Pre-match
In his first match without Daniele Pradè as his supervisor, Pioli leaned into a young team: Pietro Comuzzo, Niccolò Fortini, and Simon Sohm all came into the side, as did Old Man Edin Džeko. Eusebio di Francesco
left Riccardo Sottil and Youssef Maleh on the bench.
First half
Fiorentina started brightly, pinning Lecce back and moving the ball quickly through midfield, but that only lasted about 10 minutes before the mistakes started creeping in. At fault was the midfield, as usual: Hans Nicolussi Caviglia and Nicolò Fagioli both coughed up the ball multiple times, but it was Cher Ndour who dawdled on it too long, allowing Tete Morente to cross for Medon Berisha to tap home at the far post.
Fiorentina did what any team of this caliber does and floundered. The midfield remained extraordinarily jumpy, giving Lecce an obvious point to press, and that destabilized the entire system. The Viola had chances—Moise Kean forced a marvelous reaction save out of the wonderfully-named Wladimiro Falcone and Luca Ranieri missed the target on a pretty open header—but when halftime arrived, there was no doubt about which side had been better.
Second half
Pioli went for a triple sub at the break, bringing on Albert Guðmundsson, Rolando Mandragora, and Simon Sohm, but the changes made minimal impact. The Viola midfield remained invisible and Guðmundsson added nothing to the attack. The Viola kept pounding their heads into the wall and created very little, although Falcone again made a superb save on Kean, clawing a ball off the goal line. Pioli tried switching to a 4-4-2 without success as Moise got increasingly frustrated, but the real drama came shortly before full time: Ranieri went down in the box under pressure from (who else?) Maleh. Referee Antonio Rapuano initially gave a penalty but eventually retracted it, booking the Viola captain either for simulation or abuse. It got tense there for a sec.
After that, it was just a series of hopeless deep crosses that Lecce dealt with comfortably. There was never any doubt about the outcome, really, or that Fiorentina would continue its perfect dive to the bottom.
Full time
Goals: Berisha 23’ (ass. Morente)
Cards: Nicolussi Caviglia 14’, Fagioli 15’, Kean 66’ Ranieri 87’; Veiga 41’
What’s next
It’s now 10 straight games without a win to open the season, which would feel impossible for most teams but is child’s play for this bunch of dopes. The squad faced down a furious Curva after the game, accepting the fury from the fans. It was almost pathetic as a bunch of the players looked to be tearing up, highlighting that they’re just as confused and sad as everyone else. Notably absent from that tableau was Pioli himself, who booked it off the pitch. Maybe he’s done too. I don’t know. Nobody knows what’s going on other than that the ship is mostly underwater.
Anyways, Fiorentina’s down in 19th place with 4 points, setting up a very tasty game against last-place Genoa next Sunday. Of course, it has to deal with a trip to Mainz on Thursday, setting up an even greater disadvantage. After that Genoa game, though, the international break thankfully arrives, freeing us from the prison of watching this slop for a couple weeks. I imagine the team will have a new coach by then, and their first opponent after the break? It’s Juventus. Of course.
