Player grades
David de Gea—7: Made 2 splendid saves (on Cesare Casadei and Giovanni Simeone) to earn Fiorentina a point. He’s just really, really good.
Luca Ranieri—6.5: Made some good plays in the box and shut down Cyril Ngonge. Had a chance to score in the second half but skewed his volley on the back post. Led the team in tackles and clearances. Did some interesting stuff in possession but still didn’t move it forward quickly enough.
Marin Pongračić—6: One of his better games even though he lost Simeone once
or twice. Won most of his physical confrontations and avoided the mistakes that usually plague him. Still weirdly bad in the air for such a big guy but he wasn’t the problem.
Pietro Comuzzo—5: Struggled with Nikola Vlaśić as Torino clearly identified him as the weak link early on but he did almost score a spectacular volley a la Milenković, which would’ve been fun. Forced off at the half with stomach issues for the 2nd time in this young season, which is a bit concerning.
Robin Gosens—6.5: Should’ve had an assist, maybe even a goal, but for Kean’s all-time bonehead move. Worked hard and provided an aerial outlet. His positioning in the second half was key to Fiorentina’s improvement, even if his defensive work is always a little nerve wracking.
Simon Sohm—4.5: Huffed and puffed without accomplishing anything. Picked up a pointless booking (more on Piccoli, to be fair). Needs to be part of a midfield 3, I think; his off-ball running is what makes him special but it doesn’t work as part of a double pivot, when he’s forced to sit deep and focus on passing, which isn’t his strong suit. Unsurprisingly, his best moment was when he set up Piccoli’s chance while driving forward on the break.
Rolando Mandragora—4.5: Largely invisible except when he threw up his hands in exasperation of nobody moving ahead of him several times. Like Sohm, dropped deep to pick up the ball but didn’t make any impact in the final third. Made minimal defensive impact. We’ve seen the Mandrake as part of a double pivot and we know that it doesn’t work.
Dodô—6.5: Zipped up and down as per. Was the only thread connecting the defense and the attack for the first hour but needs someone else to help him out in that department. How he’s still got energy after playing every minute of these past 4 games is a mystery but he just never stops.
Albert Guðmundsson—4: Tried to drop deep and link play but failed. Drifted to the left in the second half and had a couple decent moments but never looked like unlocking Torino’s defense. He’s bigger than Dodô but plays smaller, and while it’s slightly amusing to watch him get whipped around, it’s also rather discouraging.
Moise Kean—3: It wasn’t just the all-timer miss (0.98 xG per Opta). It was the selfish decisions before that to go it alone several times, wasting good opportunities. It’s going to take some time for the Moose to adjust to having another forward with him and he tried to find Piccoli a couple times but it wasn’t happening. On the plus side, there’s no way he stays this bad.
Roberto Piccoli—5: Worked hard in and out of possession but his technical limitations were also apparent. Should’ve done better with his chance but blasted it right at Franco Israel. He’s certainly useful but more functional than anything else.
Nicolò Fagioli—6: Added an aspect of control that was badly lacking in the first half although he also got a little more heated as the game wore on, taking a wild shot and trying to force some passes.
Eddy Kouadio—4.5: Torino targeted him relentlessly and all the hosts’ chances after the break came from attacking his side of the pitch. Even if he’s not quite ready, though, playing him over Pablo Marí or Mattia Viti shows just how highly Pioli rates him and that’s way more exciting. Congrats on the debut.
Cher Ndour—5: Motored around without doing all that much. Looks less useful in this deeper, more tactically disciplined role than he does with the freedom to charge all over the place.
Edin Džeko—5: Won a couple aerial battles but didn’t have a touch in the box.
Jacopo Fazzini—n/a: The biscotto had already been made. He just got 8 minutes to nibble at it.
Three things we learned
1. Hooray, hooray, I’m your silver lining. Things look pretty grim at the moment. Fiorentina’s played 2 Serie A games, scored one goal, and generally looked pretty woeful. Everything in front of the back line is a mess; it’s too early to look at the statistics but not too early to look at the games themselves and see a team that’s discombobulated, ponderous, and bad.
Dropping points early is bad; the Viola would’ve walked into the Champions League last year if not for a pathetic first 6 games. Much like last year, though, there’s been a lot of squad turnover this year and the manager is still trying to integrate new players and figure out what works best.
Pioli’s not an exciting manager but he’s competent enough and there’s enough talent on this team to turn things around. These opening weeks have been dire but imagine if Kean had scored either of his big chances: Fiorentina would have 6 points and we’d be a little anxious about the team as a whole but confident that it was figuring out a way to win.
Two games at the start of the season in the midst of the roiling transfer market isn’t a big enough sample to worry about. That’s not to say there aren’t specific things we can’t look at but zoom out: nothing is broken beyond repair. Just like last year, once these guys get their footing, they’ll kick on and look much, much better.
2. I was steady. I was soft to touch. Cut wide open, did I let in too much? That said, there are some patterns that concern me, particularly in midfield. Pioli’s always prioritized overloading the wings at the expense of the middle in possession. Last time he was in town, we saw Marco Benassi/Gerson/rogues gallery of random midfielders constantly move to the wings, leaving Jordan Veretout all alone in the middle, where he was outnumbered and overrun, allowing opponents a runway to attack the defensive line.
It failed because Fiorentina didn’t have the quality to exploit the space that created. It worked at AC Milan for the opposite reason: Ismaël Bennacer could run the show while Franck Kessié drifted around as an extra runner. That pair was so physically good that they could lock down the engine room, allowing the attackers to stay higher up and score the goals that won the scudetto.
To his credit, Pioli’s trying to adjust here. Instead of having one of Sohm or Mandragora sit deep and the other wander around, they both stayed home, often encouraging the outside centerbacks to venture forward. Pioli identified a problem and worked to fix it, but coming off a midweek game, it looked as rusty as you’d expect: neither midfielder was sure where to go when the forwards pressed, and the center was still too open.
To me, the solution is pretty clearly a midfield 3. It worked last year and the personnel this year seems largely suited to that setup as well: Sohm, Mandragora, and Ndour all like to get forward and should be encouraged to do so because it plays to their strengths. The problem is that leaving a single midfielder back, especially with the wingbacks up, means the middle’s too open. Adding another body to that zone is the simplest answer.
3. These are the cries of the dying breed. Italy produces world class central defendes and world class number 10s. Or at least it used to. The former still roll off the assembly line every year, but the latter’s notably absent these days. It’s a far cry from 20 years ago, when the likes of Rui Costa, Kaká, and Francesco Totti turned Serie A into the most watchable league on earth.
Plenty of people have written about the death of the fantasista since then. I wrote about the death of the 10 under Pioli 7 years ago in reference to Riccardo Saponara and I stand by my conclusions: Pioli’s system prioritizes athleticism and power over technique and trickery.
And, just like Saponara before him, I think Guðmundsson is the odd man out. He’s obviously talented but he doesn’t fit with everyone else. Playing him behind 2 strikers leaves the midfield too light and playing him as part of the front two leaves his partner isolated up front. He’s a moments player in a side that needs a steady contributor in that role, and while he can help this team, his presence destabilizes everything else.
