Forza Viola - Attempting to take Fiorentina to the top!

Hello.

Well, after lurking for god knows how long I've decided to give the whole save-documentation/story thing a go. If this save isn't to your taste I apologise, I'm writing for my own enjoyment as much as I am for people to read.

Fiorentina are a really great club. Their purple jerseys, their rich history and the simple fact they are just so frustrating. After bouncing back from near extinction years in the mid-00's, they have been incredibly consistent. After finishing in the Europa League spots in the last 4 seasons, it could be said Fiorentina have overachieved given their tight budget.

After going from year to year never managing to make the step to the financial haven which is 3rd place, I will attempt to crack it, eventually. It might be a stretch to expect it first season, given the recently aquired strength of the likes of Milan and Inter after years of being woeful.

Either way, I'll be trying to mix it with the big boys whilst trying to take this wonderful club as far as possible. In the interests of making the save different, managing Fiorentina means I'm going to have to watch the the purse strings. I'm not one who's too fond of routinely snapping up wonderkids. I don't like to stockpile for stockpiling sake, and I'll try to unearth a few lesser known gems from the depths of Europe; reminiscent of real life.

Unfortunately, I have started the save and I'm 6 games into the Serie A season and 1 game into the Europa League. Things are going rather well, and I'll provide a round up in my next update.

After that, expect some brief round ups of the matches we play and stay tuned to see if I can morph this team into title winners in hopefully a different way!

Thanks for reading!

Forza Viola!

Ok, so as promised, heres the catch up of the season so far.


As you can see, I've made a solid start. Both loses came at the hands of 2 of the Serie A's best sides, so not too disheartening. A good win away at St.Mary's set us up nicely for a run of two winnable fixtures against Sassuolo and FC Crotone.

This is the basic shape I'm rolling with. It weird, but Its working the way I'd like it too so far. Fiorentina have virtually no capable full backs, so I figured wed be better off scrapping the full backs and bringing in an extra centre back.



Onto the most recent match against Roma. Going into the game in good form, I decided to stick with a midfield which had served me well so far. Salcedo hasn't got a clue about playing wingback, but I needed a man on El Shaarawy. The formation is intrinsically weak on the wings, so strengthening this area made sense.



Kalinic's run to get onto Ilicic's long pass put him pretty much one on one, and he finished. The second goal was started by Ilicic's dogged determination in winning the ball back in his own half. Some nice interplay led to Borja Valero finding himself in space on the edge of the box, and with Kalinic in space he lofted the ball over to them, with the Croatian squaring for Bernardeschi who cooly slotted home. Not bad. The crux of this formation seems to be the attacking midfield strata, as you'd imagine. Interchanging and tight movement means the opponents box tends to get flooded.



But in all seriousness, it was a tight game. We dominated the ball but looked dodgy on the counter, its something I need to figure out with this formation. But as starts go, were doing well. In the next update I'll cover the next bunch of matches and go into a bit more detail about my tactic and how I see my players fitting. Thanks for reading!

Back again with update 2. A short one this time due to personal time constraints. 2 games against Zorya and Chievo in the Europa Legue and Serie A respectively.

The first game saw us destroy Zorya at home in a 4-0 win. Babacar netted a hat trick, which took him to within 1 goal of matching Kalinic's 5 goals. 3 goals of individual brilliance, strength and power saw him put us into a comfortable lead fairly early on. The 4 goal was particularly pleasing. Bernardeschi's PPM's state he likes to cut in, which makes for some interesting positioning when he's playing as a Winger on the right of midfield.

As Bernardeschi drove forward, he cuts the ball back onto his left about 35 yard out and swing in a cross aimed for the near post. Babacar storms through their defence and prods home. A very satisfying goal. A routine win which puts us in the driving seat in our group.

Onto the Chievo match.

An admittedly defensive set up, designed to nullify the high flying Chievo. In any other circumstance wed be looking to take control of Chievo in this match, but at the time of writing they find themselves second and are a serious threat.

Salcedo once again plays wide right where he did so well against Roma, and Olivera plays opposite, making for a very defensive flank set up. Both Chievo's full backs are danger men, they like to cross into the box where their trio of Pellisier, Meggiorini and Birsa look to overpower the backline.

