Can you believe it? It’s been three weeks since the Football Manager 2019 beta was released, and I’m already into my second season as Fiorentina manager. That is exceptionally quick by my standards, believe me, but it’s clear that I am thoroughly enjoying this maiden career on the new game.
Back in Part 12, I wrote about my new summer signings and all the pre-season goings-on. In today’s chapter, I will take you through my full senior squad, along with the updated tactics I will mainly be using.
Oh yes, and as a special treat, I’ll round things off with the first two matches of the 2019/2020 Serie A season. We will kick off by facing Coppa Italia holders Lazio in Rome before opening our home campaign against Inter. To be honest, I was hoping things would start off a little easier than that…
SQUAD REPORT
Y’know, I’m still not convinced by the black outlines Sports Interactive added to those ability stars during the beta. It does make them look awfully smaller… ah, right, the squad report. (Ahem)
So that’s how my first-team squad looks as we head into the new season. I’ll quickly go over each player one-by-one, while also attaching the player profiles of eight men that I’ve earmarked as particularly important to our success (or otherwise) this season.
Alban Lafont sat out just one of our 40 competitive matches last season and will again be our undisputed number 1. The youngster had a couple of awkward moments, but I’ve seen him become a more confident and composed goalkeeper over the past 12 months. It surely won’t be too long before he stakes a claim to replace Hugo Lloris as France’s international custodian.
Lafont’s deputy this season will be 33-year-old Daniele Padelli, who’s made a decent living as an Italian Stuart Taylor impersonator. His positioning and handling skills are impressive, but this renowned perfectionist is here more as a mentor than anything.
I couldn’t wish for a much more assured central defender than our captain marvel, Germán Pezzella. The 28-year-old Argentine is a fearless stopper currently in his prime. Despite interest from a number of clubs (most notably Lyon), Pezzella has stayed loyal to the Viola and has proven himself to be a worthy successor to the late Davide Astori.
Vítor Hugo is our other experienced South American central defender, though the Brazilian is more at home covering than stopping. He anticipates situations very well and can be trusted to not make too many mistakes.
In the latter regard, Nikola Milenkovic still has quite a bit to learn. You can’t accuse the raw Serbian of being a shrinking violet in Viola colours, but he was caught off guard on quite a few occasions last season. Milenkovic is a resilient character and a beast in the air, so I’m willing to give him time to iron out those creases.
Federico Ceccherini is perennially asking for more first-team football, but the quality of those above him means that he has to settle with being our fourth-choice centre-half for now. Ceccherini does have great fitness and strength, though, so he certainly won’t look out of place whenever he is called upon.
Here’s the man that the Fiorentina tifosi voted their Player of the Season for 2018/2019. Cristiano Biraghi looks a bit like Sergio Ramos, though I suspect our top left-back has never desired to pick up five red cards a season or try breaking an Egyptian’s arm in Kiev.
Biraghi’s greatest strengths are undoubtedly his pinpoint crossing ability and his work ethic. His dribbling is perhaps not good enough to justify him bombing forward all the time, and at first glance, his other attributes don’t look all that convincing. Regardless, Cristiano’s performances on the pitch have more than merited a new five-year contract.
Maximiliano Olivera is staying at the Franchi for a fourth season, which will be the Uruguayan’s third as Biraghi’s deputy. Olivera is very well-rounded mentally and physically, while his tough tackling allows him to get stuck in whenever he has to. I just hope he doesn’t go overboard when we’re about to go to extra-time in the Coppa Italia again.
At right-back, our first-choice will be new Bosman signing Almamy Touré. A former Ligue 1 champion with Monaco, Touré is still only 23 and has plenty of time to establish himself as one of the continent’s top wing-backs. If the Mali international can stay clear of the injuries that have given his career a stop-start feel about it, I’m sure he’ll reach his full potential.
Kevin Diks – who’s a year younger than Touré – will be sure to keep his new team-mate on his toes. This flying Dutchman works hard and is a selfless player, though he is rather lacking when it comes to crossing and dribbling.
One of last season’s unsung heroes, Christian Nørgaard found his calling as a regista during his first year with Fiorentina. The great Dane has a cool head on relatively young shoulders, and his vision for a killer ball is a useful asset. However, he doesn’t seem to enjoy big matches all that much, so I might only use him sparingly in Europe.
19-year-old Sandro Tonali could well succeed Nørgaard in the future, but this first season at the Franchi is all about development for him. While I have been impressed by the former Brescia man’s application in training, he does need to brush up on his defensive positioning.
When I was looking for someone to appear on this season’s title image (I use GIMP 2, in case you’re interested), Marco Benassi was the obvious first choice. This tough-tackling son of Modena is our chief midfield enforcer, helping us effectively transition from defence to attack.
