of the league, before the end of the first half of the season.

The contrast with the other big leagues is what makes the Italian number stand out. Germany has had one change, with Borussia Mönchengladbach replacing Eugen Polanski with Alexander Blessin. La Liga has had three: Valencia, Osasuna and Espanyol.

The Premier League is the outlier on the other side, and it may not last much longer. Manchester United are 18th with eight points, the same total as Sassuolo, and The Guardian reported Wednesday that the club has a framework deal with Mauricio Pochettino if Michael Carrick is fired. Tottenham, by contrast, stuck with Roberto De Zerbi through a shaky start.

For Sassuolo, the question is whether D'Aversa can do what he did at Torino, where he took over in a relegation fight and went 5-3-4 in 12 games. For Serie A, the more uncomfortable one is how many more benches change before the season's halfway point.