Player grades
David de Gea
—5.5: His early tip on Juan Miranda’s belter was really good but that was his only save on the day, although you can’t fault him on either goal. His distribution, however, was a problem, allowing Bologna to win the ball and keep Fiorentina pinned deep for long stretches.Marin Pongračić—3.5: Participated in some truly Loony Tunes defending, particularly with Marí ahead of Thijs Dallinga’s disallowed goal. The stats paint a rosy enough picture but his positioning was disastrous throughout
(both goals from his supposed mark) and there’s just something curiously feeble about his play, despite his attempts to radiate machismo. For example, by the end of the game, he wasn’t even going up for corners. Guy’s enormous but he’s so weak in the air that there’s no reason to put him up there.
Pablo Marí—3: Enough is enough. Having a big caveman back there only works if he’s going to club everything. Marí’s technical and athletic limitations are obvious but now he’s making wild mistakes several times per game, including a skewed header that he doinked straight to Santi Castro for the opener. Maybe it’s the yips, maybe it’s something else, but there is no way in hell that he’s the best option anymore. On the plus side, his hair looked amazing.
Luca Ranieri—5: As usual, struggled a bit at times as his lack of physicality was occasionally exposed by Riccardo Orsolini, but he stuck to it and made a couple of very good plays at the back as well, including a huge tackle on the winger in space on the touchline. Should’ve scored in the first half but missed a wide open chance.
Robin Gosens—5: Continued to look rickety in defense at times but still found a way to contribute in the box. The problem is that, as an off-ball player, he needs someone to get him the ball in dangerous places and none of his teammates look even remotely capable of doing that.
Nicolò Fagioli—4.5: Might be the most mystifying player in the side. His technical ability is unimpeachable but under Pioli, he so often seems to lack any sort of ambition, choosing to recycle the ball endlessly rather than make something happen. I just can’t figure him out. All I know is that it isn’t working.
Hans Nicolussi Caviglia—4: I only noticed him when he lost the ball, got bodied, or whiffed a set piece. Not great.
Rolando Mandragora—5: He’s ponderous as all hell but I’ll give Roly that he’s trying. Like Gosens, finds pockets of space in interesting areas but his teammates neglect to use him. Did come close to scoring an excellent free kick.
Dodô—6.5: Everyone’s going to talk about the miss but he was otherwise good, dominating the flank by himself and providing more thrust in the final third than usual. Was also involved in winning both penalties, so it’s not like he didn’t contribute to the point.
Albert Guðmundsson—6: Took his penalty quite well but didn’t do much else. It’s concerning that he still hasn’t developed any chemistry with Kean in year two.
Moise Kean—6.5: Given his record from the spot, I was awfully nervous about his penalty, but he dispatched it confidently. He won it, too, so he fully deserved the goal. The selfishness and tunnel vision remain problematic but he’s starting to wake up a little bit.
Edin Džeko—5: Moved the ball around and added an extra body in the middle but did nothing to dispel the notion that he just doesn’t have the legs to play for more than 30ish minutes in Serie A.
Niccolò Fortini—6: Offered more on-ball juice than Gosens, as evidenced by the 3 fouls he drew, including the 2nd card on Holm. He’s ready.
Cher Ndour—5: His off-ball running isn’t as useful against a team that’s already defending deep in its box, particularly when there are already 3 or 4 other strikers in there, and his technical shortcomings mean he can’t contribute in deeper positions.
Abdelhamid Sabiri—4: Extraordinarily lucky that Federico La Penna ignored his foul in the Viola box on Federico Bernardeschi. Nothing against him but what the hell are we even doing if he’s coming off the bench? What is happening in these training sessions?
Roberto Piccoli—n/a: Bustled around and won the last gasp header that Dodô missed his shot on.
Three things we learned
1. Don’t look back
It’s been a full season of the whole team underperforming, so picking out individuals isn’t entirely fair. After all, it’s hard to maintain a high standard when everyone’s ass. The two biggest problems for me, though, have become obvious over the past month, and they play right next to each other. It’s Marí and Pongračić, of course, and their bumbling incompetence has reached a level at which there’s no saving them.
The sequence I’m thinking of was in the second half, right before Dallinga’s disallowed goal. At 66’, Orsolini headed well wide at the back post. Our Wonder Twins both escorted the ball into touch, but instead Dallinga beat them both to it. A better player would’ve dug it out but the ball luckily bounced to Marí, who lackadaisically cleared it to Miranda, who took a touch and crossed it back in. With the two tallest defenders hopelessly out of position, the ball eventually found Dallinga again, who’d jogged past Pong and leathered it home.
It was a Crap 90s Football sequence updated for 2025, the sort of prolonged idiocy that any centerback ought to be ashamed of. This was the most glaring example but the pair of them have been making unforgivable mistakes regularly for the past month while Pietro Comuzzo rots on the bench. I don’t think that benching one or both of these bozos will fix everything, but it should help. At the very least, we won’t have any more sequences like that.
2. I can tell you’re going through the motions. Figured you were acting out your part.
Fiorentina has gone winless through its first 8 Serie A games twice: once in 1977-1978, and now. That 77-78 team finally won in match week 9 (0-1 at Bologna, of all teams). Manager Carlo Mazzone had built up a fair amount of goodwill, finishing 3rd the previous season and winning the Anglo-Italian Cup in 1975, but even he couldn’t survive much longer and got axed 2 games later, after failing to add another victory. His replacement Mario Mazzoni only lasted 5 games (W2 L3, including 5-1 at Milan to seal his fate) before the legendary Giuseppe Chiappella returned to steer the ship into harbor, finishing 14th.
The point is nice here is nice but the performance counteracts the glimpses of progress we saw against Rapid Wien on Thursday. Clearly, that was just a matter of talent rather than the mister figuring out something different. I like Pioli as a person and have nothing but respect for him but this has reached the point of no return. Even Rocco Commisso, who’s obviously not paying attention, might start to worry if one of his flagship projects ends up with Serie B’s most impressive training facility. I don’t know when the axe will drop but it has to be soon. This just isn’t sustainable.
When Pioli finally gets sacked, we’ll be able to look back on this with clearer vision. For now, though, he’s clearly run into a series of structural problems to which he can’t find solutions. Some of that is on him, certainly, but more of it is on the the people who built those structures. I feel a little bad for Pioli, whose message isn’t getting through to his players and who is certainly not having a good time. He’s a good soldier and he cares about the team and its direction, but he’s bewildered and out of ideas. He’s just performing at this point rather than coaching. It’s over.
3. Never considered this a prize
I don’t usually plan on copying someone else’s insight for these things but wolfpackallday is so exactly right that I can’t do anything else.
