Player grades
David de Gea—4: His recent penchant for giving up his near post is concerning to say the least; if Gift Orban has figured out that weakness, you’d better believe everyone else has too. Made just 1 save
and was particularly passive on crosses.
Marin Pongračić—5.5: He wasn’t as bad as his colleagues but he wasn’t especially good, either. Went on a couple of driving runs forward and tried to do stuff on the ball a couple times. That said, if he’s your best defender in a game, you’d best believe that game didn’t go well.
Pietro Comuzzo—4.5: Lost Antoine Bernede early when the Frenchman stung the bar (although Pongračić should’ve been better positioned to help) but was about 10 yards too high up on Orban’s first goal and switched off on the second one as well. I’m still high on his future but some of the shine has come off the Ginger Prince.
Luca Ranieri—3: Wandered way too high up with Orban on the first goal and never had a chance of chasing him down. Missed a chance to equalize from 3 yards out. Blundered around the attacking third trying to spark something, anything, but never succeeded. I’m not a Ranieri hater at all but this one’s on him.
Fabiano Parisi—6.5: Fiorentina’s most (only) threatening player on the day. Won 7 fouls, got stuck in defensively, kept his passing positive, and generally did all he could’ve.
Simon Sohm—3: Fbref informs me he had 29 touches. I remember 2. One was teeing up Fagioli for a good shot. The other was a complete whiff on the break with Kean ready, not that he’d have scored it anyways. His only saving grace is how bad many of the other new signings have been.
Nicolò Fagioli—6: Lost the ball too many times, sparking a series of Hellas Verona counterattacks, but he cracked off a couple good shots (1 blocked by Kean, the other saved by Lorenzo Montipò) and played half a dozen excellent balls over the top that Kean couldn’t convert. It’s easy to rip on Nicky Beans this year but he wasn’t the problem here at all.
Rolando Mandragora—4: Took one decent shop but was otherwise completely MIA. Seemed like he was trying to help Fiorentina grind it out in midfield rather than playing his own game, which is popping up in the final third.
Dodô—5: Played in a couple of decent balls and held up fine at the other end. He wasn’t the live-wire version of himself we fell in love with over the past few years but he was at least competent.
Albert Guðmundsson—3: Had a couple of decent moments but demonstrated very clearly that there’s something missing above the neck. Whether it was a series of really stupid “tactical” fouls or his mind-boggling decision to square the ball to Kean instead of shooting when he was 1-v-1 with a chance to score the winner. The charitable read is that he’s a good teammate but you could read it as base cowardice as well, a terrified refusal of responsibility. Ugh.
Moise Kean—2: Single game xG doesn’t mean much but with Kean, we’ve reached a point at which there’s just no two ways around it. Guy has the yips something fierce. He’s getting the chances by the hatful but simply can’t finish them, and without the finishing, he’s just a sneering track star, not a foundational part of the squad.
Niccolò Fortini—4.5: Enthusiastic but imprecise. Would be nice if he got to spend an entire game in the same role. Switched off on the final goal.
Amir Richardson—4: He’s a player who needs to play himself into rhythm and coming off the bench into this situation isn’t conducive to finding that rhythm. Had a couple bad giveaways and didn’t influence play.
Edin Džeko—3: 7 touches, none in the penalty area. The idea that he could serve as a reference point was fun this summer but ignored the fact that Džeko’s washed. The physical strength, technique, and intelligence are there, but the legs are gone, gone, gone.
Cher Ndour—n/a: 4 minutes of running around doesn’t get a grade.
Mattia Viti—n/a: Was suspiciously close to the scene of the crime for the second goal.
Three things we learned
1. I cannot go on as I am
I’ll crunch some numbers about this tomorrow but my gut reaction to this game was probably yours too: Fiorentina’s getting relegated. 15 straight games without a win, including a loss at home to the 2nd-worst team in Serie A, is evidence of something so badly broken that it can’t function. Maybe you still believe in survival; if you do, that’s fine and I hope you’re right. But I’m now assuming next year will be in Serie B because this isn’t a Serie A team.
To that purpose, I’ll leave you with a couple more lines from Polly Jane: “It leaves sadness. It leaves a taste, a bitter one.” Or how about, “Remedies, not within my reach?” Sure, she’s singing about something more serious than Italy’s most doofus club pushing past a sea of arms that wished to restrain it from walking out onto the trapdoor, placing the noose around its own neck, and pulling the lever, but she’s got a way with words that I don’t.
2. It’s June in January
Fiorentina’s often avoided transfer business in the winter window unless it’s really necessary but this year’s going to be an exception. Daniele Pradè put together the 7th-most expensive roster in Serie A. Roberto Goretti’s primary goal as the new sporting director is likely ensuring the club’s financial flexibility next season. Prioritizing financial flexibility over chasing the ceiling has been the modus operandi since Rocco Commisso took over.
That means Fiorentina will be looking to add cheap reinforcements that can help wing games while shedding salary. The former likely means renting some dissatisfied veterans from bigger clubs with maybe a couple punts on high-upside youngsters with low wages. The January mercato always inflates transfer fees, too, so loans will be the way forward.
But shedding salary? Woof. That’ll probably require Fiorentina to loan out a bunch of senior players. Džeko, de Gea, Parisi, Mandragora, Robin Gosens, and Christian Kouamé all get big checks that won’t fit a Serie B-udget. Maybe they have relegation clauses that will reduce their pay in event of relegation but given Fiorentina’s status before this year, Pradè might’ve skipped that step. The only benefit of the toxic atmosphere is that perhaps the players themselves want to escape the noxious fumes at the Viola Park.
3. Got a whole lot of empty time left to go, now you’ve gotta fill it with something
We’ve got 5 more months of this Fiorentina and I’m going to lose my mind if I have to write previews, match threads, recaps, and player grade/3 things we learned twice a week about this heap of garbage. It’s the sports equivalent of working in a graveyard during the Black Death: every day, you see nothing but the exact same kind of horror in such a way that you eventually get numb to it.
This is too vibrant a community to embrace that sort of numbness and I can warn you right now that I will not be doing so. I’ll leave it up to you to decide if that’s a good thing, because I’m probably going to start writing more weird stuff and less game coverage at some point. Yall know that I occasionally stray into non-journalism, for which I don’t apoloize.
I’m not a journalist so I justify it as venal self-indulgence rather than mortal sin, but since this might stretch out for a few months, I want to hear from yall too: What kind of non-match coverage do you want here? Stories from the past? Statistical analysis in a league-wide context? Speculative microfiction? Increasingly esoteric Most Whatever XIs? We’re standing on the deck of a sinking ship, so we may as well enjoy the way the morning light sparkles off this iceberg.
