What a difference a year makes in football.
This time last season, Fiorentina had amassed 24 points by winning 7 of their 12 league matches, losing twice. They’d scored 24 goals and conceded 14, keeping 3 clean sheets. They were 5th in the Serie A and unbeaten in the UEFA Europa League group stage. Vincenzo Montella was even being hailed as the next Antonio Conte.
How things have changed since.
The Violas are currently 10th on 16 points. They’ve lost 4 of their 12 league matches and average 1 goal per match, the least among the top 10 teams. At the moment, Montella’s men have also only managed 2 wins in their last 6 games. They’ve definitely missed the services of their talisman in Guiseppe Rossi who was last season’s club top scorer. When Rossi was injured the first time around, Fiorentina only won 50% of their matches, losing 7 in 18. That does not bode well for the Florence-based side. Meanwhile, their 2nd highest goalscorer then, Juan Cuadrado has only netted twice so far.
So what can they do?
Some might argue that this time around, Fiorentina have Mario Gomez back from injury. He is naturally expected to pick up from where Rossi left off. But the ex-Bayern hitman has yet to find his scoring touch. In 6 matches, a couple of which were from the bench, he has only had 9 shots on goal. Their backup is 21 year old Khouma Babacar. The Senegalese has been with the club since 2009 but is only now enjoying an extended spot in the first team as Montella searches for goals within his squad. Babacar though, has only 4 goals in the league to-date. It’s no wonder they’re in 10th place.
Perhaps it’s the lack of motivation by some of last season’s overachievers?
Borja Valero, one of their star buys in 2012, had the most assists in the team last season. But despite making 10 appearances, he’s only got 1 currently. Alberto Aquilani meanwhile has yet to open his account in scoring and assists either. The Chilean Matias Fernandez has been less than impressive this early in the season too. Fortunately, in their place others like Josip Ilicic has stepped up. He leads the way in terms of shots on goal. But again, it’s not enough obviously. To make up for the lack of goals by their strikers and front men, the midfield has had to over compensate, to the detriment of their main purpose.
Fiorentina have to play Cagliari, Juventus, Cesena and Empoli next, before the winter break. Luckily for them they’ve performed well with teams from the bottom half of the table, mostly. It’s the match against Juve that will see them either cutting their losses or losing even more ground. Their defeats have all been against teams in the top 6 – Roma, Lazio, Sampdoria and Napoli. They did struggle against 15th place Torino and Sassuolo who are in 11th, coming away with draws. So the away ties to relegation embattled Cesena and Cagliari in 16th place could prove tricky even if on paper it should be a walk in the park for Montella’s men.
In all 4 of their losses, the weak link has always been from the right. Nenad Tomovic failed against Napoli’s Lorenzo Insigne. Aquilani was literally absent in the match against Sampdoria. Lazio’s Senad Lulic successfully curbed Jasmin Kurtic and starting Joshua Brillante against Roma proved to be a mistake indefinitely.
It is also evident that Fiorentina function better when they pack the midfield with 5 men. They have won convincingly and kept a clean sheet in 3 of the 4 matches in which they’ve played that way. It’s expected of Montella to make changes to his team when facing different opposition. But tinkering results in unsettling the squad. Like leaving out David Pizarro. More often than not, the team has struggled when he does not start. In the 8 matches Fiorentina have either lost of drawn, Pizarro did not start in 5 of them.
Plus, for someone who made 646 passes and 47 out of 78 successful dribbles last season, it’s questionable why Joaquin does not feature more often in the team. After all, he did play a pivotal role in helping the team get all the way to 5th last season. Surely he can’t suddenly lose competency despite being one of 7 players aged 30 or above in the squad.
Luckily for Montella, the January winter transfer window is coming up. The boss has to either go shopping or make better use of the quality at his disposal. After all, the squad he has is largely unchanged from last season. He knew how to use these same players to guide the Violas all the way to 5th spot. So what exactly has changed?
Could it be that maybe his priority is to win silverware this season and thus, more focus will be on the domestic cup or even the Europa League? After all, no one is expecting Fiorentina to win the league with the likes of Juventus, Roma and Napoli being favourites to clinch the title, come May 2015. But just like Wolfsburg in the Bundesliga, Southampton in England and even Marseille in Ligue 1, it’s still always nice to see underdogs prevail. Fiorentina may be 15 points away from the leaders at the moment, but if there’s one league where nothing is impossible, it’s in the Italian Serie A.
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