Fior 2-2 Atalanta; Winter Wonderland
By: slakas | December 17th, 2011
Stevan Jovetic rescues a point for Fiorentina with his seventh goal of the season.
Well, it’s nearly Winter break and Fiorentina fans are left wondering what, if anything, team management does during the winter market to shore up a team that is clearly missing something.
Delio Rossi’s squad made it though the toughest part of the schedule with a semi-respectable 4 points, but a home match against a newly promoted squad with Montenegran star Stevan Jovetic back from injury seemed to be one that Fiorentina had to win, and, once again, they failed to secure all three points, tying Atalanta at the Franchi tonight 2-2.
The pattern remains, perform above expectations against the top squads, under perform at home against squads they should beat and no performance at all on the road. The latter being one that has to end next match at Siena, or La Viola will surely be flirting with, or in, the Relegation Zone, and a sad holiday season it will be, indeed.
Recap
It was a bad week for the people of Firenze and many of them just stayed home this evening as barely a third of the stadium was filled, but even so, La Viola started off lively, with newcomer Amidu Salifu immediately making a difference as he started a nice play with a long pass to Juan Manuel Vargas who crossed it to a cutting Alberto Gilardino for the score.
Fiorentina controlled most of the rest of the half, but never were likely to get the second goal. The second half started to turn Atalanta’s way more and more, but it wasn’t until Vargas and then Salifu were subbed out that Atalanta started to take control of the match.
Even still, on a solo break away run, Valon Behrami slammed a shot on goal, Atalanta goalie, Andrea Consigli, just managed to deflect the shot off the corner of the woodwork, denying the midfielder who plays like a madman his first Viola tally.
Shortly thereafter, at minute 80, Manuel Pasqual allowed Schelotto to get around him and in trying to catch up got punched in the face and had to sit the following play out. Down a man, La Viola were unable to clear and an unmarked Andrea Masiello punched in the rebound.
Five minutes later, Schelotto crossed to German Denis a yard in front of Artur Boruc’s net and he buried it, but Jovetic tied it 3 minutes later.
Report Cards
Boruc – only two shots on goal for Atalanta, both went in. On the first he was out of position, but the second he couldn’t do a thing about, 5
LDS – much better match for LDS, he was faster, he had good crosses, he played good defense. 6
Gamberini – for 85 excellent minutes of defense a 7, for 5 minutes of crap, in which he was invisible while atalanta scored two goals, a 3, which averages out to a 5 for the match. spent a lot of time barking at the bad rookie ref.
Nastasic – could’ve done more in the bad 5 minutes, but has so much more presence in back than natali. will get better 5.5
pasqual – started out ok, but got tired or something and then consistantly got beat by that rat Schelotto. 5
Behrami – guys an animal and it there was any justice, he’d have gotten his goal today. 6.5
Salifu – first half he owns the midfield, sit back and cuts off every atalanta probe, firing the ball out to a wing and starting the break, only came forward a time or two, but when he did, he wove through defenders like they were statues. took a kick to the nether region to slow him in the first half, back injury in the second took him out too early 7; Kharja – bah; took him 5 minutes after the injury to get in, he was completely invisible until the end of the match when it was all hands forward. doesn’t want to live in town, not ready to play, not contributing when he is in 4
Lazzari – horrible. kicked one ball out of bounds without a viola player within 35 yards of the ball. gave up dangerous free kicks, passed the ball to no one, 4
Vargas – glimpses of the old El Loco, magnificent cross on the first goal. subbed out for Romulo, probably to save him for Tuesday. 6; Romulo – not of Serie A quality as of right now. he’s lost. 4
Jovetic – took some shots to his sore hip early and hit the ground hard, but bounced right up, so I’m not too concerned with his health. he seemed a bit out of sync, but that’s to be expected with a layoff, couple weeks off should do him wonders. had some nice give and goes late, but lacked the final trigger. 6
Gilardino – got off the scheid, but disappeared in the second, subbed for babacar, probably to get some rest for the quick turnaround. 6l babacar, not really enough time.
