It happened. Fiorentina won a Serie A game and it only took 16 tries. With that success fresh in their minds, the Viola will try to repeat that performance at 17th-place Parma, which has shown signs of
life recently under disgustingly young manager Carlos Cuesta, who’s all of 30 years old. The Viola won’t haul themselves out of the drop zone with a win here but would at least peel themselves out of last place, so there’s plenty of pressure on them to get a result.
The match will be played on Saturday, 27 December 2025, at 14:30 GMT/6:30 AM EST, at the Stadio Ennio Tardini in Parma. The forecast calls for a crisp day with nary a cloud in the sky. Everything’s set up for an excellent game except for, you know, Fiorentina being Fiorentina.
Three things to watch for
1. The back 4
Last week’s win was Paolo Vanoli’s first real tactical change and it worked well. Fiorentina looked miles better with a back 4 featuring Fabiano Parisi and Albert Guðmundsson on the wings. Sure, Udinese made it veeerrrrryyy easy by getting its goalkeeper sent off early and sacrificing a midfielder instead of a forward, but there were potentially repeatable solutions in Vanoli’s new approach.
This week, of course, he’ll have to change it. The key absence is Luca Ranieri, who’s suspended. My guess is that, even though Robin Gosens is back in the squad for the first time in 2 months, Mattia Viti will get the nod at leftback. That’s partly a fitness concern but also because the leftback behind Guðmundsson has to sit deep, which negates much of Gosens’ impact. Viti, on the other hand, is well-suited to the role and even took it over from Ranieri late on against Udinese.
The centerbacks and rightback (Pietro Comuzzo Marin Pongračić, and Dodô, respectively) are all locked in. The question is how they mesh with Viti and how they react to Parma’s attack. Mateo Pellegrino is an underrated target man (61 aerial duels won, 2nd-best in Serie A) and will cause problems when Parma goes straight to him, while Milan Djurić comes off the bench and is the best aerial threat in the league. Vanoli will try to get his guys to cut off the supply as much as possible but the centerbacks have to step up too.
2. How sleepy Guðmundsson is
The forward who scored a beauty against Udinese and was at the heart of numerous moves was one we’ve seen maybe half a dozen times in Florence in his year and a half with the team. As usually happens on those rare occasions when he’s fully awake and engaged, the attack looked dangerous. If he can string together consecutive strong outings—which I can’t recall him doing previously—it’ll got a long way towards taking the pressure off Moise Kean, balancing the Viola attack, and adding a bit of unpredictability to the approach play.
Guðmundsson will probably operate in a nominal left midfield role again but will have a lot of freedom to roam in search of space. His direct opponent will be 19-year-old Sasha Britschgi, who’s had some good moments but shouldn’t provide too formidable an obstacle. Cuesta will doubtless get his young defender some help but Guðmundsson needs to assert himself here, both to help his team and to improve his standing in the transfer window; I can’t help but think all his comments about Juventus and Inter Milan eying him up a couple years ago were made to drum up interest.
3. Parma’s shape
Fiorentina’s not the only team struggling with its shape. Cuesta played 3-5-2 to start the season but has gone to a back 4 over the past couple games as well, testing out both a 4-3-3 and a lopsided 4-4-2. My guess is that we’ll see something more like the former, which gets Adrian Bernabé on the ball more often while ensuring that Parma doesn’t get overrun in the middle, especially with Cher Ndour and/or Simon Sohm breaking forward and Guðmundsson drifting in.
Gaetano Oristanio and Adrian Benedyzcak, the likely wingers, are both quick and tricky enough without being particularly interesting. The man who makes Parma tick is Adrian Bernabé (Fiorentina beffata) and one of Cuesta’s primary aims will be getting the Spaniard on the ball in the right spaces. He’ll drift around as the primary creative hub and locking him down will make things a lot easier for the Viola. If he’s shackled, Parma won’t be able to progress through the middle and will become very one-dimensional.
Possible lineups
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Ted’s Memorial Blind Guess Department
I don’t know how or why but the bookies have Fiorentina as the favorite here. I’m not a gambler and generally disapprove of the entire industry, not least because it’s designed to take money from bettors, but I have a lot of trouble seeing how this line makes any sense. Fiorentina, despite last week’s big win, remains a Superfund site. Parma hasn’t impressed but has beaten up on teams in the drop zone. I wouldn’t bet my rent on the hosts but I’d feel better about that than any other outcome.
Even so, I’ll pick the visitors to squeak out a 1-2 win because I’m an idiot and TMBGD is a place for unbridled optimism. Parma has Serie A’s worst attack (just 10 goals scored) but you know, I know, and the demons down under the sea know that it’ll get a scrappy goal off a set piece, probably from a centerback. Lautaro Valenti’s bigger than Enrico Delprato so I’ll say it’s him. Nevertheless, I’ll take Kean and Sohm (back to haunt his old team) to get the visitors over the line in a game that is nigh unwatchable at times as both teams kick up dust rather than playing.
Forza Viola!
