Player grades
David de Gea—6: Made a good save on Sergi Roberto in the second half but let Jayden Addai beat him a bit too easily from a tight angle on the winner. The rest of his 5 saves were routine.
Robin Gosens—4.5: Battled away but, as we’ve seen, he’s less impactful as a fullback than a wingback. It’s no coincidence that Como took over the game as soon as Addai came on, as the Goose was woefully unable to contain the young Dutchman.
Luca Ranieri—5: Beaten badly on the first goal, losing track of Marc Oliver
Kempf, but made a couple other decent plays despite occasionally looking a little jumpy on the ball.
Marin Pongračić—4: Man-marked Álvaro Morata and then Anastasio Douvickas very tightly. Too tightly, in fact, as he conceded a lot of fouls with his shirt grabbing and barges through the back. Really poor on Addai’s winning goal, too, jogging back towards his own goal rather than sprinting out to meet the winger out wide and keeping him away from the net.
Dodô—6: Excellent in the first half, popping up all over the place in all phases. Slowed down as the game wore on and struggled a bit with Jesus Rodríguez but was the best of the back four.
Jacopo Fazzini—6.5: Made a couple of bad decisions but his energy was critical to Fiorentina’s bright start; he’s got an engine on him and never stopped harassing Como’s midfield. Had an interesting role in possession, too, often floating into the middle to allow Gosens to overlap.
Hans Nicolussi Caviglia—6.5: Man of the match despite a couple of boneheaded plays. His positional discipline, reading of the game, energy, and positivity on the ball were crucial to the first half success. Faded badly after the break along with everyone else but already looks like the linchpin of the midfield, a younger and more athletic Danilo Cataldi.
Rolando Mandragora—6.5: Got his typical Blasphemy Banger but was pretty anonymous otherwise, aside from a decent corner for Piccoli. Held up okay in a double pivot in the first half but Como took advantage after the break by pulling him high up and attacking the space behind him and in front of the defense.
Tariq Lamptey—5.5: Looked very quick and showed a good understanding with Dodô but the knee injury is a real concern. Stefano Pioli claimed it didn’t look serious but we’ll see.
Roberto Piccoli—4: Worked hard and closed down like crazy, which is the sort of thing that coaches like more than fans and could keep him in the XI, but he was quite bad on the ball, borking several good opportunities and failing to control the ball very well.
Moise Kean—4.5: Looked lively enough but his finishing boots are still weirdly absent and his selfishness doesn’t work as well with another striker alongside him. Also showed some petulance, particularly with Fortini’s admittedly poor crossing.
Niccolò Fortini—5: Was it a perfect debut? No. Was it promising? Yeah, I think so. For a kid who’s never played higher than Serie B, he showed he’s physically up for it. He’ll improve technically and tactically as the season unfolds.
Nicolò Fagioli—4.5: Smooth on the ball as always but didn’t add any control; in fact, seemed to do quite the opposite. He’s obviously a technical wizard but there’s something missing.
Simon Sohm—3: A clumsy yellow card, 2/8 passes completed, 0/2 aerial duels. Woof.
Edin Džeko—5: Had a decent interchange with Kean and won the final free kick but there’s only so much he can do.
Mattia Viti—4: Looked really unsteady, getting bodied a couple times and making one headless chicken run upfield.
Three things we learned
1. I need an engine that runs. The first half was Fiorentina’s best of the season, mostly due to what the team did without the ball. Como plays out from the back and picks teams apart but the Viola completely stymied them early on by ferociously man-marking them, turning the Lariani over time and again high up the pitch and generating good chances for the strikers. The double pivot stayed connected and Fazzini dropped in to help, a bit like Edoardo Bove did last year.
This is how a Pioli midfield ought to work. It’s more about industry than guile and requires a lot of running, the idea being that, by winning the ball higher up and minimizing the distance to goal, less technical midfielders have a greater margin for error with the final ball. Pass completion stats don’t matter as much because it’s a high-risk, high-reward approach. When it works, it’s overwhelming; Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool, for example, became the best team in Europe for a bit despite not having any traditional playmakers in the middle.
In theory, Fazzini, Nicolussi Caviglia, and Sohm are tailor-made for such intensity. Mandragora’s played a similar style under Vincenzo Italiano but never convinced, always looking better in a more reactive system. Fagioli’s never really operated at this tempo and it might take him some time to acclimate. The result’s a real punch in the crotch, obviously, but the first half gave us a glimpse of what this midfield can achieve, even if the second showed us how bad it can look.
2. Try to be less uptight. Try to be more aware. The other thing that stood out from the first half was how the players rotated around the pitch. Fazzini was the most obvious one, as he regularly popped up in central positions and sometimes even in the right channel. The fullbacks also stepped into midfield positions, especially Dodô. I’m not going to bother with heat maps since those only track touches rather than positions, so it’s the dreaded eyeball test.
Considering how clunky the whole team had looked in the various 3-5-2/3-4-2-1/3-4-1-2 shapes that Pioli had used previously, I’d expected things to look at least as ugly, given that they’d only trained this approach for a week. Instead, though, the players rotated around the pitch, making it difficult for Como to press them by whirling into wider/narrower positions. That kind of fluidity, combined with the defensive effort, looks like the foundation for a good team.
Como figured it out, though. Fabregas added more pace on the wings and pinned Fiorentina’s fullbacks. With the fullbacks unable to rotate with the midfielders, the whole thing became stodgy, static, and easy for the visitors to close down. That’s not to say that this approach won’t work, but the players will need to communicate a lot and understand who they need to cover for when the ball gets turned over and they’re out of position. Teams like Napoli and Inter Milan can manage it, but it takes a ton of effort for outfits a step below that elite level.
3. I am going to make it through this year if it kills me. 2 points in the first 4 games is bad. Not “let’s fire the coach” bad, but bad enough to make everyone start asking a lot of questions. Bad enough to make every little problem something that we fans need to investigate and adjudicate as we search for control over a situation which we definitionally do not have any control over. Bad enough to make tantrums and snarling comments all too common.
I don’t think it’ll stay this bad. Kean’s eventually going to get going and the rest of the players will more or less fall into line the same way that do every year. The ceiling on this team might be lower than I’d like but I don’t think the floor has completely dropped out. I mean, it’s 4 games. There’s only so much you can learn from such a small sample. Sure, I’m a bit worried (after all, this is 10% of the season gone), but I’m not ready to hit the panic button yet. Way too early. But I’m also starting to think that this isn’t going to be a season I particularly enjoy.