Lazio made a couple of attempts to prise Benassi from us over the summer, both of which we rejected . The 24-year-old has made it clear that he wants to play in the Champions League sooner rather than later, and he won’t sign a new contract until we do. In order to keep Marco sweet for now, I’ve had to promise him that I’ll develop our younger players to strengthen our top-four charge.
If Benassi’s not able to carry out his ball-winning duties, I’m hoping Bryan Dabo will. The hard-grafting 27-year-old was used mainly from the substitutes’ bench last season, though his versatility and competitiveness makes him a handy man for most situations.
Jordan Veretout is the undisputed king of the ‘mezzala’ role at Fiorentina. The spirited Frenchman would give his life for the team, and the six goals he scored gave plenty of joy to Viola supporters. Veretout lost his way a little after renewing his contract last Christmas, so it’s rather concerning that he seems to be hankering for another one already. I might just get him a few pairs of socks instead this year.
Another of our summer signings, Nicolás Benedetti was plucked from the Colombian leagues for €600,000, which already looks like peanuts. Benedetti’s creativity and technical skill was on full display in pre-season, when he chipped in three goals and two assists. If the 22-year-old can carry that form over into competitive matches, he will become a key player before long.
Another attacking midfield option is Riccardo Saponara, whom I have handed a Fiorentina reprieve, despite a poor season on loan with Sampdoria. The flamboyant former Italy Under-21s international is a fantastic passer of the ball, though he’s yet to recapture the excellent form he showed at Empoli a few years back.
Lastly, we move on to the forwards, starting with vice-captain Federico Chiesa. Our top assist-maker from last season typically plays as an inside-forward on either flank, and occasionally as a right-winger.
Like Benassi, Chiesa is reluctant to discuss a new contract, amid rumours of a move to a Champions League team. Arsenal in particular have seemingly been interested in signing him since his old man Enrico was still playing. I swear that hidden somewhere in Unai Emery’s office is a huge 400-page dossier detailing Federico’s past performances, training routines, injury record, sleeping patterns, bathroom schedule… you name it.
When he’s not lunging in on opponents 20 seconds into pre-season friendlies, Domenico Berardi is apparently a technical inside-forward of immense promise. A €12.5million summer signing from Sassuolo, Berardi has the ambition, drive and unpredictability to potentially take us to the next level. He also has what your average BT Sport commentator would call “a wand of a left foot”.
Valentin Eysseric showed flashes of excellence last season but is unquestionably the most erratic member of a French legion that has recently dwindled in size. He loves to run with the ball, even if he typically ends up running into an opposition defender. This might be Eysseric’s last season with us unless he becomes more reliable.
We loaned in a couple of attackers from Atlético Madrid just before the new season. Luciano Vietto is a dynamic and agile Argentine who can play on the right wing or up front. Nikola Kalinic is an out-and-out pressing forward who wants to recapture the excellent goalscoring form from his first spell at the Franchi.
Contending with 31-year-old Kalinic for the centre-forward role will be a couple of teenagers. Firstly, we have Pietro Pellegri, who is – in my mind – the most exciting striker Italy has produced since Christian Vieri. Monaco have kindly lent us this prodigious talent, whose strength and composure belie his 18 years.
Finally, there’s Dusan Vlahovic – a tall and physical frontman who scored his first Serie A goal right at the end of last season. It’s probably too soon for the Serbian to be playing regular top-flight football, but it can’t hurt keeping him around to learn from more influential mentors.
TACTICS
So here’s the latest version of my main ‘Fullerball’ tactic. We still play positive, low-tempo football when on the ball, with an emphasis on keeping our passing short and vertical.
There have been some subtle defensive changes. I rarely use ball-playing defenders in this tactic now, as our centre-halves haven’t quite been up to it. Instead, when we’re in transition, the goalkeeper usually rolls the ball out to our wing-backs. I’ve also set my players to stay on their feet when defending (the ball-winning midfielder excepted) in an effort to cut down on unnecessary bookings.
In recent times, I’ve had some success overloading one flank, with an inside-forward cutting inside, a mezzala acting as a half-winger, and a wing-back providing support. I’m overloading the right flank in the screenshot above, but I will swap our central midfielders around if I feel we can have more joy down the left. The regista remains our creator-in-chief in an Italian-style midfield triangle.
I have a more cautious variant of the 4-3-3, designed to keep things tight and then look to hit opponents on the counter. This is not a system that I can feel confident using at the start of matches, as Juventus near enough destroyed us when we tried it at the Allianz Stadium last season. However, I may use it to help us grind out victories late on.
‘Fullerball’ tends to fall apart when we’re trying to break down a three-man backline, with our poor lone forward often being overwhelmed. It has also not been too successful at getting results away from home against weaker, more cautious teams. It’s in those situations that I will often bring out the 4-2-3-1.
