Fiorentina is the 5th Most Creative Team in Europe

In an article by Mohamed Moallim of Squawka, Fiorentina was ranked as the 5th most creative team in Europe. This may come as a surprise to many because, as many of you know Fiorentina is having a rough season. Where things get real interesting though is when the article points out that Fiorentina are not actually capitalizing on these chances. La Viola is creating chances at a rate of 13.65 per game. In total on the season, Fiorentina has created 273 chances and only scored 29 of those chances. That means they are converting on just over 10.6 % of the chances created. If anyone is happy with that number they must not be a fan of the team.

The positive note is that Stefano Pioli’s tactics are working because the team is ranked with some of the top teams in the world in chances created. The rest of the list has teams like Manchester City, Tottenham, Inter Milan, Liverpool, PSG, Roma, Napoli, Real Madrid and Bayern Munich. To be honest, the only other category Fiorentina is in with the rest of these teams is that they all play in Europe. Another great note is that Cristiano Biraghi is the team leader in chances created. Maybe it’s because they let him still take all of those free kicks...the point is he actually is doing something good. Biraghi alone has created 37 chances, they might not have been good chances, but chances nonetheless.

Here is when the true colors of the article comes out. Although Fiorentina is getting chances on goal they are not capitalizing on them. This is a telling statistic that needs to change. Guys like Giovanni Simeone, El Khouma Babacar, Cyril Thereau, Federico Chiesa, Riccardo Saponara and Gil Dias need to perform better. These chances need to hit the back of the net, if they were then they would be in a better spot on the Serie A table then they currently are. It is always fun to take a positive article showing something Fiorentina is doing well and tear it apart because it highlights something they are not doing well.

At the end of the day, La Viola needs to improve their scoring. It is great that they are creating chances at a higher clip than some of the best teams in Europe. When looking at the positives it is exciting to see what will happen when Fiorentina gets a striker that has a nose for goal. Yes that is a dig at Simeone, maybe he will use it to improve and score more often. Fiorentina needs to keep improving to make some noise in Italian and European Football.