How’s it going on guys and welcome back to the ABTFM blog. Today, we are back with another chapter of the Fiorentina Journey. In the last chapter, we were the leader in the league after 7 games. We lost to Napoli at the second game of the season, but we did beat the defending champion Juventus. Right now, we are still having a great time in Italy. Without further ado, let’s have a look at our incredible performance.
vs Inter
To start off the chapter, let’s have a look at the game against Diego Simeone’s Inter Milan. At the end of the last chapter, we mentioned about this game. I personally though this was going to be a tough game. Inter was at the 5th position and only conceded 3 goals in 7 games. However, the match went beyond my expectation – we absolutely dominated the game!
We won the game with 3-0. Dusan Vlahovic scored 3 goals, his first hattrick of the season, also the our first hattrick as the manager of Fiorentina. Looking at the match stats itself, we had 20 shots in total, 10 on target, and we even had more possession. On the other hand, Inter Milan only had 5 shots in 90 minutes, and the only shot on target came in the 88th minute. What a performance!
Dusan Vlahovic first goal came at the 16th minute in the first half. Matteo Politano was putting pressure on Inter’s defender Sergio Reguilon. The Spanish defender was forced to pass the ball back to the keeper, but Dusan Vlahovic intercepted the ball and score the one-on-ones against Samir Handanovic. The second goal was a beautiful goal. Thilo Kehrer was the main man in this goal. He dribbled past Ivan Perisic and Sergio Reguilon, made a cross at the byline. Dusan Vlahovic won the header as always and scored. 2-0 to Fiorentina. The last goal was a penalty. A powerful strike from Dusan Vlahovic and the game finished 3-0.
Moving on to the player ratings, Dusan Vlahovic is undoubtedly the highest with 9.5 after scoring 3 goals. Thilo Kehrer was incredible in this game. He completed 7 dribbles and provided 1 assist. He defended well in the whole game and received an 8.5 after the game, fully deserved! Nicola Tagliaferri and Riccardo Saponara did not have a good time, however Matteo Politano was great in this game. German Pezzella and Marco Benassi once again delivered a great performance for us. Our team was just getting better and better every day.
After beating Inter Milan, that makes us 6 matches in a row without losing. We are also now the top goalscorers in the Serie A with 19 goals. Look at the news, they mentioned that ‘many recalling Hennequin’s Ligue 1 vicotry with Lyon in 2020 amid suggestions that further success may follow in the near future’. Yes! That’s what we like to see! We are definitely going to bring Fiorentina to a higher level and qualify for the Champions League next season!
October Awards
So, we now proceed to the end of October. We played against Lecce and Brescia after Inter Milan, won both game 3-0 and 1-0. For the first time in Serie A, our main striker, Dusan Vlahovic won the Player of the Month for October! In October, Vlahovic made 4 appearances and scored 5 goals, including a hattrick against Inter Milan. His average rating is 7.95, almost an 8 in October. This is the first time our player wins the Player of the Month award, and hopefully our player can achieve more monthly awards as this will be a great confidence booster.
Other than that, our wonderkid Nicola Tagliaferri once again scooping the Serie A U19 Player of the Month for the third consecutive month. Although Tagliaferri only scored 1 goal this month, but the goal was against Juventus, which is a very important goal for us. He did make 2 assists in October, one was in the 3-0 win against Lecce, another one was the 1-0 win against Brescia, which is another important contribution again.
Winning Streak
We played our last match before the international break on 7th November. A comfortable 2-0 win against Sassuolo, which makes us 5 matches won in a row. Surprisingly, it is also our 6 clean sheets in a row. Our defence looks very solid. In terms of attack, we are still the top goalscorers in the Serie A with 25 goals. With this incredible performance, we are still at the top of the table with 28 points, 7 points ahead of the 2nd position. Napoli will potentially become the runner-up after the next game, but there will still be a 6 points gap between us.
Moving on to the player stats, Dusan Vlahovic is the current top scorer in the league with 10 goals while Nicola Tagliaferri is at the 4th position with 5 goals. Both of the them are amazing forwards. Dusan Vlahovic only had 20 shots in total to score 10 goals, which is a 50% of goal ratio. His minute per goal is 83.9, which is equivalent to 1 goal per match.
Bartlomiej Dragowski have kept 6 clean sheets in a row and he is currently the 2nd highest clean sheets in the league, 1 clean sheet away from the current leader, Lazio’s Thomas Strakosha. He only conceded 5 goals in this season so far, only 1 goal more than the Albanian shot-stopper. However, with our current form, I am confident that Dragowski can definitely compete in the Golden Gloves Awards.
Board Confidence
Now, let’s have a look at the board satisfaction. In summary, we got an A+ from the board. The board think we are doing an unbelievable job so far, and our fans are clearly happy about it. The board are happy with our match performance, tactics and the squad harmony. However, seems like they are not quite happy with the transfers we have made. The fans are happy with the transfers though. We will work harder to prove that we can achieve something with the new signings.
Team Dynamics
Other than the board, we also have to make sure our players are happy under our management. The dressing room atmosphere is very, very good right now. ‘There is a strong sense of unity between the players and they should have no cause for complaint about the way things are going’. That’s what we would like to see in the dressing room! Team cohesion is getting better as the players have a good level of understanding with each other. Lastly, the managerial support is very good as well. The players are happy to have us leading the club, and they are looking forward to the future. So, let’s not make the boys disappointed, and hopefully we can achieve something at the end of the season.
Conclusion
In conclusion, I am very happy about everything about this club. The board, the squad, the fans and most importantly, the performance. I am now confident enough to say we can qualify for Champions League next season. Maybe, I would actually be aiming for the Italian Cup this season. Who knows what will happen? Stay tuned to the next Fiorentina Journey!
I hope you guys enjoy reading the Fiorentina Journey and don’t forget to follow me on Twitter @abt_fm to join the discussion of football. Also, do check out my other series in my blog like the Tactics Recreation, where I try to replicate a tactics from a team and put it into another team, stimulating the season and see what the result is. Once again, thank you for your support and I will see you guys in the next chapter. Take care!
ABT Football Manager 