Moise Kean’s apotheosis last year was Fiorentina’s main storyling, but Pietro Comuzzo’s rise from unknown Primavera player to Italy international last year was every bit as surprising. He’d earned a couple of youth callups and looked solid enough with the U19s under Alberto Aquilani and Daniele Galloppa, but hardly seemed slated to seize a starting role on a team that qualified for Europe in a season that started when he was a teenager.
That’s what he did, though, displacing Marin Pongračić in the
first couple of weeks (partly due to injury, but only partly) and never looked back. He was amazing, the best young centerback in a league full of them, handling some of the best strikers on the planet with his old school man-marking and even opening his account with a backheel goal to help the Viola reach the Conference League again. It was the sort of season that little kids dream of having but that never actually happens. Until it does.
Naturally, expectations were sky high for the 20-year-old Comuzzo all summer. Under a scudetto winning coach like Stefano Pioli, one who’s overseen the development of defenders like Stefan de Vrij, Nikola Milenković, and Fikayo Tomori, we all expected the Ginger Prince to take a massive leap forward. If his first stab at the senior side was that good, we could only imagine how dominant he’d be with a bit more experience.
It hasn’t worked out that way. Comuzzo’s been pretty bad through the first few games. There was the disastrous mixup with David de Gea that gifted Cagliari a goal. There was the brainless tackle on Frank Anguissa to give Napoli a 6th minute penalty. There’ve been various skews, whiffs, and brain farts already. Comuzzo’s not the reason Fiorentina’s taken 2 points from 3 games but he hasn’t raised the level at all. What’s gotten into him?
The easy answer is that it’s some sort of bacteria. He’s only lasted the full 90 minutes once in 5 tries this year, being forced off with stomach issues twice and again after catching an inadvertent elbow to the noggin. He’s been physically compromised in 60% of his games so far. Unless he’s eating half a dozen lampredotto sandwiches before every match, he’ll be healthier the rest of the way.
The real issue for me, though, is more tactical. Fiorentina’s still figuring out Pioli’s system. I’m still not entirely sure what the mister wants from everyone but it’s clear that he demands more ambition on the ball from his outside centerbacks (got to be a more elegant way to describe that position). That’s a lot of responsibility for a kid who’s still learning the ropes.
Raffaele Palladino minimized Comuzzo’s responsibilities in possession last year, asking him to either look to Dodô or backwards rather than looking for progressive passes. Pioli wants more. As Comuzzo’s on-ball duties expand, he’s going to have hiccups like this. Instead of focusing exclusively on defending, he has to divide his attention. It’s an adjustment.
There’s the ever-present sample size issue. This season so far comprises 5 games. They’ve been bad games but 5 isn’t a significant sample, especially while the players and coaches are still flailing around. Getting clapped by Napoli is disappointing but hardly surprising; the Partenopei won the scudetto last year and got stronger over the summer.
Finally, here’s your reminder that growth isn’t linear. We’ve seen this with young players in Florence time and again. Dušan Vlahović was terrible until he wasn’t. Just because Comuzzo had a good season last year doesn’t mean that he’ll improve steadily every season. Maybe this is the player he is for the rest of the season and next year he makes the jump. Or the year after, or the year after that. He’s 20. Expecting him to be Daniel Passarella for the next decade and a half is dumb.
I don’t know how Comuzzo’s season will go. If he has more wobbles than he did last year, I won’t be surprised. He’s so young and has so much to learn. Just the fact that he’s starting Serie A games as a 20-year-old centerback is amazing; there’s a reason so few players do that, and it’s that they aren’t as talented. I back that talent to shine through in the long run, even if the Ginger Prince’s crown occasionally slips a bit.
