Delio Rossi ponders life in Purple as injury plagued Fiorentina loses to Inter at the San Siro 2-0.
Scraping the bottom of the roster without Stevan Jovetic, Alessio Cerci, Riccardo Montolivo and Mattia Cassani and without a win on the road in Serie A play this season, and with a struggling Inter desperately needing a victory, Fiorentina didn't look likely to get a result before the match and they didn't. Inter dominated in every statistic except ball possession and sent La Viola to their fifth road loss this season.
Former Viola Giampaolo Pazzini scored first for the home squad scant minutes before the half time break as Viola Alumni always seem to do, a chip past off-his-line Artur Boruc, who had kept Fiorentina in the match up to that point and the second off a bad clearance from Manuel Pasqual which bounced off a charging Nagatomo into the net. Each goal came within 5 minutes of halftime, the first 4 minutes before and the second 5 minutes after.
Inter out shot Fiorentina 22-8, and of those 8 Viola shots, only one was on target, a shot by late substitute Santiago Silva. The lone bright spot for Fiorentina fans was the play of young Amidu Salifu, who came on for struggling Munari and got nearly 40 minutes in, making several nice crosses and infusing a floundering midfield with a shot of direction.
The loss leave Fiorentina in 14th, 4 places and 4 points from relegation, but only 4 points from 6th place.
Recap
Report Cards
Boruc - 1st goal mostly Natali's fault, but Boruc jumped off his line like an idiot again. out of position on the second goal as well. I'm also annoyed with his kicking, both clearance and free kicks. he did make 4 saves, 2 of the spectacular variety. 5.5
Gamberini - best of a very poor defense, but not good day for El Capitano. doesn't help to have father time paired next to you. 5.5
Natali - Vaffanculo a Lei, la sua moglie, e' la sua madre. Lei e' un cafone stronzo. Vada via in culo! -3
pasqual - lucky not to be given an own goal, on his heels all day and nowhere to be seen up front - 5
L DiSilvestri - picked up a knock before halftime, but gritted it out and played a bit more solid than pasqual 5.5
behrami - played his usual tough match, got beat up a lot, and gave some shots of his own back. He has to focus so much on defense, it leaves him lacking in offense. Can't remember his last goal (what? he doesn't have one? crap!) 6
Munari - ack, hock-ptooey, knocked more people over than completed passes. subbed for Salifu. 4; Salifu should play more often. he made several crosses that were more vertical in nature than we've been seeing (ie: vargash, LDS, Cerci et all run to the wings and cross in from the side, Salifu launched the "cross" on the run from the middle) and, quite pleasing for this fan, at least, he managed to not fire his vertical crosses into the stands ala Rikita De Pin. 6
lazzari - another guy that's only playing because there's no one else. he's ok defensively, but a black hole on offense. it ends at him time after time. subbed for kharja 4; kharja wasn't on long enough to make a difference. one bad play just outside the box, when healthy, he'll play over munari, you'd hope. n/a
Vargas - showed a bit of old fire, but the formation didn't do him any favors. he's slowly getting better, but more is needed. 5
Ljajic - Wasn't expecting to play and wasn't really ready to go, had a chance at a counter wasted ten minutes in and completely disappeared after that. subbed for Silva 4; Silva - made no real difference, got the lone viola shot on in the second half n/a
Gilardino - still on the side of a milk box. have you seen our Gila? please call 800 acf-gila 4
Rossi - i don't think anyone believes Mihajlovic would've done any better and at least we got to see a youngster in Salifu. 5
Coach's Quotes
“There’s no point talking about those who weren’t here. I still think we could’ve done better, as we rarely countered and were too flat in attack,” said the Coach.
“We did better in the second half, but conceding the second goal really knocked the wind out of our sails.
“We have a lot of work to do and the lads are putting in the effort, but we are aware there’s a long way to go. Tonight we lacked the final ball, as our transitions weren’t good enough.
“What can the Viola fans hope for? Right now for a Fiorentina side that plays better, then we can discuss objectives in March.”
Looking Ahead
Stay the course, hold the line, try to get three or four pts from the last two matches (Atalanta and at Siena) and get this team into winter break. Time to heal and perhaps add a reinforcement.
Next Saturday match at the Franchi v Atalanta, the team just ahead of Fior, you would think 3 pts a must. Cerci should be back, Montolivo's original estimate had him missing this game as well, but he's going to try to get ready. Jovetic will be checked by a doctor monday, but he's also going to try to be ready for Saturday.