Rossi – had the team ready to go, got the early goal, but couldn’t expand the advantage. That’s something this team needs to work on, I’m sure it’s just focus. without salifu, there was a big gap in the midfield again. point is better than none, but this is a missed opportunity. 5
Coaches quotes:
“In the second half we lost the midfield. We couldn’t close Atalanta down and were pegged back,” confessed the Coach.
“We could’ve finished them off by going 2-0 up with Valon Behrami, but then the mistakes made things more complicated for us.”
Looking Ahead
Tuesday afternoon Fior travels to Siena for the Tuscan Derby. This match was originally scheduled to be match day one, but the player strike put it back. Siena always play La Viola tough and one Gaetano D’agostino would like nothing better than to hand Fiorentina another road loss.
Siena lost at Milan, 2-0 today and is 17th in the league, while Fiorentina are 15th, 5 points ahead of relegation.
Question marks for the next day or two in PurpleLand will be the condition of Salifu, Cassani and Montolivo and which, if any, can and will go Tuesday. Salifu’s injury is being reported as an injury to the Latissimus Dorsi in his back.
Some Related Fiorentina Posts:
- A Tale of Two Tanques and The Delio Progress Report: Fiorentina-Atalanta
- Fior 0-0 AC Milan; And It’s Gonna Get Better
- Fior 1-0 Genoa; Not One Of Us
- Juve 2-1 Fior; Hot Hot Hot
- Cesena 0-0 Fior; Bad
Category: Team News
Comments
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Lets not confuse correlatıon wıth causatıon – Salıfu, Nasty and Campo have been excellent, but we can’t wholly rely on the Prımavera to fıx the squad. The lack of depth on the team ıs terrıfyıng – when your replacements for Rıkıta/Vargas/Cassanı are Lazzarı/Romulo/LDS, not to mentıon no one who could possıbly replace Behramı or Jovetıc, you are just a few ınjurıes from relegatıon.
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Random thoughts from the past couple of days: I think the depth is solid. Lazzari, Romulo, de Silvestri, Munari, and Kharja are all perfectly capable backups. The problem is that we don’t have the starters in front of them to ensure that they remain backups. It’ll be interesting to see what Corvino does this Christmas. Also, before we even think about replacing him, let’s make sure we have an exit strategy in place–I can’t really think of anyone qualified to take over for him and perform comparably. It might be time to think about selling Gilardino. Hopefully he’ll find the net a couple times against Siena and his stock will rise. Finally, let’s see more of Ljacic and Babacar.
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I’m starting to doubt Ljajic as well lately
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I think we’ve got the players to reach the top 5 but why always hoof the ball up field and hope it lands at an attackers feet? 99% of the time we loose possession and have to defend until we hoof it up field again!
I don’t say slow it down coz we’d be in reverse but the guys need to take a second to pick out a bright purple shirt. -
Passing Practice!!!! They Need PASSING PRACTICE!!! oh yeah and would be a shame but if Montolivio wants to go, sell him now… Get someone who wants the club they play for to succeed. I can see Behrami wants it Jovitic wants it Boruc etc and one or two defenders but the rest just there to make up to 11.
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Yeah, I have this feeling that any day now The Baba can pull a Camporese/Salifu. Sure we still need to spend for that midfield, but what we really need is a bit of consistency. Players need to stop sucking suddenly without reason.
And one thing that drives me mad all the time: depth players that ended up being regular materials. When we bought Natali, Lazzari, and Munari, they’re not supposed to play all the time.
Something needs to be done with Marchionni, too. Vargas is not so much a one-season wonder as he is generally inconsistent. Marchionni was good for six months in his first season and that’s it. And he gets a huge salary. No hard feelings for the man but he needs to go for the good of the team. And his own, too, he’s not playing much these days.
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I think we need to practice keeping possession. Even when we play 9-men Roma in Franchi, they were still having more ball possession than us. I know we’re not Barca and it is not always effective, but at least we can lower the possibility of our opponent to score.
