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 played against some big teams like Lazio, Juventus and Inter Milan. In the league itself, we were sitting at the 2^nd position with 1 point behind Napoli. On the bright side, we made it to the Final of the Italian Cup after beating Inter in the 2 legs Semi Final. Today, we are back in the league. We are now pushing towards the end of the season. Without further ado, let’s jump straight in to the Fiorentina Journey.

vs Bottom Half

After the 2-2 draw against Inter, we then had some fairly easy games against the team at the bottom half of the table. The first game was an away game against Lecce, who was at the bottom of the table. Matteo Politano scored from the penalty spot at the 26^th minute. To be honest, our performance wasn’t good enough, but we still managed to get the 3 points.

The second game was against Brescia. It was a home game. We played well in this game with Dusan Vlahovic scored the opener at the 16^th minute. Our captain, German Pezzella then scored a header at the 50^th minute. Brescia got no chance in this game. Matteo Politano once again stepped up and delivered a great performance by providing 2 assists.

The next game was an away game against Sassuolo. We did poorly out there. It was a 0-0 draw. Dusan Vlahovic received a 5.8 rating in the game, the lowest rating we ever had in this season so far. He missed a couple of big chances in front of the goal. Until the 80^th minute, I just can’t stand anymore, and I had to sub him off. Thilo Kehrer was very good in this game. He created so many chances to our front three, but none of them were in the back of the net.

The fourth and final game was against Empoli. We won the game with only one goal. Matteo Politano scored a tap in goal at the 54^th minute. In this match, I made the decision of playing another young prospect we had in our team – Stefano Forgione. He was exceptional in his debut. He created 2 chances, made 2 key passes and provided the winning goal’s assist. He was definitely enjoying himself out there and I hope he will continue deliver the same performance throughout the season.

League Table

Now, let’s have a look at the league table after 31 games. We are still second place with 67 points. The current leader, Napoli has got 68 points, just 1 point ahead of us. We had a draw against Sassuolo, fortunately, Napoli did not take their chance and also had a draw at their 30^th league game. Milan is obviously putting pressure on us with 65 points, only 2 points behind of us. Arguably, the top 3 is already fixed in this season. It seems like we are going to compete the title with Napoli and Milan.

vs Atalanta

Our 32^nd league game is against Atalanta. To be honest, I am very nervous because in the first half of the season, Atalanta hammered us in our home turf. Today, we are going to face them in the Gewiss Stadium. Of course, we are sending out our strongest 11 out there. Nicola Tagliaferri is back to the starting line-up, Weston McKennie, Ryan Gravenberch and Rolando Mandragora the midfield trio will remain unchanged.

We have done it! What a massive win it is! After playing 90 minutes in Gewiss Stadium, we successfully beat Atalanta 2-1. The game was very intense. All 3 goals are scored in the first half between 41^st minute and 46^th minute. Atalanta scored the first goal with Alejandro Gomez made a beautiful long pass finding Luis Muriel. The Colombian striker took his chance and scored the one-on-one against our goalkeeper. 2 minutes later, Nicola Tagliaferri won the ball at the left flank. He then made an insane dribble into the box and hit the ball into the back of the net, 1-1! Right before the half time whistle, Thilo Kehrer hit an early cross from the right, Dusan Vlahovic volleyed the ball into the bottom corner, 2-1 for Fiorentina. At the 80^th minute, Atalanta had a chance to score a penalty after Mario Hermoso committed a foul in the box. However, Alejandro Gomez failed to keep the nerve and sent the ball over the bar.

It was a very massive win for us against Atalanta. Good things did not end here. Crotone, who was at the 18^th position in the table, beat Napoli 4-3 at home! One of their players was sent off at the 89^th minute and the score line was 3-3. However, Crotone managed to score the winning goal at the 91^st minute. With just 10 men, the underdogs proved themselves were the better team in that game. Thanks to Crotone, we are now at the top of the league with 2 points ahead of Napoli!

Title Race

The next game against Sampdoria was a 2-0 victory for us. Marco Benassi scored an absolute screamer outside the box, and Nicola Tagliaferri got himself in the scoresheet again. Napoli won their game as well, but Milan only took 1 point from his opponent this time. With only 5 games left, 4 teams are currently battling for the title.

In the news itself, it says that Juventus 10-year reign as champions is at the end. I am so proud that we are here making history. Even though we are not the champions right now, or we might finish second or third in the league, I am still very happy with the boys, especially what we have achieve in this season. We are the Italian Cup finalist, as well as the title contenders.

Anyways, the last 5 games, we are facing Roma, Torino, Milan, Bologna and Parma. I wouldn’t say this is easy. Roma could be very difficult to play against even though they are at the 12^th position right now. Torino might be an easy game. The game against Milan is surely the title decider match. I am not too worried about the Bologna game, but Parma could be fairly difficult as well as they are having a good season. Now, we are just going to play 3 games – Roma, Torino and Milan.

vs Roma

As expected, it was a tough game against Roma. We failed to collect 3 points from the Olimpico. The game finished 0-0. Both teams failed to score a single goal as well. Our front three weren’t clinical enough, they missed a lot of big chances, and eventually I subbed off all three of them. We had 11 shots and 7 on target, meanwhile all the shots were very bad. Roma’s defence had a solid game, unfortunate for us. Hopefully, next game would be better.

vs Torino

What a comeback against Torino here! We won the 2-1 with a dominant performance. Dusan Vlahovic, our hero, scored the winning goal at 91^st minute! The first half was very boring, both teams were playing poorly. Torino scored the opener at the 60^th minute with Christian Capone scoring a header. At the 71^st minute, we are awarded with a penalty and Matteo Politano stepped up and scored the equaliser. Right until the end of the game, we had a corner. Dusan Vlahovic then won the header at the far post after a bad clearance was made by Torino’s defender. Massive 3 points!

The title race is surely heating up! At the same time when we beat Torino 2-1, Napoli failed to get 3 points against Cagliari, who is at the 19^th position in the league. That is surely a good news for us. On the other hand, Milan has dropped to the 4^th position. Lazio continue their good form, winning 2 games in a row, climbs up to the 3^rd position with 70 points. Next game, we are going to play Milan at the San Siro, let’s see how we do in that game!

vs Milan

Oh, my, god. We lost the game 2-0 to Milan. Lucas Moura received a red card at the 12^th minute, however, that did not change the fact that Milan was playing superbly. Wilfred Zaha scored the opener in just 7 minutes into the game. We then tried our best to create chances, but Milan’s defence was having a great, great time. The winning goal came at the 57^th minute, Rafa scored a volley after receiving the cross from Ricardo Rodriguez. We had more shots and shots on target than Milan, but we still lost the game. Once again, our attack wasn’t clinical enough. I think we must have a plan B or even a new tactics in next season.

