Friday Poll: Should Fiorentina loan out Alessandro Bianco?

One of the few bright spots in FIorentina’s 1-1 draw against Monza was a league debut for 20-year-old Alessandro Bianco. The midfielder starred for Alberto Aquilani’s Primavera over the past couple of seasons before aging out, and has been training with the senior side this year as a result. Against the Brianzoli, he showed off some fire, some ball-carrying ability, some tackling, and some passing: all parts of the complete package he could eventually grow into.

He’s definitely not the complete package right now, though. His failure to track Carlos Augusto resulted in Monza’s equalizer, and he made several other mistakes in possession that could have hurt the team just as badly. That’s perfectly okay, because we’re talking about a very young player, and one that improved tremendously between his first senior appearance (a rough half hour at RFS) and now. He’s going to make mistakes, learn from them, and get better.

The question now, though, is whether he should do that in Florence for the rest of the year. It sounds like there’s a midfield revolution ongoing, with only Sofyan Amrabat, Gaetano Castrovilli, Giacomo Bonaventura, and Antonín Barák considered untouchable; with Rolando Mandragora, Alfred Duncan, Szymon Żurkowski, and Marco Benassi all potentially on the outs (especially the latter pair), so there’s going to be some churn there. It might make sense to keep Bianco around in case Daniele Pradè and Joe Barone can’t bring in sufficient replacements.

Too, it makes sense to let Bianco keep developing under Vincenzo Italiano. The U21 international looks tailor-made for Cousin Vinnie’s system, and letting him fully internalize his role in that system could help prepare him for a bigger role next year, even as he continues to mostly ride the bench during games.

On the other hand, the best way for young players to reach their potential is for them to play, and Bianco, despite his obvious talent, isn’t quite at Serie A level yet. Sending him to Serie B, where he can establish himself as a week-in, week-out starter, could be the best thing for his career, allowing him to grow in ability and confidence.