After starting out with the goalkeepers, we’re moving forward to the centerbacks. Spoiler alert: it’s bad! Everything’s bad!
Marin Pongračić
The much-maligned defender started out this season much as he started out the last one. He switched off, made horrible passes, was curiously ineffective in the air, fouled needlessly, and was generally a mess. I wrote a whole article in October about how he’d been the team’s worst player. Paolo Vanoli’s arrival didn’t immediately improve him but eventually, Pongračić quietly
became the team’s best defender. He curbed his most indulgent instincts on the ball and used his pace really well. By the end of the year, he was 1 of maybe 5 players who didn’t set off a facial tic whenever I had to see him.
Stats: 48 appearances (42 starts), 1 goal, 17 yellow cards
Best moment: Duh.
What’s next:
Final grade: C Defenders are loud when they’re bad and quiet when they’re good, and Pongračić hit the mute button right around February.
Luca Ranieri
Engaged in a duel with Pongračić at the start of the year to see who could be more ass and gallantly lost. Also lost the armband to David de Gea in December, which was bizarre but in hindsight made sense. Credit to Luca for sticking out a miserable year, though, and eventually regaining his footing. He didn’t display the psychotic joy that’s been his trademark for the past few years but he was solid enough to keep Fiorentina up despite his physical and technical limitations. Despite the tribulations, he also kept trying, which is more than can be said for some of his teammates. All that heart, though, wasn’t nearly enough. He was bad.
Stats: 45 appearances (39 starts), 3 goals, 10 yellow cards, 1 red card
Best moment: The 3 goals were nice but for me, it was in the 1-4 win at Cremonese that pretty well sealed survival. He put in a monster sliding tackle on David Okereke streaking down the sideline, stoning the attacker and coming up with a fist pump and a roar in a way that symbolized that he was still here, goddammit, and still giving it everything he had.
What’s next: After such a humiliating year, he might want to move on. As an academy-trained player, though, his value to Fiorentina is greater than to anyone else, so I wouldn’t be surprised if he stuck around; 1 terrible year doesn’t undo 3 good ones before it.
Final grade: D+ He didn’t rise to the moment, but then again neither did anyone.
Pietro Comuzzo
The Ginger Prince was supposed to be Serie A’s ascendant young centerback after his incredible debut season. Instead, Stefano Pioli and then Paolo Vanoli both relegated him to backup duty. You can’t really blame them, either, as his form tumbled off a cliff. His technical limitations were much more apparent this year and he struggled to track forwards on crosses. A bunch of his mistakes were very similar and that’s cause for concern. When it’s a young player, you expect miscues but hope that each one is unique and thus part of the growth process.
Stats: 41 appearances (29 starts), 1 goal, 6 yellow cards
Best moment: His opener against Milan.
What’s next: Despite the down year, he’s a 21-year-old Italy international who’s about to earn his first senior cap. Selling low on him would be very dumb. That’s not to say that he’s untouchable but it should require at least €25 million to pry him away. Maybe more.
Final grade: C- It was ugly, yeah, but a youngster losing his way in the midst of the club’s worst season in years is fine in the long run. I still believe.
Pablo Marí
Hey, remember when Pablo Marí started 13 games for Fiorentina this year? Feels like a decade ago, doesn’t it? Anyways, the veteran Spaniard was pretty bad. He was the only defender capable of winning headers but his heavy feet and poor passing meant Fiorentina couldn’t build from the back with him on the pitch. As Raffaele Palladino’s most trusted lieutenants, maybe we should’ve known that he’d find himself at odds with the club hierarchy after the mister’s acrimonious departure last summer. When he got shipped off to Al-Hilal in January, it felt like the right move for everyone involved.
Stats: 16 appearances (14 starts), 4 yellow cards
Best moment: This is mean and more a reflection of Fiorentina’s dysfunction than anything he did but it was his dignified farewell.
What’s next: He’s with Al-Hilal now so we can all wish him success going forward.
Final grade: D Seemed like he’d lost a step on the pitch and was (perhaps understandably) one of the more vocal malcontents off it.
Mattia Viti
I really, really wanted Viti to succeed. It’s always fun when a local kid comes home and the boy from Borgo San Lorenzo was so excited to wear the shirt of the team he’d supported since childhood. However, he played with a curious lack of force despite his size. To my eye, he was deeply uncertain and probably undermined by Pioli’s terrible coaching job. Fiorentina ended his loan early, which felt a little tough on him, as he hadn’t been awful.
Stats: 16 appearances (6 starts), 2 yellow cards, 1 red card
Best moment: His sweet and genuine delight upon his Viola debut. Again, seeing someone from the neighborhood play for their favorite club is really special.
What’s next: He had a solid season with Sampdoria after leaving Florence and did well; Tommaso Martinelli, in fact, talked about how much he enjoyed playing with Viti again. The Blucerchiati have an option to buy him from Nice and might well trigger it before the end of the month.
Final grade: D He wasn’t the problem but the problem got all over him.
Daniele Rugani
Brought in to be the adult in the room, nobody expected the Juve loanee to earn a major role. His debut, though, was utterly catastrophic: he was at fault for all 3 Udinese goals in a crushing 3-0 defeat. It wasn’t entirely fair on him as he was clearly not up to speed after spending months on the bench but unfortunately, the tone of the discourse had been set and he never recovered.
Stats: 6 appearances (4 starts), 2 yellow cards
Best moment: I don’t want to be cruel but it was probably when we learned that he’d failed to play enough to trigger an automatic purchase and would return to Juventus.
What’s next: He’ll head back to the Juvenuts, who’ll try to ship him off again.
Final grade: Like most meme players, he’s not nearly as bad as the internet would have you believe. Unfortunately, he was that bad in his limited Viola opportunities.
Well. That wasn’t any fun at all. Next up: the fullbacks.