League Table

Back to league table again, we are so, so lucky. Napoli failed to collect 3 points from Genoa at their home turf. For now, we are still at the top of the league with 77 points, following by Napoli with 76 points. Milan are back to 3^rd position after beating us 2-0 with 71 points. Lazio is at the 4^th position with also 71 points. In the Europa League qualification spot, we have Juventus and Inter with 67 points, while Parma is sitting at the 7^th position with 58 points, 3 points ahead of Atalanta.

Conclusion

Only 2 games left to play in the league. Next chapter, we are going to take a break from the league because we are going to play Lazio in the Italian Cup Final. I hope we could at least deliver a better performance. Last month, we faced Lazio and we lost 4-0. This time, we are going to be more careful and hopefully we can win the cup!

Anyways, we already achieved our season target which is qualify for the Champions League. Yes, we are back to the European Competition again next season! So, right now, we just have to try our best to win the Italian Cup and the league!

COME ON, LA VIOLA!

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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 and the Lyon Journey. Once again, thank you for your support and I will see you guys in the next chapter. Take care!

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 signed two great players – Ryan Gravenberch and Amadou Haidara. It is always nice to have new players coming in, and I’m definitely looking forward to their performance on the pitch. Anyways, we are now at the second half of the season. We are facing a couple of big teams in this chapter and hopefully we can deliver good performance against them. Without further ado, let’s jump straight in to the Fiorentina Journey.

Italian Cup Semi-Final 1^st leg

The first opponent is Diego Simeone’s Inter Milan. We are playing the 1^st leg of the Italian Cup Semi-Final at Giuseppe Meazza. Of course, I am expecting a tough game against Inter. So, we are going to play our best 11 in this game. Ryan Gravenberch is starting in the central midfielder position, replacing Weston McKennie. Let’s see how he performs.

We won the first leg against Inter with 1 crucial away goal! I think both side played really well in this game, however, both of us couldn’t score a goal until the 94^th minute. Dusan Vlahovic, once again, was our hero. In the 92^nd minute, Inter’s Danny van de Beek picked up a yellow card and we were awarded with a freekick. Cristiano Biraghi crossed the ball to the far post. Ryan Gravenberch won the header and Dusan Vlahovic picked up the loose ball and scored the winning goal. Ryan Gravenberch got his first assist in Fiorentina shirt. Overall, massive win in the first leg.

vs Lazio

After a sweet win against Inter, we are back to the league game against Lazio. Unfortunately, Nicola Tagliaferri is out for a few days after picking up an injury in the training session. Riccardo Sottil replaces Nicola Tagliaferri playing on the left side.

We lost the game 4-0 against Lazio! Not only we failed to score a single goal, we conceded 4 goals, with Ciro Immobile scored a hattrick against us! It was an unacceptable performance from us. Look at the player ratings, Rolando Mandragora was the highest rated player with only a 6.9. The whole team was playing lazily, especially the two central midfielders. Weston McKennie had a really bad game, made a mistake and allowed Ciro Immobile to score a sensational opener in the 43^rd minute. I went all of attack in the 70^th minute, trying to pick up a draw. However, we conceded 3 goals in 5 minutes. Manuel Lazzari scored at the 87^th minute, Ciro Immobile scored the third goal in 89^th minute, and completed his hattrick at the 92^nd minute. Terrible performance!

vs Juventus

The next league game is against Juventus. In the first half of the season, we won 1-0 with Nicola Tagliaferri scored the only goal. In this game, I decide to replace Weston McKennie, due to the mistake he made last game, and starts Marco Benassi as the Box to Box midfielder. Ryan Gravenberch is once against starting for us in this game against Juventus.

Another massive win for us! We won the game 1-0, all thanks to Matteo Politano’s goal at the 47^th minute. Cristiano Biraghi put in a beautiful cross to the penalty box, Matteo Politano won the header against Merih Demiral and scored the winning goal. Dusan Vlahovic had the chance to double up the lead but failed to beat Wojciech Szczesny in the penalty. The Polish goalkeeper also picked up the Man of The Match award as he made some amazing saves in this game. Nicola Tagliaferri provided 4 key passes and created 2 chances in this game. This kid just loves playing against Juventus.

Italian Cup Semi-Final 2^nd leg

Back to the Italian Cup, we are going to play Inter again. With the crucial away goal in the first leg, I’m pretty confident to say we have a massive advantage in the 2^nd leg. Our first-choice goalkeeper Bartlomiej Dragowski is injured before the game, so Alban Lafont is going to start between the sticks.

We have done it! We are through to the final! We finished the game with a comfortable 2-0 win. Weston McKennie scored a banger at the 38^th minute and picked up the Man of The Match award at the end of the game. In addition, Nicola Tagliaferri scored the winning goal at the 66^th minute.

On the other side, Lazio beat Juventus in the Semi-Final, which means we are going to play against Lazio in the Cup Final. To be honest, I am not happy. Lazio has just battered us 4-0 in the league game and now we are going to face them in the Final. We have beat Juventus twice in the league, so I’d be more confident to play against Juventus in the Final. However, it is what it is. We are going to accept the fact that we are facing Lazio in the Cup Final. Hopefully, we fight hard in the final and take the trophy back home to our fans!

Unfortunately, there is a bad news. Thilo Kehrer, our one and only right back, is suspended in the Cup Final. He has picked up a couple of yellow cards in the cup games, which leads him to the automatic suspension. It is clearly a disappointment. Thilo Kehrer has been crucial for us in this season, and we don’t have a backup right back. However, we will see what we can do in the Final. For now, let’s focus in the league.

vs Inter

Back to the league, we are playing Inter again. It is a back-to-back game against them, and this time we are travelling to Giuseppe Meazza. Only one change is made in the starting 11. Marco Benassi comes in replacing Ricardo Saponara. Alban Lafont is still the starting goalkeeper in this game.

