Juventus return from the final international break of the 2025 calendar year this Saturday with a trip to Florence.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Both Juve and Fiorentina \u2014 a club that, rumor has it, doesn\u2019t like the Old Lady from Turin all that much! \u2014 have already made managerial changes as they\u2019ve dealt with their own unique sets of struggles so far this season. One club, the one that wears purple, is in much worse shape through the first 11 games of the 2025-26 season than the one in bianconero when it comes to their respective positions in the table, and that has caused even more angst than usual from Viola supporters in Florence.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Even though he doesn\u2019t live in one of Italy\u2019s most beautiful cities, we decided to call in one of those Fiorentina supporters to get the temperature \u2014 and other things \u2014 of how things are going at Viola Park these days.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
(Hint: they\u2019re not great!)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
That\u2019s right, folks. Our old buddy Tito from Viola Nation is back for another one of his drop-ins where he fills us in on everything that is going on with Fiorentina these days. And by \u201cwhat is going on\u201d right now, it\u2019s pretty much just \u201cwhat has gone wrong\u201d ever since the last time Juventus and Fiorentina played each other back in March.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
And let\u2019s face it, with the season Fiorentina have had so far, it\u2019s pretty much just talking about what\u2019s wrong and nothing close to positive when it comes to Tito\u2019s favorite club. (One that he loves and sometimes wonders if it will ever love him back.)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Let\u2019s not wait around any longer to get this going. It\u2019s time to talk Fiorentina with Tito.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
DP:<\/strong> Tito, as always, thank you for dropping by our corner of the SBN Italia family. I think it\u2019s a pretty obvious place to start this out, so I ask: What the hell is going on at Fiorentina?<\/p>\n<\/div>\n T: <\/strong>Well you may ask, Danny. Well you may ask. On the macro level, what\u2019s going on is the chickens of years of minimal organizational oversight coming home to roost. Club owner Rocco Commisso has been minimally involved for the past few years, leaving team president Joe Barone and DS Daniele Prad\u00e8 to run the show as they saw fit. They built a pretty good relationship and rode Vincenzo Italiano\u2019s excellent coaching to some good results, but when Barone died unexpectedly last year, it all fell apart. To be clear, a lot of folks (including me) had been critical of some of Barone\u2019s processes, but he\u2019d done a decent enough job wrenching a moribund club onto an upward trajectory.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Commisso didn\u2019t replace Barone \u2014 who was more than his right-hand man and was also a close friend \u2014 and handed the reins to Prad\u00e8 and club CEO Alessandro Ferrari, who has no background in soccer (he was a supermarket executive before this). Barone\u2019s tragic death thew a wrench into the Viola business since, but it\u2019s hard not to see Prad\u00e8\u2019s expanded role leading to the current collapse: he alienated Raffaele Palladino so much that the mister resigned a day after the entire organization expressed its confidence in him; he made a series of very poor transfer decisions (e.g. \u20ac30 million for Roberto Piccoli) that have left the squad very limited; and he hired Stefano Pioli.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n More than that, though, this year was a huge opportunity for Fiorentina to take a step forward. With so much turmoil throughout the top half of Serie A, a smart and well-run organization could\u2019ve capitalized and grabbed a Champions League spot. When it became very clear that Fiorentina is not smart, not well-run, and barely qualifies as an organization at this point, the combination of inflated expectations, as well as simmering resentment about Palladino and a host of recruitment mistakes, reached a boil, and even Commisso, squirreled away in New Jersey and clearly not interested in his club anymore, had to do something. Unfortunately, years of neglect (or absolute faith in the Barone\/Prad\u00e8 combo, if you prefer) have left the Viola with no institutional knowledge at the top of the org chart and unproven leadership in Ferrari and acting DS Roberto Goretti, who\u2019s never worked at this level before.