How’s it going on guys and welcome back to the ABTFM blog. Today, we are back with another chapter of the Fiorentina Journey. We are facing a huge problem. International break is always the most dangerous period. Some of our key players are INJURED in their international duty. We lost 3 main players from the starting 11! Although we are 6 points ahead in the league, I still hope we can continue our form. Today, we will be facing Empoli away. Will we win the game? Let’s jump in to the Fiorentina Journey!
Injured Players
The first man that we lost is Riccardo Saponara, one of the top 5 performers in the team this season. Saponara has been starting every single game for me since the start of the season. He is our Mezzala, the attacking threat of the team, scoring 3 goals and provided 4 assists so far. He is a huge lost! Although we still have a couple of players who can play as the Mezzala, but I am sure I am going to miss his influence on the pitch for 2 weeks.
The second player is our captain German Pezzella. He is our key defender! His performance has been dominating, better than any other defender in the team. Now, he is gone for 2 months! What a huge blow! To be fair, other than Mario Hermoso, none of the defender is good enough to play as the central defender. We might have to move Thilo Kehrer to the central position for 2 months, but I would prefer playing Kehrer at right back as he is having a great time in that position. Hopefully, players like Federico Ceccherini could deliver good performance for the time being.
The third player is the backup striker, Pedro. It is not a huge loss, however, it means Dusan Vlahovic has to be fit for at least a month. I hardly start Pedro, but December is approaching which means we could have 2 competitions in a week, and cup competition is coming soon as well. Hopefully, we can get someone from the youth team be our backup striker for the time being.
The last player is another key defender, Mario Hermoso. He is only out for 5-7 days, but this is 1 day before the game aagainst Empoli. We can’t play Hermoso right now, and Pezzella is also unavailable. We have a huge problem right now. Who is going to be our starting defenders in the next game? We will see.
Starting Line-up
So, this is the starting 11 for the game against Empoli. Unfortunately, our first-choice goalkeeper Bartlomiej Dragowski picked up a light injury and ruled out for 2 days (another injury…). As a result, Alban Lafont is starting his first game under our management today. Moving on to the back four, only Thilo Kehrer is the regular starter, playing at the right back position. Federico Ceccherini is replacing German Pezzella as the central defender. Then, I decide to play our defensive midfielder, Rolando Mandragora, as the Ball Playing Defender. He has decent defending stats, great passing and vision, good concentration, and good physical. So, he will be playing alongside Ceccherini in this game. Luca Ranieri will be playing as the left back today. Weston McKennie and Marco Benassi are playing at their familiar position as always, while Gaetano Castrovilli is going to start as the Mezzala in this game. The front three remains the same – Nicola Tagliaferri at the left, Matteo Politano at the right, and Dusan Vlahovic is the lone striker up front.
vs Empoli
We finished the match with a draw. It is very disappointing for not winning this because we have dominated the game and we deserved to get the 3 points. Empoli’s striker scored the opener in the 41st minute. Luckily, Dusan Vlahovic scored the equaliser at the 86th minute and successfully rescued us from losing the game.
Let’s look at the match stats. We had a total of 17 shots, 9 on target, 3 clear cut chances and 1 half chance. We even have 62% possession. Empoli only had 4 shots, 2 on target and one of the shot on target was a goal. The average rating of both teams is pretty even, 6.84 for Empoli and 6.86 for Fiorentina.
Now, moving on to the player ratings, Dusan Vlahovic is the Player of The Match with the highest rating 7.2. Weston McKennie did have a great game, with 4 key passes and created 1 chance in 90 minutes. Thilo Kehrer once again delivered a great performance. Although he made an indirect mistake on Empoli’s goal, he provided a crucial assist to Dusan Vlahovic.
Kevin Cannavo (41’) – Rayan Cherki was pushing forward from the left flank. Thilo Kehrer did not put enough pressure and him, and Rayan Cherki made a through pass for Kevin Cannavo. Cannavo’s attacking positioning was exceptional and he went ran past Federico Ceccherini. One-on-one with the Alban Lafont, and then put the ball into the bottom corner at the far post. 1-0 Empoli.
Dusan Vlahovic (86’) – After multiple attacking attempts, Fiorentina had a throw in. Thilo Kehrer took the throw in and passed it to Etienne Capoue. The defensive midfielder passed the ball back to Thilo Kehrer. The German right back tried a first time cross into the box. Dusan Vlahovic made a good run into the box and hit a volley into back of the net! 1-1 Fiorentina.
Conclusion
To be completely honest, I think the players got a little bit complacent in this game. Although some of our key players are injured, however, I was expecting a better performance from the boys. This could be a very good lesson for us. We need to work harder in order to keep our lead in the league, as well as our performance. Hopefully, the key players will come back as soon as possible!
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 