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The team is slowly bouncing back, the form is pretty ok, they just need a good win to keep the engine going. Jovetic is clearly playing good season but I think his last in Viola since I can bet that Fiorentina will get a good offer for him.
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the only thing you can blame corvino is why he hired mihajlovic. i agree with the guys above about the need to focus on passing precision and possesion, like barcas.
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shit, banti is the ref tuesday.
he hates fior -
av says yes to the market, he stresses no huge turnover, but some targeted interventions
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Carraro came on after about 70 minutes and assisted Modena’s second goal against Torino in their 2-1 win. He also had a nice cross that would have been a certain goal if Klose had been on the other side of it. Good for him after what I believe must have been some rather frustrating months with the gialloneri.
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palermo sack mangia.
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we saw that coming…
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oh dear god…
Blackburn Rovers have suffered another blow with the news that defender Scott Dann has been ruled out of action for six weeks after he ruptured a testicle.
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Wow, I know Zamp is pretty trigger happy with firing and hiring but isn’t that a bit much?
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zamp would put himself on the sidelines if he could.
but then he’d have to fire himself, so maybe that wouldn’t work…
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Rossi press conference
on the draw with Atal
“For 50 minutes I saw an ordered Fiorentina, I have to start from there. I also saw pride because it’s not easy to recover (the tie) in 4 minutes.is the Siena match decisive
n”no, I don’t like that talk. No match is decisive, except, perhaps, the last match of the season.”on the winter break and leave for the players
“union rules require 7 straight days of leave. If someone wants to make a sacrifice, so much the better.”on the formation
I cannot leave the three man midfield. In milan i tried a two man (midfield) but it did not work. no playmaker, apart from Lazzari. Accustomed to the 4-3-3, i think I’ll stay with this.On Montolivo and Salifu:
“Montolivo is recovered, Salifu not entirely.”Mood of the team:
“I do not know, the only solution is to go out there and prove everything.”On Boruc:
“The role of the goalkeeper is very delicate, it should be evaluated over many games. In that role we want the hierarchy, not like a normal player. There must be a first and a second. The error on the tie dell’Atalanta? For me, that ball should not be affected even had to be postponed, it was a collective failure. The goalkeeper is a very delicate role. ”It closes with the Christmas greetings of Delio Rossi: “Congratulations to all of Florence, especially to those in need.”
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The players have declined shortening their break.
reportedly ADV is mad enough to stain his silk undershortssome factoids
Delio Rossi has amassed five points from his five games on the Fiorentina bench. The Viola hadn’t conceded at the Stadio Franchi for 358 minutes of football. Alberto Gilardino’s 142nd Serie A goal ended a drought that had lasted since September 11 against Bologna. Stevan Jovetic took his top flight tally to 15 and with seven in the current campaign sets a new personal best.
a thought
I believe I read that Fior was just under a point a game this season with mihajlovic, so, at a pt a match, rossi is just a little bit better, which, given the injuries and the tough schedule, is a good thing. -
Montolivo’s Facebook fanpage now says “vado al Milan” (”I go to Milan” or something.) and shows a manipulated image of Riccardo with Milan suit. Don’t know if this is to be trusted 100% though.
“Finalmente te ne vai!!!!” is one comment. “Ma chi ti vuole mercenario di merda!!!” another.
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Milan suit? I meant shirt.
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Well it’s a fanpage, hardly an evidence.
I like Delio’s press conference. 4-3-3, huh? How would that look like? Artur; Cassani, Gambit, Nasty, Pasqual; Behrami, Salifu, Vargas(?); Cerci, Gila(?), JoJo?
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Salifu has an injury to his quadratus lumborum, will miss the match.
Adem Ljajic has an injured ankle and will also miss the match.
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“The quadratus lumborum, always the quadratus lumborum.” – Howard Cosell -
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despite the disappointing result, it wasn’t painful to watch!
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