Unfortunately, this time, we could win the game! It was a 2-2 draw against Inter. Riccardo Orsolini, my former player in Lyon, scored twice against me. Two incredible individual goals, picking up the Man of The Match award as well at the end of the game. Matteo Politano scored a penalty in the 51^st minute. Dusan Vlahovic scored at the 67^th minute, just 1 minute after Orsolini scored his second goal. I went all out attack after Dusan’s goal, however, Inter defended really well and we failed to create chances against them.

League Table

The draw against Inter allows Napoli to climb above us in the league table. We are now sitting at the 2^nd position with 57 points. Napoli are at the top of the league with only 1 point ahead of us. The third position is AC Milan with 56 points. Lazio and Inter are behind with 51 points. Atalanta are sitting at the 6^th place with 46 points, 1 point ahead of Juventus and Parma.

Conclusion

In conclusion, it is tough, however, considering this is the first season with Fiorentina, I’m very happy with my performance. I think the players also given me their 100% on the pitch. Remember, the aim is just to qualify for the Champions League next season. So, we will continue working hard and try our best to win the title. 

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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 and the Lyon Journey. Once again, thank you for your support and I will see you guys in the next chapter. Take care!

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 did a half season review on the player performance, as well as our tactics. Right now, the winter transfer window has just begun, which is a very good opportunity for us to strengthen our team. We are currently sitting at the 2^nd position in the league, but with the opening of the transfer window, we might have the chance to challenge for the title. Without further ado, let’s jump straight in to the Fiorentina Journey.

First Signing

Let’s start immediately with our first signing – the Dutch wonderkid Ryan Gravenberch. We actually signed him even before the transfer window with a fee of £29.5M. We have offered him a 4 years contract with a wage of £110K per week. It might be a little bit expensive, but for a 19 years old wonderkid, I am happy with that. Our main attacking midfielder Riccardo Saponara is turning 30 years old very soon. Don’t get me wrong, Saponara is having a wonderful season with us. However, it is always good to have a nice and young backup player, especially someone who has a high potential.

Now, let’s have a look at Ryan Gravenberch’s ability. He can play as a centre midfielder, centre attacking midfielder, even defensive midfielder or left winger if needed. First of all, he has great dribbling and first touch, both attributes are 16 rated. Incredible flair as well, which I personally think it is an important attribute for an attacking player. He has good passing, good technique and good composure. His physical is very good, other than his strength. Some of the areas that I wanted to improve is his off the ball, anticipation, and also his bravery. I am not too worry because he is only 19 years of age, and he will definitely improve in the future. For now, he is going to be the backup Mezzela.

New Tactics

Moving on, we are going to talk a little bit about our tactics. I did make a few small changes in terms of the player roles and playing instructions. First of all, the left back role has been changed from a Fullback on Attack to Wingback on Defend. In my system here, fullbacks are one of the attacking threats in game. However, my left side has been overloaded by wide players. Nicola Tagliaferri is already playing as a Winger on Attack. Previously, Fullback on Attack will also join the winger up top. Our left centre midfielder is playing as a Mezzala, which is also an attacking role. As a result, it leaves a big gap at left side and Mario Hermoso, the Ball Playing Defender will have to cover a big area. By changing the role to Wingback on Defend, the left back will be playing in a more defensive mentality, as well as sitting deeper on the pitch, allowing the Mezzala and the Winger to have more space at the left flank.

Another tweak that I have made was adding Hit Early Crosses. Previously, we allowed my fullbacks to have creative freedom in the final third. The left back was playing as Fullback on Attack, while the right back was playing as Fullback on Support. Now, I have added the instruction of Hit Early Crosses, which means I want them to sit deeper and fully utilize their crossing ability. I also added Defend Wider, mostly because I conceded a lot of goals from crosses. So, I kind of want my players to keep the defensive width wider and limit the opponent’s movement on both flanks.

Great Form

Let’s now talk about the matches we have played in January. The first game was against Bologna. Unfortunately, we picked up another draw in the league. The game finished 2-2. All the goals came after 70 minutes. Our attacking players weren’t having a good game against Bologna. Matteo Politano and Gaetano Castrovilli played poorly. The substitution Riccardo Sottil scored the opener, also his first goal of the season, for us at the 72^nd minute. However, our defensive midfielder Rolando Mandragora put the ball into our own net 4 minutes after the lead. Dusan Vlahovic, our main striker scored another goal at the 80^th minute. He was giving us hope, but Bologna’s left back scored an amazing long-range goal at the 88^th minute. On the bright side, our backup keeper Alban Lafont was actually having a sensational game between the post.

The next game against Parma was a 1-0 win. Parma has been absolutely good in this season. They were sitting at the 3^rd position in the league when we played against them. However, we dominated the game. Nicola Tagliaferri scored the only goal at the 41^st minute – a close range volley after receiving Thilo Kehrer’s cross. It was a very good and important win for us at this stage.

Next game was a cup match against Sampdoria. We have picked a slightly rotated squad. Our front three were Pedro, Christian Koffi and Riccardo Sottil. Surprisingly, our home-grown youngster Christian Koffi scored the opener in his debut at the 4^th minute. He made a wonderful run in the final third, kept his nerve and he was composed enough to score the one-on-one against Sampdoria goalkeeper. Sampdoria scored the equaliser in the 60^th minute, and that where I decided to sub on Nicola Tagliaferri and Marco Benassi. Undoubtedly, Nicola Tagliaferri saved us by scoring the winner in the 77^th minute. It was a great win and we will be playing our rival, Napoli in the Italian Cup Quarter Final.

The next league game was against Crotone. We played well in this game although the score line told another story. Rolando Mandragora scored his first ever goal in Fiorentina shirt in the 38^th minute with a long-range effort. What a hit! I would say it was definitely the goal of the season.

However, the main highlight wasn’t us winning the game, but Napoli actually lost against Inter. Napoli wasn’t having their best in the last 3 games. They had a draw before playing against Inter, and now they have dropped to the 2^nd position in the league.

Guess who we are facing next – Napoli. It was a very good chance for us to prove that we deserve the top spot in the league. I have picked the best 11 to play against Napoli. I wanted my players to know this game is very important for us. And… we have done it! We managed to win the game 2-1 and we doubled up our lead to 6 points. Nicola Tagliaferri was once again unstoppable. He scored 2 goals in this game and received a 9.0 match rating after the match. Although he wasn’t the Player of The Match, but his goals meant a lot for us.

