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The revolution of wingbacks in Montella’s 2012/13 Fiorentina

In 2012/13 we saw Montella’s first reign come to life. It was right after that disastrous season that saw Fiorentina finish in the 13th place in the league, get knocked out of the Coppa Italia in the 3rd round and garnered headlines from the infamous Delio Rossi-Ljajic incident. That season caused a ‘mini’ revolution to happen in Florence.

Then came along Vinny.

Vincenzo Montella took the reigns for interim coach Vincenzo Guerini on June 11th and orchestrated along with Daniele Pradè a highway of departures that saw players like Krøldrup, Montolivo, Kharja, Cerci and Nastasic out, but also saw players like Cuadrado, Borja Valero, Gonzalo Rodriguez, Luca Toni and Giuseppe Rossi make the other way to Florence. Vincenzo came with a vision, a mission and the ambitions of a young coach the he, then, was.

Montella’s 2012/13 formation was a fluid 3-5-2 utilizing three center-backs rotating between Rodriguez, Roncaglia, Savic and Tomovic, three central midfielders in a very dynamic flow with Valero, Aquilani, Pizzaro and the super sub of Matias Fernandez, two strikers upfront in Toni, Ljajic and Jovetic, and most importantly, he used wingbacks. Montella’s wingbacks were deadly. The usual starting XI saw captain Manuel Pasqual start on the left side and Juan ‘Vespa’ Cuadrado starting on the right side.
To understand the deadliness and stability of the two, we need to comprehend the reasons to why were two very unsimilar players so good together on opposing wings.

Cuadrado, playing on the right side loved to make his runs towards goal, slotting right between the midfield and attack, overlapping the opposition defense and constantly troubling defenders with agility, dribbling and smart game-vision. On the contrary, Pasqual was a more defensive piece of the formation, usually staying back, making defensive runs, closing attacks in the middle of the field and crossing in from high up the pitch.

This balance that Montella created, at first, dazzled opposition defenses. We got to see Cuadrado showcasing his dribbling and lightening-fast runs leaving dust for the defenders and Pasqual’s crosses coming in from the final third of the pitch found the strikers Toni, Jovetic and the very hard-headed center-back Rodriguez score from corners and field plays like it was (sometimes) practice.

It was quite the show to watch Fiorentina play that season, and if you don’t already do it every day, do yourselves a favor and watch some highlights from that season. Just get a tissue, you’ll drool over some of these beauties.

I hope this was a pleasant read, please write out what you think and I welcome any suggestion and note you will give me.

I may write a follow-up to this about the 2013/2014 season wingbacks, but any other idea would be great (I have some stories in the back pockets, but I loved writing this)!

Hesanka.