Coach Walter Zenga has noted the real key to the remarkable number of set play training exercises seen in Serie A this term is the work of assistant Gianni Vio.

It is perhaps fitting to discover the man behind the quasi-scientific approach to football works in a bank by day.

“Making the most of set plays is like having an extra striker,” Vio told the Gazzetta dello Sport.

“The club realised how important it is to develop different strategies, seeing as 40 to 50 per cent of scoring opportunities come from dead ball situations.”

Catania have been spotted crowding into the box and running into seemingly offside positions well before the ball is struck, to leave the opposition unsure who to mark.

“So far we have applied more than one strategy per game. I like to call it ‘organised confusion.’ Zenga called me in 2005 when he was in charge of Red Star Belgrade, as he had read my book on set-play scenarios.

“The truth is that, taking into account only corner kicks, there wad 4,380 different scenarios.”

The most famous of this term was when Giuseppe Mascara curled in a free kick against Torino while teammate Gianvito Plasmati lowered his shorts in the wall in a bid to block Matteo Sereni’s view.

Many condemned the November 16 incident, citing it as an unsporting gesture on the verge of cheating, but others took a different approach.

Plasmati has now received a prize from his hometown of Matera for “making the city more famous. He is an example of professionalism and good values,” explained Mayor Nicola Buccico in Il Giornale.

“Gianvito’s gesture was part of the show, because Catania are a provincial side and have to fight by any means necessary to defend themselves against the big clubs.”

Plasmati’s mother did not agree with the Mayor and at the time of the incident dubbed her son, “a naughty boy.”