After this game, we were back to the top of the league with 46 points. Napoli dropped to the 4^th position, while AC Milan and Inter Milan stepped up to the 2^nd and the 3^rd position. Juventus and Atalanta were at the Europa League qualification spot, while Parma actually dropped to 9^th position.

The next game was against Napoli again in the Italian Cup Quarter Final. However, this time I did not pick the rotation squad. I was relieved after seeing Napoli’s starting 11 because they did pick their strongest 11 again. It was only 3 days after the league game, and we faced them again at their home turf. Nicola Tagliaferri had a quiet game this time, but Dusan Vlahovic stepped up and scored the only goal at the 77^th minute. Napoli failed to score this time, and we walked away with a 1-0 win.

Upcoming Italian Cup Semi Final

After defeating Napoli in the Italian Cup Quarter Final, we are going to face FC Internazionale Milano. There are 2 legs in Italian Cup Semi Final. We are going to play our first leg at Inter’s home turf. In the first half of the season, we had a great game against Inter, winning 3-0 at our home ground. I am expecting a very tough game away from home, also this is a Semi Final of the Italian Cup. I think Inter is going to send out their best 11 against us, so we have to be well prepared. The winner will meet either Juventus or Lazio in the Final.

Second Signing

We signed another player at the transfer deadline day! Amadou Haidara, a 24 years old midfielder from RB Leipzig, with a fee of £5.25M. He requested to leave the German club and I thought he would be a good addition into our team. He only asked for £50K per week, which was very, very reasonable. The agreed playing time was just a squad player, so we don’t really have to start him in most of our competition.

Looking at his attributes, I have to say I love this type of player. On paper, he is like a Box to Box Midfielder. His natural position is central midfielder, but he can also play as a defensive midfielder. Alternatively, he could play at the right side or even a central attacking midfielder. His mental ability is incredible, but the only concern is his poor positioning. For me, he is now a backup player for us. However, I was going to transform him to a right winger, playing as an Inverted Winger. He already has the dribbling skill, decent passing, good technique, great off the ball. His pace might be a concern, but he does have good anticipation. We have to improve his crossing ability as well because this attribute is fairly important for a wide player. His player traits might be a very good midfielder, but I am going to try my best to transform him into a winger.

Conclusion

In conclusion, we signed two players in this transfer window. No major transfer out for us this time. We are actually the biggest spender in the Italian transfer window with £34.5M spent on 2 players. I am looking forward to playing them in the team, and hopefully we can prove to everyone that we have done a great business.

In terms of the form we are having right now, I am extremely happy. We beat Cittadella 4-1 in the transfer deadline day. Nicola Tagliaferri completed a hattrick in the game. Matteo Politano also got himself on the score sheet. Unfortunately, no clean sheet for our keeper. We are now at the top of the league again. Hopefully, we can continue this great form and perform well in the second half of the season.

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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 and the Lyon Journey. Once again, thank you for your support and I will see you guys in the next chapter. Take care!

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 have come to the end of 2021. We have finished 17 games in the league and currently sitting at the 2^nd position. In the last chapter, we mentioned about our performance on the pitch. It is good, but not great, as we have dropped from the top of the table. However, it is the winter break right now, which means we are going to do a half season review. Without further ado, let’s jump straight in to the Fiorentina Journey!

General Performance

A little revision of our current position in the league. We are sitting at the 2^nd position right now with 36 points. We have 11 wins, 3 draws and 3 losses so far. Napoli is now the leader of Serie A with 37 points, just one point ahead of us. Fortunately, one point isn’t too bad for us. We will still have to chance to go to the top of the league again. Surprisingly, Parma is at the 3^rd position. The ex-Fiorentina Manager, Stefano Piolo, is the current manager of the Crociati, and he is doing an amazing job right now. Atalanta and Milan are sitting at the 4^th and 5^th position with 31 points, meanwhile the defending champion Juventus is sitting at the 6^th position with 30 points.

Defenders – Our defence is pretty solid. We have conceded 11 goals in 17 games, which is the lowest in the league right now. I’m very satisfied with our defence in general. Bartlomiej Dragowski is a top class goalkeeper, having 8 clean sheets in 14 appearances. Our new signings, Mario Hermoso and Thilo Kehrer are having a great time so far in the team. Cristiano Biraghi and Luca Ranieri are doing a great job in the leftback position. Our captain, German Pezzella, was the top performing defender before his current injury.

When it comes to defenders, some of the important stats that I will look at are the interception made per game, headers won, and tackle won. To be fair, the boys did a decent job. In terms of the interception made, we have 38 being the highest and 15 being the lowest. In terms of headers won, the stats are great. We are amazing in the air. Both German Pezzella and Federico Ceccherini have more than 74% of headers won. Our defenders also did very well on tackling. Beside Luca Ranieri, everyone has more than 89% tackles won ratio. The other stat that impressed me is the mistakes leading to goal – 0. None of the defenders have made a mistake leading to goal, which I’m very happy with it.

Midfielders – Most of the stats that I focus on midfielders are playmaking stats. Here, I’m focusing on chances created, key passes and passing accuracy. Most of my midfielders’ passing accuracy is at least 90%. Some of the midfielders made a high number of key passes, like Riccardo Saponara, Weston McKennie, and Marco Benassi had 25, 17 and 16 key passes respectively. In terms of chances created, Riccardo Saponara created the most chances (5). It may look like the midfielders aren’t doing a great job, but I am actually satisfied with their performance.

Attackers – I’m very straightforward when it comes to attackers. I want to see goals and shot on target ratio. Dusan Vlahovic no doubt is our best striker. Not only he is the top scorer in the team, he is also the top scorer in the league. Wingers like Nicola Tagliaferri and Matteo Politano have decent shots on target ratio and goals conversion rate as well. Both of them also created the most chances in the entire team. Overall, I’m super happy with my front three.

Top 5 performers

Moving on, let’s start with analysing some of our best players in the first half of the season. After looking at the average ratings, these are the 5 players that have been providing consistent performance – Dusan Vlahovic, Thilo Kehrer, Riccardo Saponara, Nicola Tagliaferri, and German Pezzella.

Dusan Vlahovic

As mentioned before, Vlahovic is the top scorer in the team, as well as the top scorer in the league. He is on fire up front. He also saves us a couple times in this season by scoring some last-minute goals. Below are the key stats.

