The Football Manager deities have been smiling on Fiorentina so far this season. The journey through Serie A has been very smooth… perhaps a little too smooth. As we enter October, I’ve got this nagging fear that our ride could be derailed pretty soon, especially with a certain Madeiran menace looming large.
If you missed Part 3, you can click here to catch up on all the latest drama in Florence.
GENOA vs FIORENTINA (Serie A, Match 8)
October began with a visit to the Luigi Ferraris, which was where a certain Giovanni Simeone made a name for himself with 12 Serie A goals a couple of seasons ago. It would also be a homecoming of sorts for Federico Chiesa, who was born in Genoa. Chiesa had just been named Serie A’s U19 Player of the Month for the second time in a row.
Genoa were on a six-game losing streak, having floundered since their opening-day win over Frosinone. That didn’t stop them from grabbing a shock opener after 15 minutes, mind. Gianluca Lapadula raced past a napping defence to connect with Ervin Zukanovic and put the Rossoblu ahead with his 100th career league goal.
Lapadula almost got a second goal a minute later, but his diving header was caught by a relieved Alban Lafont. Simeone then hit the woodwork as we set out to make amends for falling behind in a Serie A match for the first time this season.
Right-back Vincent Laurini had been in good form recently, so it was no surprise that he caused Genoa the most problems in the first half. On 28 minutes, a centre from the 29-year-old Frenchman deflected off the hosts’ veteran defender Nicolás Spolli and crept into the net for a fortuitous equaliser.
Things didn’t go so well for our other full-back, as Cristiano Biraghi left the field with a tight calf after an hour. Shortly afterwards, playmaker Edimilson Fernandes made his return from a wrist injury.
The closing stages of this match saw opportunities wasted at both ends before the decisive blow was struck two minutes from time. An excellent interception from Christian Nørgaard began our match-winning counter-attack, which ended with Chiesa cutting the ball across for Simeone to silence his former supporters.
Victory briefly saw us go top of Serie A, and although Roma regained the initiative with a 1-1 home draw against Inter, they now only led us on goal difference. Other significant results included Milan’s 3-1 win over Torino, and Juventus’ Mario Mandzukic scoring a hat-trick to see off Bologna.
With that, it was now time for another international break. It was a particularly memorable one for Marco Benassi, who got just rewards for his impressive form in our midfield.
Those lads who weren’t on international duty spent a fortnight hard at work on the training pitch. They would need as much time as possible to prepare for what was undoubtedly our greatest test so far. It was time to face our great nemeses – the seven-time defending champions.
FIORENTINA vs JUVENTUS (Serie A, Match 9)
Every Viola tifoso is born with a burning hatred for Juventus. Players, cups and even scudetti have regularly been stolen from Fiorentina by the Turin giants. The fact that Juve have won every league championship since 2012 has only made us even more determined to see them fail.
In recent weeks, though, the Old Lady had taken a bit of a tumble. Away defeats to Napoli and Roma had hampered Juve’s pursuit of a 35th scudetto, while record signing Cristiano Ronaldo had blown hot-and-cold since his €112million move from Real Madrid.
This match would be the first real test of my more cautious 4-3-3 system, and it seemed to be in fine working order at first. Juve collected a couple of early bookings and their attackers were regularly frustrated before we hit them on the break. Chiesa picked up from where he left off against Genoa, dribbling over half the length of the pitch before his centre was stabbed home by Simeone.
Three minutes later, though, Juve got up to their dirty tricks. Ronaldo went down under a soft push in the area from Nørgaard, and the referee infuriated us by pointing to the spot. The Portuguese preener then took the penalty… but Lafont guessed correctly to keep us in the lead!
A couple more yellow cards were issued to Bianconeri players before we bloodied the champs’ noses again. Jordan Veretout had recently asked me for more starts, having been used mostly as a sub in recent games. The French midfielder more than justified his inclusion here by brilliantly driving Nørgaard’s flick-on past Wojciech Szczesny to give us a 2-0 half-time lead!
Juventus’ attack was now in total disarray. Juan Cuadrado tore his thigh muscle early in the second half, and Ronaldo’s match rating dropped as low as 5.9 following his penalty miss. Predictably, though, Cristiano would get his team back in contention.
After several near-misses, our resistance was finally broken in the 74th minute. Ronaldo found yet another way to score (kinda) by firing an off-target shot in off a fluky deflection off team-mate Paulo Dybala’s heel, which Lafont had no chance of reaching. The goal was awarded to Dybala, but guess who most wanted to claim it instead…
We retreated further into our shell after our lead was cut to 2-1, which was a mistake in retrospect. Ex-Viola winger Fernando Bernardeschi twice came very close to scoring, but Juve’s injury-time equaliser came from a less likely source. Daniele Rugani’s flick-on from Dybala’s corner was volleyed home by Germany midfielder Sami Khedira, and our hearts were broken.
There was still time for us to pursue a late winner, though. Juve captain Giorgio Chiellini was sent off seconds from the end, having received a second booking for his trip on our right-back Kevin Diks. Sadly, the subsequent free-kick was wasted, and thus the match finished 2-2.