Looking at our attacking plans, the decision was made to play both our in form strikers as it was hard to justify leaving out either of them. The back 4 of Chievo looked like it would struggle with the physicality of the 2, and with both playing of each other, both centre backs would have their hands full and the box would be somewhat flooded on the counter.





A not too disheartening 1-1 draw, where we were honesty quite lucky to survive. Our plans seemed to partially nullify their 3 danger men for the majority of the match. A decision early in the second half to bring on Sanchez for Ilicic was one with Birsa in mind, it was a matter of time before he scored, he was started to find too much space behind my flat midfield.

Luckily, a wonderful Borja Valero free kick was floated into the Chievo box, and a crazy moment by Sorrentino law him rush to catch only to completely miss the ball. This meant Rodriguez could head home; at which point we went into lock down.

However it wasn't to be, as Chievo piled more pressure on. A semi counter from them saw their left back find space down the flank, he whipped in and found the head of substitute Inglese who cushioned a header down for Birsa to blast home. Disappointing, but overall I'm not too sad about earning what was a very hard earned point away to Serie A's inform side. We go again. Next up is Milan in what looks to be another very tough match.

Unfortunately I can't go into great detail regarding my tactic in this update. Such things will be discussed in the next update which is hopefully a bit more comprehensive. Thanks for reading!

Update 3! We've played quite a few games since the last update, and I've chosen to focus on the first fixture we played in this update which was a thrilling 3-2 win against Milan.



We've been in fantastic forms whilst not quite clicking as we should. The Pescara draw was very lucky; Milic's red card on the 30th minute left us hanging for the best part of the match. The more recent 2 results have seen the emergence of Borja Valero as a goal machine, scoring twice against Atalanta and scoring a 90th minute header from a Milic cross against Torino. The away result as Sparta was the only anomaly, they had 1 shot on goal the whole match. An unfortunate Carlos Sanchez own goal from a whipped cross set the tone for the day, and despite dominating them we just couldn't find the net.



Onto tactics.

Tactically, the shape is greater than the sum of its parts. The 3-4-2-1 wasn't my intention coming into the side, but after looking at what we had, it was the only real option. My initial thinking was... we have 5 centre backs, no natural right back and a really weak left flank. We have an abundance of great passers in midfield and a striker who is perfect alone. The strongest area was in fact midfield, and with players like Ilicic, Valero, Badelj, Vecino and Saponara to name a few, it was imperative to get as many as I could into the side.
My philosophy was quite simple. I didn't want to overcomplicate things. I don't care how we score, is the shape aids to a short passing game, so be it. The one thing I was sure on was that I wanted my team to keep the ball. We have pace in flashes but not enough to play an effective counter game.

Goalkeeper:
Tatarusanu/Sportiello/Satalino - We have 2 solid keepers and a young prospect. Both Tata and Sportiello are nothing spectacular, but good stoppers. We aren't going to be playing a ridiculously high pressing/incricate build up play, so they fitted fine.

Centre Backs:
Rodriguez/Astori/Tomovic/De Maio/Salcedo/Sanchez - 5 good Serie A level centre backs. Astori, Rodriguez and Tomovic are all adept passers, and having 3 centre backs allows us to build up from the back with insurance in numbers. Sanchez has all the attributes to make a good centre back, so it will be an option I'll explore.

Wide Players:
Milic/Olivera/Bernardeschi/Tello/Perez - Olivera and Milic on the left is the weak spot of the team. Milic is more of a winger and Olivera is more well rounded. I have been surprised by Milic, despite him only being a 2-star players, he has done very well, and certainly isn't the first candidate to be sold come next year. On the other flank we have 2 much more attack minded players, Berna and Tello. Berna is my best player, but when fitting into the formation this is his role. If we manage to keep him, which is unlikely, I intend to move him centrally towards the end of the season. I see him as a number 10, fitting of his squad number, and thats where I want him eventually. Tello is fast, direct and can cross, perfect off the bench. The wings are weak but balanced the best they can be.

Central Midfield:
Badelj/Vecino/Cristoforo/Valero/Sanchez - The midfield 2 acts as a good springboard and is a good link between the back 3 and front 3. I try to include 2 different roles. Badelj is the sitter, he is a good passer and can tackle. He has also just signed a new contract but Guangzhou Evergrande are sniffing and if they bid it may be too good to refuse. Valero plays next to him. He pushes on more and is more inclined to get on the edge of the box and thread balls. Vecino plays here when we need more physicality and legs.

