Fiorentina 1-0 Atalanta: Player grades and 3 things we learned

Player grades

Pietro Terracciano—6.5: Made a couple of good saves on Isak Hien and Gianluca Scamacca in the second half to keep the clean sheet and was quick off his line to sweep up behind the defense when necessary. Safe hands from a player who’s quietly been one of Fiorentina’s best this season

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Michael Kayode—5: Exuberant as ever but showed his youth a few times, including once when he allowed Ademola Lookman to take the ball off his feet and create a double chance that Milenković and Mandragora cleaned up. All part of the learning process.

Nikola Milenković—6.5: Kept Atalanta’s forwards quiet, won everything in the air, and made himself a problem at set pieces. All in all, a vintage display from the Mountain that Kicks, and highly welcome after a shaky couple of months.

Luca Ranieri—6.5: Really should’ve scored after Belotti flicked a corner for him at the back post, but his tackling was on point and snuffed out Aleksey Miranchuk and Lookman. Also teased in the cross from which Nico forced the save of the year from Marco Carnesecchi. And, as ever, brought a bundle of personality.

Fabiano Parisi—7: Battled away with the bigger Emil Holm and definitively won, shutting the Swede down and created several good chances. Went on a couple of nice little bursts forward. More than anything, though, played with a toughness we haven’t seen much of.

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Giacomo Bonaventura—6.5: Tricky as ever in the middle, winning a game high 5 fouls and keeping the ball moving nicely. Had a couple of chances to score but, more importantly, ensured la Dea couldn’t overrun the midfield.

Rolando Mandragora—7.5: This was the Mandrake’s best Fiorentina performance. Scored an unreal goal, made a couple of good tackles and a possibly goal-saving block on Teun Koopmeiners, with whom he had a good running battle. His set pieces weren’t perfect but that’s the only quibble. If he can maintain this level, this season could take a massive turn for the better.

Nicolás González—7: “Assisted” Mandragora’s goal and forced an unbelievable save from Carnesecchi with a header. Tormented Atalanta’s defense, particularly Sead Kolašinac, with his dribbling. Defended really well, too, winning possession numerous times to send Fiorentina galloping the other way.

Lucas Beltrán—6.5: Buzzed around up front, finding space and pressing furiously, as per usual. Forced a good kick-save from Carnesecchi and played a couple gorgeous balls on the break. Still needs to contribute a bit more around the goal but was lively and dangerous.

Christian Kouamé—6.5: Wasn’t great in the box, missing some chances, but ran like crazy, offered an aerial outlet for high balls out the back, and kept attacks moving. Not the most exciting forward but proved again that he’s functional and effective in his role.

Andrea Belotti—6.5: The definition of a battler, up to the point of losing a tooth after an errant boot from Éderson caught him in the mouth. Fought for every high ball and chased every lost cause. His failure to score is becoming troubling but it always seems to be a good save or a great defensive play more than his shortcomings, so it’s hard to dock him.

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Arthur Melo—5.5: Brought on to calm things down and mostly did that, although there was a pretty poor giveaway in there too.

Jonathan Ikoné—n/a: Brought on as a speedy outlet as Fiorentina dropped deep but didn’t really get the ball.

Three things we learned

1. Vincenzo Italiano’s got Gian Piero Gasperini figured out. I genuinely do not understand this but it’s a plain statement of fact. In 7 meetings, Cousin Vinnie’s won 5, drawn 1, and lost 1. There’s never been more than a single goal between them but the results don’t lie. There’s something about Italiano’s setup that clearly troubles Gaserpini. I’d guess it has something to do with the combination of energy out of possession and attacking width, but I’d want to look much more deeply before venturing a definitive theory. For whatever reason, though, Italiano’s clearly got the upper hand.

Or at least he does as long as Fiorentina advances to the Coppa Italia final again. If he loses, well, that record doesn’t really mean anything.

2. It’s time to empty the bench. In basketball terms, emptying the bench means throwing the backups into the game, usually during a blowout. It offers the starters some rest for more important matches in the future while giving the players further down the ladder some valuable minutes. It’s also fun to watch the rarely-used reserves get a run; sometimes a couple of them will even demonstrate that they’re ready for a bigger role.

With Fiorentina playing twice a week for the rest of the season, Italiano should empty his bench, particularly during Serie A games. Qualifying for Europe through the league is out of reach, so we may as well see where Pietro Comuzzo, Gino Infantino, and company are in their development.

This summer is going to be one of enormous changes for the Viola, so the brass may as well start figuring out which fringe players have a future with the club, and the easiest way to do that is throw them into Serie A games and see how they do. It’s not fun for fans to watch them flail and fail, but it’s a good long-term decision, and that’s what the club needs right now.

3. Il Gallo is cursed. Andrea Belotti has scored a single goal in his 830 minutes with Fiorentina. Fbref doesn’t have xG data on every game he’s been in so far, but his xG is around 2.5 since his arrival from AS Roma. On the surface, it looks like he’s finishing really poorly. At least the numbers also communicate his non-stop activity. His defensive metrics and aerial duels are exemplary, backing up the eyeball test: his sheer presence is a vast improvement on M’Bala Nzola for this team.

Zooming back in, though, he’s just been desperately unlucky. Some of it is bad finishing—the 1-v-1 he smacked straight into Mike Maignan’s torso against AC Milan comes to mind—but more of it is good goalkeeping or defending. Maignan swiped one out of the top corner, and there was another one against Atalanta as Éderson blocked his effort on the back post. The optimist will say that Belotti’s bound to break through soon and start finishing some of these chances, but any veteran Viola observer can tell you this is probably par for the course. Poor guy.