Italy battled to a 1-1 draw with France a couple days ago in one of the international break’s marquee matchups. There was plenty of Fiorentina-adjacent intrigue as Moise Kean missed an open net after a great ball from Michael Kayode but it was Nicolò Fagioli’s performance that raised some eyebrows. Wearing number 10—the first time a Viola midfielder has done so for the Azzurri in a competitive match since Riccardo Montolivo against Bulgaria in 2008—the schemer held his own.
Up against Rayan Cherki,
Nicky Beans struggled out of possession, as you’d expect. It was his foul that resulted in Michael Olise’s fabulous set piece strike. WhoScored has him down as making 3/7 tackles but to my eyes, he didn’t look up to it physically. With Davide Frattesi and Sandro Tonali joining him in the engine room, though, Roberto Mancini wasn’t expecting athletic excellence from him. Fagioli led Italy’s midfielders in touches and in every passing statistic. France’s press overpowered him a couple times but he gave the Azzurri a modicum of control that Tonali and Frattesi (both excellent players) couldn’t offer.
The resulting shower of praise on Fagioli feels a bit overblown to me, frankly. I thought he was solid rather than inspirational, although that’s impressive enough against a team as talented and mobile as les Bleus. I’m more interested in the conversation that his performance sparked. It’s probably so much drivel, food flakes of Fiorentina content shaken onto the surface of the tank for hungry goldfish during this unprecedented 3-week break, but there’s a chance that Paolo Vanoli’s planning to take a page from Mancini’s book and move Fagioli out of the holding role he’s occupied at club level for the past couple seasons and try him higher up the pitch.
Since Fagioli joined Fiorentina, I’ve wanted to see him as a mezzala. His lack of physical and defensive characteristics makes him an awkward fit screening the defense in a low-possession team and he sometimes sets the wrong rhythm, particularly when he drops the ball to less-technical defenders with the expectation that they can operate in tight spaces the way he can. Conversely, Nicky Beans has a knack for finding space and creases in the defense that make him useful higher up the pitch. It’s not groundbreaking wisdom to put your most creative players higher up but it’s something that the Viola haven’t done with him yet.
It could help the rest of the team quite a bit, too. Christ Inao Oulaï has flashed a ton of talent in his limited minutes so far. His quickness on and off the ball is startling. If he can improve his reading of the game and his distribution, he could become Fiorentina’s best regista since David Pizarro. The best way to develop him is to give him minutes. So far, he hasn’t played with Fagioli for a single minute as both Vanoli and Fabio Grosso saw them as mutually exclusive but the young Ivorian could ease the defensive burden on Nicky Beans while growing his own game.
The problem then becomes that third midfield spot. Whoever fills it needs to stitch together Oulaï and Fagioli. For my money, that’s Cher Ndour. He scores the odd goal (e.g. this insanity with Azzurini today) and puts in the occasional big tackle. His standout quality, though, is his engine. He’s a tireless off-ball runner both in and out of possession whose ability to cover ground helps the team in every phase. Because he’s big and athletic, the mental side of his game, particularly without the ball, gets overlooked, but I’ve harped on about his intelligence out of possession for the past year. Every coach has paired him with Fagioli to put in the hard yards. Having a dirty work guy, one who sacrifices himself for the team, is so important. That’s Ndour to a tee.
The problem is that, despite his age and rapidly-rising profile, Fiorentina paid €30 million for another tall, rangy midfielder this summer. Arthur Atta has produced a couple magical moments but his overall contribution hasn’t been enough as he’s struggled with his fitness. He’s been too deferential with his passing and hasn’t figured out how to play off the forwards, floating into the spaces he found with Udinese the past couple seasons. I still believe in Atta over the long term but under the current conditions, Ndour’s a better fit, especially in light of Vanoli’s comments about the importance of everybody running.
On paper, it’s the logical move. Fagioli, Oulaï, and Ndour complement each other nicely. At least 2 of them can do all the typical midfielder things (run, tackle, defend in space, control the pace, shoot) except for maybe the most important: Fagioli remains the only above-average passer in the group. Vanoli may see him as indispensable to get the team out of its defensive third and worry that, if Beans is farther up the pitch, the Viola will get trapped too easily. Fiorentina’s got the pieces to excel in transition already, though. What it lacks is a lockpick to open deeper blocks, and I think that has to be Fagioli.
The mister isn’t afraid to make bold decisions, such as dropping Albert Guðmundsson last year, and benching Atta would certainly be a bold decision. This break has given him the time on the training ground to work with the squad that he didn’t get over the summer. Maybe that means he’s got a better idea of how to squeeze something from Atta, especially since Fagioli and Oulaï are both on international duty. If the Frenchman remains as enigmatic as he’s been so far, though, Vanoli may demote him for now. It’s a long old season and a lot can and will change as it unfolds but as it stands, these international games have given us more to think about that usual.