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Of course, what\u2019s gone wrong on the pitch is an entirely different question and I\u2019m sure that you won\u2019t put me through the suffering of reliving this accursed season.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n DP:<\/strong> Well, then let\u2019s just get to the manager who was hired over the summer to replace Palladino and his handsomeness. Pioli\u2019s return to Fiorentina was a disaster and didn\u2019t even make it through November. What can Paolo Vanoli do, at least in the short term, to try and get things headed in some sort of positive direction?<\/p>\n<\/div>\n T: <\/strong>Yeah, Pioli was awful. He walked into what was, in hindsight, an untenable position and got some organizational stink on him that wasn\u2019t entirely his fault, but he was truly disastrous. I thought that his previous tenure in Florence, when he provided the club with a level of dignity, humanity, and emotional ballast that carried it through those horrible days and weeks after Davide Astori\u2019s death, would buy him a little more time, but his inability to reach the players \u2014 there were stories over the summer about his guys not understanding their roles and wholly credible rumors of dressing room insurrections over the past month \u2014 demonstrated that he was out of his depth.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Tactically, I don\u2019t expect Vanoli to a whole lot differently. The biggest difference I noticed against Genoa (the mister\u2019s first game in charge) was that the Viola wingbacks started deeper, which had some interesting effects higher up, but I don\u2019t want to read too much into a single game after Vanoli\u2019s had 1.5 training sessions to implement his ideas. He\u2019ll probably stick to a 3-5-2 and sit deep, looking to hit on the break, which is what Pioli was trying to do too. Given that this team doesn\u2019t have any wingers \u2014 Prad\u00e8 spent the past two years getting rid of them (and Nico Gonz\u00e1lez sends his best) \u2014 there aren\u2019t that many other options. I don\u2019t foresee a return to a 4-man defense because Dod\u00f4 and Robin Gosens have huge responsibilities in attack and thus need extra cover, necessitating a back 3. Vanoli\u2019s locked into the same setup.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Getty Images<\/cite><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n The difference is vibes. I won\u2019t pretend to be an expert on Vanoli as a coach, but he\u2019s said all the right things so far, including that Fiorentina has to play like it is where it is in the table. That means we\u2019re going to see some ugly, scrappy stuff, but hopefully with some hunger and accountability on the part of the players. Vanoli spent years working with Antonio Conte and has adopted his mentor\u2019s attitude. I\u2019m skeptical that such a confrontational, disciplinarian approach can work for more than a couple of years, but it often seems to fix listless teams like this, forcing them to build good habits and stop being idiots. That last part is probably impossible for Fiorentina, but if Vanoli can get these guys playing like professionals, he\u2019ll be fine.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Part of the problem is the players (Fiorentina\u2019s xG is hilariously fifth-best in Serie A), so you could argue that some of the problem is less structural and more down to guys not kicking the ball correctly, but this team as a whole is such a mess.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n DP:<\/strong> Without there being a truly overwhelming choice to take over for Pioli, do you think Vanoli has the ability to get things improved enough so that Fiorentina isn\u2019t a relegation battler in a few months?<\/p>\n<\/div>\n T: <\/strong>Vanoli\u2019s as good a choice as any available. The Fiorentina fan base clamored for local boy Luciano Spalletti, of course, but il mago di Certaldo was never going to take on this sort of job. The only candidates were either unproven young coaches or guys who\u2019ve built their careers in the bottom half of the table. As much as my fellow fans don\u2019t want to hear it, that\u2019s what the Viola are now, and they need, as Vanoli says, to act like it. Pretending like some sort of glorious past gives them license to behave differently is exactly what\u2019s gotten the team into this mess.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Anyways, on paper, yeah, Fiorentina should be fine. To get to 36 points (the minimum non-relegation total since 2018-2019) will require 1.33 points per game, which would be good for right around 10th over the course of a full season. That\u2019s achievable. The next bottom-six teams \u2014 Lecce, Pisa, Parma, Genoa, Verona \u2014 are all pretty bad and I don\u2019t seen any of them really improving all that much. There\u2019s also the thing where the newly-promoted teams tend to fall off over the back half of the season as opponents figure them out. My expectation is a finish around 15th with relegation a specter looming over Fiorentina\u2019s shoulder but not really threatening by March or so.