• 15 goals and 1 assist (top scorer in the team & the league)
• 7.45 average rating (highest in the team)
• 0.87 goals per 90 (highest in the team)
• 43 key headers (highest in the team)
• 4.18 headers won per 90 (2^nd highest in the team)
• 72 headers won (2^nd highest in the team)
• 5 Player of The Match

Thilo Kehrer

Kehrer has been absolutely incredible this season. To be honest, I wasn’t expecting too much from him when we signed him. I thought he could be a good central defender instead of right back. However, he has been amazing at the right back position. Below are the key stats.

• 5 assists (highest in the team)
• 85% headers won ratio (highest in the team)
• 29 interceptions made (3^rd highest in the team)
• 52 headers won (3^rd highest in the team)
• 6 chances created (3^rd highest in the team)
• 1 Player of The Match

Riccardo Saponara

Saponara is one of my favourite players in this team since the beginning. The Italian attacking midfielder is playing as central midfielder for us. His performance is just amazing playing as a Mezzala. Below are the key stats.

• 3 goals & 5 assists (most assists in the team)
• 25 key passes (highest in the team)
• 0.40 assists per 90 (2^nd highest in the team)
• 5 chances created
• 100% penalty conversion rate
• 1 Player of The Match

Nicola Tagliaferri

Our wonderkid Tagliaferri has amazed me! He has scored important goals for us this season, as well as providing crucial assists. He’s got great composure up front, great decisions and pacey. He is only 17 years old, but his performance is unbelievably good. I’m very excited to see how much he can improve and the future. Below are the key stats.

• 6 goals & 5 assists (2^nd top scorer in the team and most assists in the team)
• 10 chances created (highest in the team)
• 4.08 dribbles per game (highest in the team)
• 32 fouls against (highest in the team)
• 0.40 goals per 90 (2^nd highest in the team)
• 52 headers won (3^rd highest in the team)
• 13.3km distance covered
• 2 Player of The Match

German Pezzella

Our skipper, Pezzella, is just solid as a wall at the back. He leads the defence well, winning everything in the air, and he is also an important key player in the dressing room. Below are his key stats.

• 82 headers won (highest in the team)
• 39 interceptions made (highest in the team)
• 3.17 interceptions per 90 (highest in the team)
• 6.83 headers won per 90 (highest in the team)
• 37 key headers (2^nd highest in the team)
• 90% tackles won ratio

Tactics Review

Moving on, it is time for us to have a deeper look at our tactics. We have been using a 4141 DM formation since the start of the season. We play a Sweeper Keeper in goal, who is going to pass the ball out to unmarked players rather than hoofing the ball up to the pitch. Our back four have different duties and roles. We have a Full Back on support at the right, who is more balance in the attack and defend, and a Full Back on Attack at the left, who is joining the attack at most of the time. Our left centerback is a Ball Playing Defender on cover, while right centerback is Central Defender on defend. In terms of the midfield trio, we have a Deep Lying Playmaker at the defensive midfielder position, a Box to Box Midfielder on the right and a Mezzala on the left. The left winger is playing as a Winger on attack, and the right winger is an Inverted Winger on support, while the main striker up front is playing as a Pressing Forward on attack.

Let’s have a look at the goals we have scored so far. We have a total of 61 goals so far including the pre-season friendly matches. 39 of them comes from placed shot, 10 powerful shot, 7 headers and 4 penalties. Beside that, the assists are mostly crosses, short passes and through balls. We scored 6 goals outside the box in 61 goals, which is quite a good number to be fair, nearly 10% of our goal comes from outside the box. 29 goals are scored at the penalty area, which proves that our attackers are clinical up front. Surprisingly, we have 14 close-range goals right at the six-yard box. Moving on to the goal times, as you can see here, we always score at the early game between the 1^st minute and the 15^th minute. We score most of the goals between the 46^th minute and the 60^th minute, which I personally think it is a crucial period in the game.

Furthermore, we will have a look at the goals we have conceded. It doesn’t look too bad to be fair. We conceded 16 placed shot and 8 headers. 7 from crosses and 6 from short passes. Most of the goals come from the penalty area of course, but we also conceded 5 goals outside the box. The only concern here is the goal times. We conceded most of our goals between the 16^th minute and the 30^th minute, which is fine. However, we also conceded a lot of goals between the 76^th minute and the 90^th minute, which is not looking great. This shows the fact that our players’ concentration is not great. Also, we might have to make some small changes on our tactics at the 70^th minute, like wasting more time to secure our lead.

Next, this is the report that I would like to see – how many chances did we create and face in 90 minutes. This is looking very, very great. From the report itself, it shows that we create a chance in every 25 minutes, but we also have a chance against us every 31 minutes. However, I just care about the numbers here. We have a +23 in chances for/against, which means our tactics is looking very positive.

We absolutely love playing against 4-2-3-1 wide. According to the report, we create a chance in every 19 minutes, and we have a +18 in chances for/against. The good news is 18% of our opponent started this formation in the league. However, we struggle to create cahnces against 4-3-1-2 narrow, which means we will have to figure out how to face a team that plays narrow formation. Overall, our tactics are looking great.

Conclusion

Although our tactics looks good at the moment, I’m sure that I will still make some changes. The one thing that I found is that we focus a lot of our attack at the left side. The left fullback is on attack duty, so does the winger, and we also have a Mezzala playing at the left centre midfielder position. On the other hand, the winter transfer window is opening soon as well. Hopefully, we can go to the transfer market and try to sign one or two players to strengthen our squad. I’m very happy with our performance so far, and I am confident to say we are going to qualify for the European Competition next season. What about the league? We will see.

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 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!

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 mentioned that many of our key players are injured. We only managed to get a draw against Empoli. Unfortunately, the issue doesn’t stop. More and more players getting injured and our team morale is getting lower. Our performance is like a roller coaster ride, from the late November until the end of December. We must do something to solve this problem. Without further ado, let’s jump in to the Fiorentina Journey!

vs Sampdoria

After the draw against Empoli, we once again struggled to perform in the game against Sampdoria. Although we won the game 2-1, our attack and defence did not look good. Dusan Vlahovic scored the opener with a penalty in the 19^th minute. 5 minutes later, Sampdoria striker Manolo Gabbiadini scored the equaliser due to Rolando Mandragora’s mistake. The scoresheet remained 1-1 until the 92^nd minute as Matteo Politano scored the winning goal for Fiorentina.

