Fiorentina 1-3 Lazio: Statistical recap

As much as it sucks to do, looking at the stats for an utterly deflating defeat like this can be useful. You know that Paulo Sousa, Daniele Pradè, and company are going over this one with a fine-toothed comb, figuring out what went wrong and how it can be corrected in the winter market. Our numbers come from WhoScored.com; fortunately, Fiorentina can probably afford some slightly more sophisticated analysis.

Team statistics

Player statistics

Conclusions

This was a throwback to the Vincenzo Montella era, and not in a good way. The harmless possession in deep areas, the inability to break down a defense, resorting to hopeful shots from distance, vulnerability down the wings, the occasional defensive disaster (hi Roncaglia). Sometimes the team comes out flat, and while that's only partly on the manager, Sousa's reactions to the action were pretty weird. Moving Marcos Alonso to the right didn't make any sense for an extraordinarily one-footed player; bringing in Ante Rebic on the right would have been much more positive while chasing a game and created more width, as Rebic isn't afraid to drop his shoulder. Bringing Borja Valero back into a gritty midfield contest after he'd already been cautioned was dangerous; pulling Matías Fernández into a deeper position would have helped him get involved, as he was mostly a spectator. Obviously, the whole team pretty much laid an egg--and Sousa should have had them ready--but the mister's tactics were partly to blame.

Quick thoughts: Facundo Roncaglia is starting to demonstrate an alarming propensity for inexplicable passes directly to the opposition; he remains as stalwart in defense as ever, but seeing him touch the ball is always a little scary. This is the first time I can remember Matías Vecino not making a tackle in a game. Jakub Błaszczykowski is probably still working his way back to full fitness, so it's hard to be too hard on him, but this was one of those where the stats don't fully show how frustrating he was. And can someone put up some missing posters for Mati?

And let's just close the file on this one now. No time to mope; the lads travel to AC Milan next week, and will hopefully arrive with some reinforcements.