Time To See Some More of Bruno Gaspar

This may have been a lost season for Fiorentina. Sitting 10th on the Serie A table, Fiorentina has a long road ahead during the last 12 games of the season. They have a chance to make it to the 6th position to get back into European football. Currently, la Viola is 9 points out of 6th place and do not look to be making much progress towards that goal. There are two options for the rest of the season. 1. Play out the rest of the season with the guys that got the team to 10th in the table. 2. Try out the young players and see what the team has going into next season.

Right now Stefano Pioli seems to be interested in a mix of both of these concepts. He is still playing some of the older players that may be on their last legs, and mixing in some young players like Vitor Hugo, Gil Dias, and Valentin Eysseric. The problem is there are certain players like Cyril Thereau that should never see the pitch again this season. It is time to see what some of the unproven players can really do.

One of those guys is Bruno Gaspar. He is a right back that has seen some time with the first team earlier in the season. Although unproven, Gaspar is an interesting player, he is a Portuguese international that spent time with one of the best teams in Portugal Benfica. Most recently he was the right back for Portuguese side Vitoria S.C. Pantaleo Corvino must have saw enough from Gaspar to transfer for him this past summer for a fee of £3.60 Million according to transfermarkt. It seemed like the young full back was going to be the front runner for the right back position this year. That all changed when he really did not wow anyone early in the season. Most Fiorentina fans probably do not remember a single play he was a part of.

Another factor was the play of Vincent Laurini who is four years his senior. Laurini has been the steady presence at right back until Stefano Pioli changed his formation a few weeks ago. Now Vitor Hugo and Nikola Milenković are getting chances in a three centerback set. That does not change the fact that they need to figure out what they have in Bruno Gaspar. He showed skills as a defender that had a lot of pace. Running down the flanks was not an issue for the 24 year old. Gaspar is a typical fullback that would fit perfectly in a 4 man defense. With some more experience he will become a better defender and be able to break the first team more. The problem is getting that experience.

In the interest of seeing more youth it would be nice to see what he can do. There is no hurt in playing the young Portuguese because what does the team have to lose. It is hard to objectively look at this season as a lost cause, but la Viola is on the outside looking in. They need to play the youth and they need to play them now.