Fresh off an embarrassing showing against Genoa, Fiorentina tries to get its act together back at home against Como, which has descended to earth after a bright start, including a deflating defeat at Feyenoord on Wednesday, but still hovers in 7th place. If you’re keeping track at home, that’s a lot better than 19th, which is where the Viola find themselves. Consider this your regular, gentle reminder that we live in hell.
The match will be played Sunday, 18 October 2026, at 14:00 GMT/9:00 AM EST,
at the Stadio Artemio Franchi in beautiful Firenze. The forecast calls for a slightly dreary fall day, possibly with some drizzle, but it won’t actually get all that cold. In short, it should be perfect conditions for a game. Or at least perfect conditions for everyone but Moise Kean, who’s set to miss his new club’s trip to Florence after a mildly acrimonious departure from Fiorentina due to that troublesome shin issue.
Three things to watch for
1. The bounce back
A lot of what went wrong for Fiorentina last week was, I think, tactical. Genoa came out with a back 4 and wingers, playing 5 high up and getting them all running vertically in a way that the Viola weren’t prepared for. Once they adjusted after the opening 35 minutes or so, they were mostly fine and even mounted a halfhearted comeback attempt. Credit Daniele de Rossi for coming up with a clever plan and his guys for executing it well enough to save his job. They took advantage of the extended break.
I’m not too worried about that. Paolo Vanoli doesn’t usually get out-generaled that badly and there aren’t many 3 week breaks during which to scheme such changes. What concerned me more than the tactical side was the confusion among the players. Nobody took charge of the situation and did the cliched leadership stuff to lift their teammates. Part of that was Luca Ranieri, one of the more vocal and encouraging guys on the roster, having an all-time horror show, which silenced his voice. With so many new signings, though, I worry that the squad’s still figuring out who those central figures are.
David de Gea’s the captain but, as goalkeeper, there’s only so much he can do on the pitch because he’s far away from everyone. He got a little fiery at times but he’s not usually the vocal one who gees everybody up. With Ranieri out of the running, Nicolò Fagioli was the ranking veteran in the side. He’s a bit more diffident, though, and isn’t a rally-the-troops guy. As happened last year, I think a lot of that in-game emotional burden falls on Vanoli. It’s why he got booked so often last year as he tried to give his guys that lift.
Maybe Ranieri gets his voice back in this one. Maybe Dodô returns to the XI. Maybe a new vocal leader emerges. Regardless, though, I’m looking to see how the group responds to such a poor performance. If it snowballs like last year did, the questions about mental fragility will return and snowball into an overwhelming narrative. If the players come out and do their jobs with some amount of gusto, though, I’ll be a lot more confident that things are moving in the right direction regardless of result.
2. Midfield balance
Last week’s experiment with Fagioli and Christ Inao Oulaï was a disaster: they were often in the same space in possession and literally collided with each other a couple times. Fiorentina’s best chances came when Cher Ndour got into the box. That’s why he’s necessary: he does the dirty work, the running, the unglamorous stuff that allows his teammates to shine. Both Fagioli and Oulaï are primarily on-ball players and until they figure out how to coexist, playing them together will be a problem. Arthur Atta should be the solution but his struggles for fitness leave Marco Brescianini as the only remaining option, and he’s similar to Ndour.
I believe that Fagioli and Oulaï can play together but both will have to sacrifice: Nicky Beans has to play higher up and cede touches in the construction phase while the Christ has to remain more disciplined without the ball instead of chasing everything. They’ll have to figure that out but it’s a problem that is in part solvable with good coaching.
Como’s style of play is very different from Genoa’s, though. The Lariani are second in possession in Serie A and press very intensely. They leave space at the back but bet they can cut off the supply before opponents can exploit it. That poses a double difficulty for Fiorentina’s midfield. They’ll have to cover a lot of ground without the ball and turn off the faucet on Como’s counterattacks, which favors Oulaï. In possession, they’ll have to balance keeping the ball and finding the killer pass, which favors Fagioli. If those two and Vanoli can figure out how to combine their qualities, the Viola will have a chance to get something here.
3. Keeping up in a track meet
Como’s scored just 9 goals from 13.4 xG but conceded 6 from 9.02 xG against and has kept a single clean sheet on the season, as well as suffering the unspeakable indignity of conceding twice against Frosinone, which no good team would ever do. Fabregas clearly believes in his side’s quality going forward, which makes sense given the roster, which is packed with quick, technical players. Como wants a quick, open game in which it generates a lot of chances and is willing to concede chances on the other end, banking on its own ability in the final third to see it through.
Knowing that gives Fiorentina an advantage. I see two possible approaches to this game. The first is to embrace chaos. The downside is that Como gets to play to its own strengths but the Viola forwards are better suited to an up-and-down match and the defenders are so prone to bozo moments that discounting the value of any individual goal might be the right move in purely mathematical terms. It’s never a good idea to let an opponent set the terms of the game, though, particularly a superior one.
The other option is sitting deep and countering. That’s closer to the approach we’ve seen all year but I’d rather see the mister open things up. I don’t think this Fiorentina is good enough to keep it tight and win in the margins so might as well try to win shootouts. That’s also more fun for a lot of fans. It’s worth noting too that Como could be a little tuckered out from its trip to the Netherlands; going up and punching Fabregas’ bunch in the mouth early could throw them off for long enough to survive the inevitable response.
Possible lineups
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Ted’s Memorial Blind Guess Department
The bookies have Como as big favorites and I have trouble disagreeing with that assessment. We’re talking about a team in the relegation zone against a team in the Champions League. That’s really all you need to know. Sure, you can sift through the numbers and poke holes in Como’s season but the fact remains that Fiorentina has been ass for a solid year and shows no signs of reducing its assness. That should be all you need.
Even so, I’ll take the hosts for a 2-1 win. This feels like the kind of game that the Viola will get up for and I think they’re better constructed to attack a high line than a deep one. I’ll say the goals go to Mateo Pellegrino and Alieu Njie for the good guys with Douvikas pulling one back in a game that’s open, entertaining, and probably features a fair number of cards, including one for Vanoli after Fabregas attacks him with a screwdriver and somehow doesn’t get punished since apparently Serie A refuses to do anything against its golden boy head coach.
Forza Viola!