This tactic places more of an emphasis on keeping possession and drawing our opponents out of position. Replacing one of my inside-forwards with a winger adds a bit more variety to our attacks, and it’s no surprise that we tend to score significantly more goal often with this system. Of course, with little support from our midfield, the defence tends to concede significantly more goals as well.
Incidentally, it was the 4-2-3-1 that I began the Serie A season with at the Olimpico. Could we get off to a winning start against last year’s runners-up?
LAZIO vs FIORENTINA (Serie A, Match 1)
After winning the Coppa Italia and almost claiming the scudetto, Simone Inzaghi had been busy in the transfer market. Though Lazio had lost Sergej Milinkovic-Savic to Manchester City for €76million, they had brought in the likes of Divock Origi, Marco van Ginkel and… Matteo Darmian?! I thought he disappeared off the face of the earth after Manchester United sacked Louis van Gaal!
We put a new-look Biancocelesti team under pressure as early as the first minute. Diks’ right-wing cross took a heavy deflection off Joaquín Correa and had to be parried behind by keeper Thomas Strakosha. That was one of several big saves the Albanian made in an opening half-hour that we were very unfortunate not to score in.
I really was cursing my luck after Lazio’s first attack in the 31st minute. Adam Marusic knocked the ball past our usually dependable left-back Biraghi and crossed for on-loan Benfica forward Nicolás Castillo to emphatically volley it home. The referee turned to VAR before ruling that the Chilean was narrowly onside.
While Lazio went into the break 1-0 up, I was convinced that we were playing the better football. We were bossing possession and creating plenty of opportunities, but Strakosha was just playing out of his skin. It would take a couple of late substitutions – and a tactical switch to ‘Fullerball’ – to turn our fortunes around.
After Biraghi intercepted a long ball from Milan Badelj in the 89th minute, Chiesa pumped it up to our own Croatian sub. Kalinic burst between the two Lazio centre-halves to collect Chiesa’s through-ball and smash it past Strakosha, equalising on his second Viola debut!
A genuine Fiorentina newcomer completed our late fightback in injury time from another outstanding pass by Chiesa. Domenico made a mockery of the hosts’ offside trap to latch onto a 35-yard ball into the box before cutting it into the net from a tight angle! Victory was ours, and the travelling supporters were enjoying their first Berardi party!
Also getting off to a victorious start were holders Juventus, who put four goals past Serie B champions Pescara. They went straight to the top of the standings with Roma – also 4-0 winners away to Empoli. It wasn’t quite the best of starts for Napoli, who were denied an opening-round win by a late Atalanta equaliser.
FIORENTINA vs INTERNAZIONALE (Serie A, Match 2)
You’ll surely remember that I have a proud record of never having lost a home match as Fiorentina boss. That would surely be put to the test by Inter, who finished 4th last term and were now seeking their first scudetto in a decade. Mind you, they had needed an 83rd-minute strike from Lautaro Martínez to avoid a shock home draw against newly-promoted underdogs Salernitana.
Martínez picked up where he left off at the Franchi, breaking the deadlock seven minutes in. Some people thought he’d strayed offside to tuck Matteo Politano’s lofted free-kick away at the near post, but VAR showed that Pezzella had inadvertently kept him onside. Not great stuff from our captain… and not great from Benassi to concede the free-kick in the first place.
Unlike in Rome, we had no excuses for our inability to score in the first half. Chiesa and Kalinic struggled to hit the target, though the former did test Samir Handanovic in the 36th minute. That was as good as Chiesa’s evening got; he would be subbed at half-time with a tight thigh.
The second half was very tense, with Lafont needing to make a couple of saves from Martínez and Roberto Gagliardini to keep me in with a chance of staying unbeaten at home. In the 75th minute, shortly after that second save, we came agonisingly close to levelling. Handanovic could only parry Veretout’s drive to the feet of Vietto, who then smacked the crossbar from inside the six-yard box!
Vietto would soon be replaced with Berardi, and it was our new super-sub who bailed us out three minutes from time. Berardi’s far-post corner was knocked on by Inter right-back Sime Vrsaljko towards Veretout. The Frenchman’s powerful first-time strike clipped in off Handanovic’s left-hand post, saving us a point!
Considering the obstacles that the fixture computer had put in our way, I was satisfied with four points from our first two games. Four other teams had opened with a win and a draw: Juventus (held 0-0 at Cagliari), Napoli (also 2-0 winners, at Salernitana), Sampdoria and Udinese.
Just like they had done last season, Roma were setting the pace, registering a second straight win when they saw off Chievo 4-2. AC Milan had made a similarly strong start, following up a narrow win against Bologna by defeating Empoli 2-0.
Well, that wasn’t too shabby, was it? A couple of spirited comebacks against two of last season’s Champions League qualifiers suggests that Fiorentina mean business this term. Join me again next time for all the action from September, when we’ll hope to continue our strong start, as well as beginning our quest for Europa League glory.
“Forza viola!”
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