Over the summer, Fiorentina parted ways with a coach that management vociferously supported and replaced him with a figure from the recent past who’d built up a rapport with the fans under a previous administration.
The team took just 2 points from its first 4 games, leading to grumbling in the Curva Fiesole and bad vibes that never improved.
I’m talking, of course, about the 2019-2020 season, when Vincenzo Montella returned to Florence to take over from Beppe Iachini. Cousin Vinnie hadn’t really kicked on at any of his post-Viola stops but maybe he could recapture the old magic and bring back that incredible 3-year stretch of 4th-place finishes. The start of the season ground that hope out of us, of course, and Montella got the boot in December with the club languishing in 15th place, opening the door for Iachini to right the ship over the back half of the season.
These situations aren’t identical but they rhyme. Pioli’s teams have looked about as incoherent as Montella’s did that year, lacking any defensive structure; the current mister’s situation is exacerbated by his strikers, who’ve somehow failed to score despite 3.1 xG per Opta. Pioli, unlike Montella, is at least trying some new things—the 4-4-2 showed promise against Como until it didn’t—but a slow start has already called his job into question among certain segments of the fan base.
I don’t think Rocco Commisso has any interest in sacking Pioli. He’s always slow to fire coaches (one of his better qualities) even when they underperform, which is fine. 4 games is too small a sample to evaluate Pioli, although it’s large enough to raise some flags. Ditching the mister this early communicates to the world at large and the squad in particular that, in September, Fiorentina thinks everything’s completely broken. Occasionally a club comes back from that, but more often it results in a lost season.
It’s worth noting, too, that Commisso’s been much quieter over the past couple years. Gone are the days of blood-and-thunder press conferences. Raffaele Palladino’s shock resignation would have brought down a hail of Roccoisms in 2020, but we haven’t heard a peep from the Mediacom billionaire. Perhaps he’s still involved behind the scenes but my read (and this is opinion, not reporting) is that he’s taken a step back.
If true, that means Daniele Pradè is fully in charge of the team. I mentioned this summer my feeling that one reason Fiorentina had brought back Pioli is that, due to his conduct after Davide Astori’s death, he has more goodwill in the bank with fans than anyone. I hope this isn’t the case because if so, it’s a gross and cynical decision, but Pradè may be banking on the supporters’ respect for Pioli to minimize frustration with the brass after another chaotic summer.
Again, if Moise Kean and Roberto Piccoli convert a couple of chances, Fiorentina’s probably on 7ish points and nobody’s panicking. Kean especially should be fine; he’s still scoring for Italy, so a rough patch at domestic level is more about bad luck than talent. Once he’s got it figured out, everything else should fall roughly into place and Pioli will sail into safety, although probably not the Champions League.
Like Montella 6 years ago, I assume that Pioli’s got through the end of 2025 to turn things around. If the results don’t improve and the players remain as discombobulated as they are now, though, it’ll be in everyone’s best interests to go their separate ways. It would be a sad conclusion to the mister’s second stint in Florence and I hope it ends better, but it’s time to start laying plans for December in case it doesn’t