To be brutally honest, our players did not play well. The Man of The Match was neither Dusan Vlahovic nor Matteo Politano. It was Sampdoria’s forward Gianluca Caprari with 7.5 match rating after providing the assist. However, on the bright side, we were on an 11-match unbeaten run in the league and still sitting at the top of the table. A 3 point is a 3 point.

vs Atalanta

Our unbeaten run was ended by Atalanta. We were terrible in this game, absolutely terrible. We not only have failed to create good chances in this game, but we also conceded 2 goals in only 3 minutes. Our attack was awful. Dusan Vlahovic, Nicola Tagliaferri, Matteo Politano and Willian – neither of those players performed well enough in this game. At the end of the game, none of our player had more than 6.9 match rating. On the other hand, Atalanta played better than us. They were looking very dangerous in the attack, took their chances well, fully deserved to win the game.

The first goal came in the 77^th minute. Atalanta hit us with a counter attack. The right wingback Elseid Hysaj delivered a long ball forward to Duvan Zapata. The Colombian striker used his strength to hold the ball away from Federico Ceccherini, then scored a beautiful one-on-one against our goalie. In the 80^th minute, Mario Hermoso fouled Atalanta player in the penalty box. Alejandro Gomez sent the keeper to the wrong way and scored the winning goal. 2-0 Atalanta.

vs Cittadella

The next game against Cittadella was a Cup match. We picked a slightly rotated squad with Bartosz Bereszynski starting at the right back position while Luca Ranieri started as the left back. Willian and Riccardo Sottil were playing as the two wingers, and Gaetano Castrovilli was coming in as the Mezzala. We played well in this game. It was a very decent performance from some of the rotation players. Luca Ranieri provided 2 assists and got the Man of The Match. Gaetano Castrovilli scored his first goal of the season with a beautiful long-range effort. Mario Hermoso also got his first ever goal for Fiorentina. Overall a great performance and we are going through to the next round!

vs Roma

Back to league, we faced Roma at home. We were absolutely incredible in this game. We dominated the game and hammered Roma 4-0! We had a total of 20 shots while Roma only had 8 shots, although we had lesser possession than Roma. In terms of the goals, Federico Ceccherini scored his first goal of the season with a fine header from the corner in the 22^nd minute. In the second half, we performed even better. Marco Benassi scored a header in the 47^th minute. 4 minutes later, Matteo Politano scored another header and made it 3-0. We actually scored 3 headers in this game. The final goal came in at the 65^th minute. Dusan Vlahovic hit a beautiful volley to the top corner and the Roma keeper had no chance to save that.

Key Player Injured

After winning 2 consecutive matches, something unfortunate happened. Our first-choice keeper Bartlomiej Dragowski is ruled out for 4 to 5 weeks. Dragowski is undoubtedly our key player in the defence. He made 15 appearances so far, and only conceded 9 goals. He kept 8 clean sheets in the league and his average match rating is 6.97. He is definitely going to be our huge loss, however, this will give Alban Lafont a chance to impress.

vs Torino

This is exactly what I was worried about. We failed to beat Torino who was sitting at the 19^th position in the league. The result was absolutely frustrating. We finished the game with a 1-1 draw, but just look at the match stats. Torino only had 2 shots and 2 on target in the whole game. On the other hand, we had 20 shots, 13 on target, yet we only scored 1 goal in 90 minutes. Again, the players were complacent and did not perform good enough.

Simone Zaza scored the opener at 77^th minute after receiving a cross from Ivan Michelotti. Dusan Vlahovic once again saved us by scoring a one-on-one against Tornio’s goalkeeper, all thanks to Luca Ranieri’s amazing long pass. It was very frustrating, but we must accept the fact.

vs AC Milan

The next game against AC Milan was a lost! 1-0 lost at home. Same thing happened – we had more shots compared to Milan, more shots on target, however, we failed to score a single goal. I was another awful performance from the boys. Our attack wasn’t clinical enough and our defence was rather sloppy. Milan scored the only goal of the match in the 30^th minute – Lucas Paqueta scored a beautiful goal outside the box. It wasn’t ideal for us, but I was relieved because it was the season break after this game, which means we can now sit back and sort out the issues, and we will come back again stronger after the winter break!

League Table and Player Stats

Now, let’s have a look at the league table. We are no longer the leader in the league. Napoli is now 1 point ahead of us at the top of the table after 17 games. They have 11 wins, 4 draws and 2 losses. On the other hand, we are currently holding 36 points at the 2^nd position with 11 wins, 3 draws and 3 losses. Parma is having a very great season sitting at the 3^rd position with 33 points. Atalanta, Milan and Juventus are also sitting in the European Competition qualification zone.

In terms of the top scorer of the league, Dusan Vlahovic is still the current leading goalscorer, with 14 goals in 17 appearances. Cristiano Ronaldo and Patrick Schick are chasing our striker, with 10 goals in 17 appearances. However, with Vlahovic’s current form right now, I am confident to say he is going to continue banging goals for us.

Since Bartlomiej Dragowski is injured right now, Alban Lafont is replacing him as our current starting goalkeeper. So, there might be a small issue on him competing the Golden Gloves Awards. He is current the top goalkeeper with least goal conceded, only 8 goals in 14 appearances. Thomas Strakosha, the current goalkeeper with most clean sheets in the league, conceded 15 goals in 17 appearances.

Conclusion

Well, this is definitely not the best time we are having in this season. Before November, everything is so sweet and easy for us. However, right now, we must figure out what’s wrong with our tactics. In the next chapter, we are going to do a half season review on our players. Maybe we will make some tweaks on the tactics as well as the player selections for the rest of the season.     

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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!

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 41^st minute. Luckily, Dusan Vlahovic scored the equaliser at the 86^th 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!

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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!

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 5^th 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 88^th minute. What a performance!

Dusan Vlahovic first goal came at the 16^th 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 7^th 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 2^nd 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 4^th 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 2^nd 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!

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 last chapter, we had our first game as the Fiorentina manager, and we have won our first game against Crotone comfortably. After 7 league games, we are now at the TOP OF THE TABLE! Yes, it is very crazy as this is only our first season with Fiorentina. Without further ado, let’s have a look at our incredible performance.

