Player grades
David de Gea—7.5: Saved Lorenzo Colombo’s penalty and made a couple good saves in the second half. His inexplicable ramble around the penalty box during the second goal wasn’t great but Fiorentina doesn’t
get a point from this game without him.
Luca Ranieri—3: Yikes, man. Giving up a penalty like that, just purely whiffing the ball, isn’t great, but the captain was a couple steps slow throughout. To be fair, this is a nightmare matchup for him, since Genoa has a bunch of big bodies to hurl into the box and that’s not where Luca’s at his best. But he needs to be better than this.
Pablo Marí—5: He wasn’t good, exactly, but he was at least capable of competing in the air, which was the only way that the Grifoni produced any threat.
Marin Pongračić—5: Hit a couple decent passes forward and went on a couple fine forays but somehow, despite his size, plays with an inexplicable lack of force that he tries to cover by fouling. I just don’t understand him as a player.
Niccolò Fortini—6: Started well and played in a couple of dangerous balls from the left but faded in the second half. Got dusted by Brooke Norton-Cuffy (great name) once pretty badly but was otherwise solid.
Simon Sohm—6.5: This was closer to a €15 million midfielder. Got the assist but, more importantly, rumbled up and down the pitch, providing some verticality and ball-carrying that this midfield’s been so sorely lacking. Despite his size, though, he’s got a bit of that strange Pongračić forcelessness, particularly in the air.
Hans Nicolussi Caviglia—4: Completely anonymous in a way that I just don’t get. Fbref tells me he had 63 touches and I don’t remember a single one outside the corner that resulted in Lorenzo Colombo’s handball. I don’t think he can man that area alone.
Rolando Mandragora—4.5: Lost Leo Østigård at set pieces several times but also why is he marking Leo Østigård? Was otherwise very quiet with just 45 touches, although he did get stuck in and led the team with 4 tackles. As an off-ball player, he needs teammates who can find him and that isn’t happening.
Dodô—5: Mostly won his duel with Aaron Martín but was weirdly bad going forward, constantly ducking infield rather than keeping his boots on the touchline. Looks a little more smiley than he has of late, at least, so maybe he’s getting his joy back.
Albert Guðmundsson—7: Took his penalty well, was involved in Piccoli’s goal (albeit with a bad touch), and had a couple moments of creativity. This was his first game in Genoa since his move to Florence so maybe the emotions were high but he floated around the periphery too much, especially with Moise Kean out.
Roberto Piccoli—7.5: Was his usual athletic, clumsy self to start the game but seemed to find a rhythm in the second half and looked dangerous, or at least not in danger of tripping over the ball. Took his goal well and won some duels to put Genoa in trouble. Hopefully this gives him some confidence going forward.
Fabiano Parisi—5: Didn’t do much of anything but wasn’t a problem, either.
Mattia Viti—5: Came in and did a fine enough job, although he still seems a little tentative to me.
Edin Džeko—4.5: The attack unraveled when he replaced Piccoli. The old man does his best but his utter lack of pace means opposing defenses can step forward and squeeze Fiorentina when he’s leading the line.
Cher Ndour—5: Charged around and did his off-ball Cher Ndour stuff.
Jacopo Fazzini—n/a: Didn’t really have time to do much in his 7 minutes.
Three things we learned
I spent the past couple scraping the insides of my brain to find useful conclusions about this Fiorentina, and look, man, I’m very tired of writing about this team, which is fundamentally broken in more ways than I can describe. At this point, I don’t think we can learn anything about it that we didn’t already know, and what we already know is confined to a smoldering ruin.
The silver lining is that Paolo Vanoli is saying all the right things in his press conferences. That’s great. I’m excited about him snapping the organization out of a months-long slumber, during which it’s plummeted from Champions League challenger to worst in Serie A. He’s got a good attitude and cool glasses and hair and I like him already.
However, this game provided us nothing to judge him on. He’s been in charge for 1.5 training sessions, which isn’t enough to do anything. For example, I could write about the wingbacks sitting much deeper and how that impacts the strikers but there’s no way to know if that will be part of how Vanoli sets the team up or if he was just teaching them how to tread water. It’s a cop out and I fully acknowledge it but I don’t think there’s anything particularly useful to take from this game from an analytical standpoint, other than that the Viola are reprehensibly bad. And you already knew that, so why repeat for another several hundred word?