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Of course, it could be that such supernatural imagery is all too appropriate and this cursed team is heading straight for Serie B, which would be a very funny way to start its centennial next year. Yep, Fiorentina turns 100 next year and Commisso\u2019s talked a big game about having the Stadio Artemio Franchi ready to go. The construction\u2019s already dropped way behind schedule and getting relegated would be a very Viola birthday present. That extra pressure could also prod Commisso to spend big in January, as the ignominy of a centennial in Serie B is considerable.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n DP:<\/strong> Why hasn\u2019t Moise Kean been able to replicate his first season in Florence?<\/p>\n<\/div>\n T: <\/strong>The funniest (I use the word loosely) part of Fiorentina\u2019s season is the attack. Despite boasting Serie A\u2019s fifth-best xG, this team\u2019s nine goals are just 14th in the league, and that\u2019s squarely on Kean\u2019s shoulders. He\u2019s racked up the highest xG of any player, both total and from open play, and has scored two (2) goals, including a penalty. He\u2019s still a nuclear athlete and despite the team\u2019s overall dysfunction he\u2019s still getting chances. The Viola signed him to a massive contract this summer and brought him reinforcements to ensure he wouldn\u2019t have to do too much besides make his devastating runs in behind. There\u2019s no reason he shouldn\u2019t have scored a bunch more goals. If he had, Pioli might still have a job.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Getty Images<\/cite><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n I really can\u2019t tell you what\u2019s going on beyond Moose not kicking the ball good. Just as a Fiat 300 runs on gas the same as a Ferrari Murcielago, Kean runs on confidence the way that, say, Federico Bonazzoli does. The difference is the Sassuolo man has four goals and is brimming with confidence, while Kean\u2019s dial is in the red. A few bad misses (including the worst in Serie A this year) have compounded and now he\u2019s snatching at his shots His first touch has also been way off, not just his shooting, so it\u2019s not just the one thing. My take is that he spent all of last year on an outrageous hot streak and has regressed back beyond the mean now and should bounce back. That means ensuring that he\u2019s confident, which means generating can\u2019t-miss chances for him, which requires the rest of the team to improve. If that doesn\u2019t fix it by January, it\u2019s less a matter for a coach and more one for a psychologist. Or an exorcist.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n DP:<\/strong> I remember talking to you about some of the transfer moves Fiorentina made over the summer and you seemed relatively happy with the business they were doing at the time. What has changed? Why haven\u2019t a lot of these worked out so far?<\/p>\n<\/div>\n T: <\/strong>These players are who they were when Fiorentina brought them in this summer. The only difference is that now I remember I\u2019m a goddamn idiot and you probably shouldn\u2019t listen to me about anything ever. Which does undermine this entire article, which, hey, Danny? That\u2019s my bad.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Anyways, I don\u2019t think that every addition this summer is dead weight. I remain high on ya boy Nicky Beans, for example, although his attitude\u2019s been pretty bad, and Simon Sohm should be useful as well, although he\u2019ll never be a star. I overrated Hans Nicolussi Caviglia a little bit. He doesn\u2019t have the technical or tactical ability to operate as the single pivot but I can see him doing fine in a double pivot. I also don\u2019t hate Roberto Piccoli, who\u2019s the best forward in the world as long as he doesn\u2019t have to touch the ball; his athleticism, off-ball movement, and work rate are impressive but his feet are made out of iron and he probably shouldn\u2019t have cost \u20ac30 million. Jacopo Fazzini also has a lot of tools but needs some coaching to figure out how to use them.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/platform.blackwhitereadallover.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/33\/2025\/11\/gettyimages-2244182804.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0,0.099800399201591,100,99.800399201597\")
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