Top of The Table

We are the current leader of Serie A after 7 games. We have 16 points in hand, only 1 point ahead of the 2^nd position. We also have 5 wins, 1 draw and 1 lose. In terms of the goal difference, we have 11, however it is not the highest in the league right now as Juventus and Inter Milan have 13. We score 16 goals right now, which is the 2^nd highest in the league, 1 goal behind Atalanta. We concede 5 goals, which I think it is very good. Look at Juventus, they only concede 1 goal in 7 games. Interesting enough, we are the team that score against them and beat them. Although we are at the top of the table, but we did lose a game before. Napoli and Parma are the only two teams who haven’t lose a single game this season. In short, I am very happy to be at the top of the table, even though there is still a long way to go.

Fixture and Results

Now, looking at our fixture, these are the results of the 7 matches we played. As you all know, we beat Crotone 3-0 in the first league game this season. Then, we actually lose to Napoli 2-1 at home. It is quite disappointing, but I reckon we did well in that game to be fair. We then win 3 games in a row – 3-1 against Cittadella, the newly promoted team; battered Cagliari 6-1, and a 2-1 win against Genoa. Unfortunately, we can’t continue our winning streak against Lazio. It finished 0-0, a boring draw. However, we beat Juventus 1-0 in an away game. It was an amazing game and I enjoyed it very much.

vs Napoli

So, let’s start with the lost against Napoli. It was a pretty evenly match, to be fair. Both teams had 12 shots in total. We had more shots on target, but we did not take our chances nicely. Napoli had more possession than us, with 58%, 2 clear cut chances and 1 half chance. Looking at the player ratings, Napoli’s defence was exceptional. The back four, the keeper and the defensive midfielder had a very great game against us, with an average rating of 7. On the other hand, at our side, only Weston McKennie and Nicola Tagliaferri’s rating was more than 7.

Now, let’s talk about the goals. The first goal came from Napoli’s winger Angel Correa in the 28^th minute. Faouzi Ghoulam ran down the left flank without anyone marking him. He hit a cross at the byline, Cristiano Biraghi failed to intercept the ball and Angel Correa put the ball into the net at the far post. We then equalised the scoreline at the start of the second half in the 46^th minute. Riccardo Saponara intercepted a pass and pushed forward. Allan fouled Saponara but advantage played by the referee after Matteo Politano picked up the ball. The Italian winger found Nicola Tagliaferri in the box. The wonderkid struck a powerful shot at the goal and made it 1-1. The last goal happened at the 88^th minute. Once again, Faouzi Gholam made a cross into the box. Our left back, Luca Ranieri did not notice Angel Correa, who then hit a volley and scored a beautiful game winning goal.

This match clearly shows how poor our defending is at the left side. Both Biraghi and Ranieri were totally exposed and Angel Correa took the advantage and scored two goals against us. Another thing that I have noticed is the lack of defensive support at the right flank. Thilo Kehrer was doing all the defending job himself and Matteo Politano was just staying up front and waiting for the ball. As a result, I made some adjustments on the tactics itself. First, I changed the left back’s role from Wingback on Attack, to Fullback on Attack. Fullback usually stays deeper than Wingback, and they usually contribute more on the defending. Second, I changed Politano’s role to Inverted Winger on Support who will also stay deeper at the flank. Third, I switched the Box to Box Midfielder to the right and Mezzala to the left. The reason behind this is to balance the attacking movement and defending positioning at the both flanks.

vs Cagliari

After beating Cittadella 3-1, I can see the tactics is clearly working. I decided to stick with this adjusted tactics next game against Cagliari. Surprisingly, we won the game with 6 goals. We had a total of 28 shots, 13 on target, 4 clear cut chances and 1 half chance. The average rating of our team was 8.31. Beside the goalkeeper, even the lowest rated outfield player had a 7.8.

Matteo Politano scored his first ever goal for Fiorentina at the 4^th minute with a volley after receiving a low cross from Nicola Tagliaferri. Dusan Vlahovic scored the second goal 1 minute after Politano’s goal. Riccardo Saponara scored a penalty in the 15^th minute. Weston McKennie also scored his first goal for the club at the 32^nd minute with a long range effort, which also then became the second runner-up of Serie A Goal of the Month. Nicola Tagliaferri scored the fifth goal for Fiorentina, also his fifth goal of the season in the 37^th minute. Cagliari’s striker Leonardo Pavoletti scored a consolation goal before the half time whistle. The last goal came from Riccardo Saponara, who curled his shot to the near post at the edge of the box in the 57^th minute.

I was extremely happy with our performance in this game. I was also very sure with the adjustments that I made for the tactics because we have won 2 games in a row, also scoring 9 goals in 2 games.

vs Lazio

However, the next game against Lazio was a disappointment. Lazio was playing a similar formation as Cagliari, but their players were much better than Cagliari. We had more shots in total, more shots on target and more clear cut chances according to the match stats. Both sides failed to score a single goal and I would say the match was more like a fight rather than football.

Lazio picked up 5 yellow cards in the game and most of them were defensive players. I was extremely furious so I went a little bit emotional. I changed from Stay On Feet to Get Stuck In at the 70^th minute, and also changing the mentality to Very Attacking. Yet, we still fail to score a goal at the end and the match finished 0-0. On the bright side, I can see our tactics is still working pretty good. There were a few chances and beautiful plays in the match, and I was getting more and more confident with our tactics. Although 0-0 was not what I wanted, I guess I would still take the draw rather than a lost.

vs Juventus

Next up, it was a big game against Juventus, the defending Champion. Looking at the match stats, Juventus was a better team. However, shockingly, Cristiano Ronaldo wasn’t at his best on that day. He was rated a 6.5 after the game, lowest rated player in Juventus starting 11. On the other hand, our goalkeeper Bartlomiej Dragowski was playing like Prime Iker Casillas. He had 12 shots saved, including 2 one-on-ones against Cristiano Ronaldo, and 1 assist, which arguably the most important assist in this season so far. Juventus’ Axel Witsel had a clumsy challenge on Dusan Vlahovic at the 22^nd minute, which then being sent off by the referee, leaving Juventus with 10 men on the pitch.