Though another potentially priceless win had gone begging, we were now the last unbeaten team in Serie A. That was because Roma’s imperious start was halted by Gonzalo Higuaín and AC Milan. The Giallorossi were now in 3rd place behind us and new leaders Lazio, who smashed Chievo 4-0 to register a fifth consecutive clean sheet.
INTERNAZIONALE vs FIORENTINA (Serie A, Match 10)
Just eight days later, we found ourselves up against another major force, this time at the San Siro. Inter had lost just once all season and knew that they would leapfrog us in the table if they won here. Head coach Luciano Spalletti’s tactics must clearly have been inspired by FM18, as he ambitiously went with three strikers up top.
Inter’s intent was clear, but we gave themselves something else to chew over just six minutes in. You might remember that Marko Pjaca scored against Milan on the opening weekend, and he made himself few friends in the other half of the city by sidefooting a Chiesa cross into the net.
That was the perfect start for Fiorentina, but it sadly didn’t last. The Nerazzurri increased the tempo in the 21st minute, and when our right-back Laurini was caught out of position, they pounced. Argentine striker Lautaro Martínez took the ball up the left flank before his square ball was gobbled up by another frontman in the lightning-quick Keita Baldé.
Inter defender Stefan de Vrij almost put them in the ascendancy later in the first half, which had been very closely-fought. The same couldn’t be said about the second period, as Spalletti’s squadra really came into their own following the break.
The first half of that second half saw us camped in our own half, having to bat away a string of opposition attacks. Lafont initially kept them at bay with a couple of important stops, but he and his defenders would ultimately crack under the strain.
The 73rd minute was one that neither of our central defenders would remember fondly. A headed clearance from captain Germán Pezzella was intercepted by Baldé, who took the ball towards the byline before slipping it into our box. Nikola Milenkovic looked to have it covered… until Martínez stuck a leg out to divert the ball away from him and across the goal line.
At 2-1 Inter, we had little option but to chase the game. I switched to the 4-2-3-1 to give us more attacking options, but that only served to leave us even more vulnerable at the back. Before long, our unbeaten record had been smashed to pieces.
Baldé secured victory seven minutes from time, stabbing in his second goal after Chiesa’s slide tackle on Martínez had diverted the ball across our box.
Ivan Perisic then came off the bench to hammer the final nail into our coffin. Milenkovic mistimed a slide tackle on the advancing Mauro Icardi, allowing the Argentine to move the ball on to Perisic in acres of space. A simple tap-in followed, and it finished 4-1 to the Nerazzurri, who climbed to 2nd place at our expense.
Lazio now held a two-point lead at the top, despite being held to a 1-1 draw at Napoli. Roma slumped to another defeat, this time conceding an injury-time winner at home to mid-table Bologna. It was also a round to forget for AC Milan, whose former player Kevin-Prince Boateng inspired a 2-0 win for Sassuolo.
And so, with 10 games played, this is how Serie A’s top seven looks:
Even at such a relatively early stage in the season, it is still incredibly tight. The Juventus procession many people were predicting will perhaps not come to fruition after all!
A REALITY CHECK
So, yeah… the honeymoon is over. It was a tad galling to see the run end here, partly because I would’ve got a Steam achievement for going 10 matches without defeat (though I did still get one for scoring in 10 straight games). On the other hand, this has given me some time to assess what went wrong.
First off, we didn’t look at all adept at defending against Inter’s three strikers. Going off my experiences from past FMs, I would probably have used a three-man defence to counter that threat instead of a back four. However, we only have four senior centre-backs at Fiorentina, so that was a no-go.
A better idea might’ve been to instruct my defenders to sit deeper and narrower. Even then, though, it might not have been much use if they continued to counter-press, thus losing their shape and leaving gaps open for Inter to exploit.
That is where I think we lost the game. If you’re going to counter-press for most of a match, you need your players to be very fit. I’m not saying my players weren’t, but they noticeably tired towards the end. That was no more evident than in injury time, when a lively Perisic sauntered past a non-existent defence to kill us off.
Lesson learned. In future, I’ll try to be more thoughtful regarding when my players should counter-press upon losing the ball, and when they should instead look to regroup and keep their shape.
I also took the defeat as a first opportunity to implement my disciplinary procedures. Since about FM13, I have tended to criticise my charges for poor performances and give them formal warnings if they’ve played particularly badly (usually if they’re rated 6.2 or lower). Fines for poor performances are usually last resorts that are reserved for consistent underachievement.
I had a private chat with Pezzella (match rating 6.2) about his performance, and he responded by essentially saying, “Dovresti essere andato su Specsavers.” So, yeah… he didn’t like that. He was, though, rather more apologetic when I handed him a formal warning.
Milenkovic (match rating 6.3) also got a warning off me, and that seems to have made a difference, increasing his Determination attribute from 14 to 15. Combined with the mentoring he has received from Pezzella and Federico Ceccherini, the young Serbian’s personality has now changed to Resolute. That bodes very well for the future.
I was going to include our November results in this part as well. Considering that those last two games in particular were very eventful, though, I guess I’ll leave it there for now. I also hope you enjoyed that little section about my thought process when results don’t go my team’s way.
“Forza viola!”
Fuller FM 
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