Attacking Midfield:
Ilicic/Saponara/Valero/Hagi - Ilicic plays the AM/S role. He sits and helps circulate the ball in the opposing teams half, and has a lethal left foot on him. Borja is his usual partner, but if he is deeper Saponara fills in. Saponara is a great passer and is encouraged to get higher up and use his technical abilities alongside the striker.

Forward:
Kalinic/Babacar - 2 very similar strikers who rotate. This is one area I'll look to diversify in the team, Kalinic is more established but at 28 might be sold come the summer. Babacar deputises, but he is inconsistent and might not get the game time to realise his potential.



My team instructions are simple and I've tried not to overcomplicate and let our shape do most of the talking. We want to play at a lower tempo to build up and take our time, and also play a bit wider as the formation is intrinsically quite narrow. We want to squeeze up but not too much to expose our centre backs, and keep the ball and pace into space when we find it. A steadied buildup, followed by waiting for our moment in the final third with good movement, and relying on our players qualities.



Milan were in ridiculous form, and I was worried going into it. We played more conservatively and tried of focus on how we'd stop the flanks. They play a 4-3-1-2. Antonelli and Abate are fantastic full backs, and if we sat off them they had space to exploit and if we got close we risked getting skinned by them. We struggled and we couldn't stop their 2 goals from whipped crosses, some fault lies with my centra backs who were poor. Luckily a 3rd minute Ilicic striker gave us hope; Kalinic cushioned the ball down for the Slovene who hammered home on the edge of the area. Cristoforo got onto a Milic cross from deep at the near post. It was 2-2, a result I was happy with, until Bernardeschi scored a pearler of a free kick in the last minute. We were incredibly lucky, Bacca and Lapdaula's movement was sublime and we kept hanging in there, a fortunate win but a season defining one.



Next update will be at the start of January, where I'll discuss my transfer targets. Thanks for reading!

Ah, a pretty bum month going into January.



The win against Southampton gave us top spot in out group, subsequently drawing us against FC Zurich in the last 32, which is a pleasing draw.]

The 2 wins against Bologna and Udinese weren't spectacular, and were representative of the way we have been picking up points without doing too great. Then it began. The Zorya loss was too be expected, we'd topped the group and I wasn't bothered at all. We should not have lost the Lazio game. A stupid error by Gonzalo, mistiming a clearance, let Immobile through on goal. Frustrating. Then up came Inter, and we were woeful. Icardi benefitted from some over aggressive defending, my defence was pulled everywhere. I should maybe shoulder the blame for this for being over-agressive in my pressing an closing down. Nonetheless, it loosens out grip on any potential Scudetto, as we have now slipped to 2nd. But I need to put things in perspective, we are 2nd.

Being 2nd at Christmas in itself is a huge achievement for a club like Fiorentina. Roma, Milan, Inter, Napoli, Juventus and Lazio are clubs who have much bigger wage budget and transfer kitty than me. However the tactic needs looking at, my record against the top teams is woeful. Lost 4, scored 0 is embarrassing.

I wasn't planning on making many moves in January, but I think the flank situation is starting to become an issue. We can't challenge without any proper full backs.

The Palermo gave was just one of those games. Goals everywhere, tactics out of the window.



Palermo's first goal was a result of out defence being sliced in 2 by Henrique's run. His charge from deep saw him exploit the space left by Gonzalo's pressing, and he duly slotted away. Borja replied with a deflected long effort, only to be cancelled out by another finish by Henrique. Babacar slotted home at the near post, after being brought into the side after Kalinic was dropped for 3 no-shows in a row. We were lucky to draw with Bernardeschi's penalty saving us in the last 10 minutes. Our performance wasn't good enough, and the break now gives us chance to regroup and re-think things. We are well embedded in the race for Champions League football, so thats on positive to take away. My rivals also seem to be dropping points at an equally alarming rate, so every cloud ect. Champions League is the priority, Bernardeschi has said he wants to leave if we don't qualify, which is fair enough. We need to hold onto him, If not we need to maximise the money we make off him, it could be a defining moment for the club if we scoop 60+ million.



In the next episode I'll round up the January transfer window and my moves, and hopefully a more successful month of results! Thanks for reading!