The only goal was scored by Nicola Tagliaferri at the 7^th minute. Juventus was given a free kick at the 6^th minute. Miralem Pjanic aimed his cross at the far post, but it was too easy for Dragowski to handle it. Dragowski saw Nicola Tagliaferri was unmarked at the left flank and played an incredible long ball forward. Juventus’ defender Danilo tried to take down the 17 years old wonderkid but he failed. Tagliaferri ran forward with pace and scored an absolute banger!

I was delighted beating the defending champion, especially it was an away game. The lads had given me 100% for sure and I can’t wait to see more incredible performance from them. I was feeling like Louis Van Gaal at the moment when Tagliaferri scored. I wanted to give him a high five just like Van Gaal did to van Persie in 2014 World Cup. That’s how happy I was at the moment.

Player Stats

After the win against Juventus, I went to the squad and had a look at the top performers so far base on the average ratings. Undoubtedly, Nicola Tagliaferri is the best performer so far, having 6 goals and 2 assists in 8 appearances. Riccardo Saponara comes after the youngster with 3 goals and 3 assists in 8 appearances. The two fullbacks Cristiano Biraghi and Thilo Kehrer come in at the third and fourth position, with 6 assists combined. New signing Matteo Politano is the fifth top performer in the squad, with 2 goals and 2 assists in 7 appearances.

Dusan Vlahovic isn’t in the top 5 unfortunately, however, he is so far the 4^th highest goal scorer in the league, scoring 4 goals in 7 appearances. Nicola Tagliaferri who has 1 more goal is sitting at the 3^rd position. Only Cristiano Ronaldo and Patrik Schick have scored more goals than Tagliaferri and Vlahovic.

Conclusion

In conclusion, I am really liking this team a lot right now. I am already very excited since the first day with Fiorentina, but now I am even more excited to see how far we can go in this season. I am hoping I can unleash the potential of this club and bring them to a higher level in the future. Next game, we are going up against another Italian giant Inter Milan. Diego Simeone is the current manager, who is also having his first season in Serie A just like us. Can we beat Inter Milan and continue sitting at the top of the table? I guess we will have to find out in the next chapter!

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!

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 last chapter, we have covered the new players that we signed in the Summer Transfer Window. Before the window closes, we have actually made our managerial debut in the Italian league against Crotone. So, here we are looking back to our first game with Fiorentina and make a post-match analysis. Without further ado, let’s get started now!

Vs Crotone

We are jumping straight into the result itself. It was an amazing debut for me in the Italian league because we dominated the game and won 3-0. The lads had given me their 100% in the game. Some of their performance was even better in the pre-season like Dusan Vlahovic and Marco Benassi.

A couple of players made their Fiorentina debut as well in the first game. Mario Hermoso started as the left centre back, playing alongside the captain, German Pezzella. Thilo Kehrer also started as the right back. Matteo Politano played as the right winger, replacing Federico Chiesa as our first choice Inverted Winger.

Post-match Analysis

Now, let’s have a look at the match stats. As I mentioned before, we dominated the game, although the possession is 50/50. I had a total of 19 shots, 11 on target, 1 clear cut chances and 7 half chances which is crazy good. Crotone is obviously a weaker team, but I am still happy with the great performance.

Looking at the player ratings, there are a lot of greens. My backline was solid and all of the defenders received at least 7.1 in the game. My midfielders were exceptional. Riccardo Saponara once again playing at the centre midfielder position as a Mezzala. He did not score this time, but he did provide 1 assist and sent out 2 key passes and created 1 chance. Marco Benassi started as the Box to Box midfielder today, made 3 key passes with 1 chance created, and scored an amazing long shot. Unfortunately, Matteo Politano’s performance did not stand out compared to the other attackers. The 17 years old winger Nicola Tagliaferri made 3 key passes and created 2 chances in the game. He also provided an assist to Dusan Vlahovic. Vlahovic did not perform well in the pre-season, however, in this game, he scored 2 goals and created 1 chance, which is very impressive. Riccardo Sottil also had a great game even though he only played for around 35 minutes. He made 3 key passes and created 2 chances, receiving a 7.0 rating at the end of the match.

Goals

Dusan Vlahovic (13’) –
It is now 12 minutes on the clock and both teams are still looking for a goal. Fiorentina’s left back Cristiano Biraghi is pushing forward at the left flank. He is aiming for the far post. The ball meets Dusan Vlahovic’s head and he scores the opener for Fiorentina! The striker wins the header and puts it into the back of the net. 1-0 to Fiorentina.

Marco Benassi (28’) –
Thilo Kehrer is holding the ball at the byline, looking for a cross. He passes back to Riccardo Saponara. Saponara squares the ball first time for Marco Benassi, who is unmarked at the edge of the box. Benassi takes a shot! Oh my word! What a goal! It’s 2-0 for Fiorentina in the 28^th minute.

Dusan Vlahovic (53’) –
Thilo Kehrer is pushing forward at the right flank. He makes an early cross towards the far post, looking for Tagliaferri. The 17-year-old winger wins the header. Goal for Fiorentina FC! Dusan Vlahovic receives the ball from Nicola Tagliaferri and heads it into the empty net. The keeper has no chance! 3-0 to Fiorentina.

Praising players

Once again, I am very happy with our performance. We scored 3 goals in a single match and also kept a clean sheet. I am going to praise a few players here even though we still have a long season to go.

German Pezzella – Our captain Pezzella is having a good time at the back since pre-season. He is as solid as a rock. He may not make a lot of tackles, but he can win header very well. With Hermoso playing alongside him, I am very confident that he can be one of our key players in this season.

Riccardo Saponara – I love this guy. He is not a natural centre midfielder, however, we have been playing him at the centre midfielder position since pre-season. As a Mezzala, he has been very creative in the midfield, linking up the play between our Deep Lying Playmaker and the attackers. From the Extended Highlights, I have seen him making a couple of great passes and great dribbles. I can’t wait to see him to deliver an even better performance in this season.  

Nicola Tagliaferri – From the first day, I already said that this guy is going to be a world class player in the future. My opinion remains unchanged. From pre-season until now, he has been banging quite a few goals and provides a few assists from the left winger position. I am very excited to see his development at the end of the season. Hopefully, he could be our key player as soon as possible.

Conclusion

In short, I think I am already having a lot of fun in Fiorentina. We are aiming for Europa League qualification, but I am actually quite ambitious right now and might try to go for the Champions League qualification. I know it sounds a bit crazy after playing only 1 game. However, I am very confident with the squad I have right now.

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That’s all for today’s chapter. 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!