Football Season Guide

The arrival of coach Italiano, last season, brought Fiorentina a refresh as they achieved 7th place, their best finish in 5 years, even qualifying for the Europa Conference League. However, they cannot be completely happy as they often looked inconsistent and fragile, they lost 6 games conceding at least 3-4 goals. Moreover, failing to properly replace Vlahovic, who left in mid-season after scoring 17 goals in 21 games didn't help. Cabral and Piatek, 5 goals between them, did not come close to making up for the loss. Not surprisingly, Piatek was returned to his parent club while the Brazilian was given a second chance. He will now turn into a back-up for newly-arrived Jovic, who had great seasons at Eintracht Frankfurt but hardly played at Real Madrid and is expected to bring them plenty of goals. During the summer, Fiorentina lost right-back Odriozola, who returned to Real Madrid, and replaced him with Dodo, coming off great seasons at Shakhtar, while Torreira, their leader in the middle of the park, refused to extend his contract and Amrabat is expected to step up although he has more defensive characteristics. Gollini arrived on loan from Atalanta and he should represent an improvement in goal, with Terracciano returning to his back-up role. Last but not least, they acquired the services of Mandragora from Juventus and he should be a good additon in the midfield with Castrovilli recovering from injury and Bonaventura not being any younger. Fiorentina are currently trying to strengthen their defence as star Milenkovic is attracting offers from bigger clubs and experienced Nastasic failed to impress on his return to the Viola.