What to do now? Yeah, what to do? It is the worst start to the league since the return to Serie A, Fiorentina have not scored a goal in 309 minutes (almost three and a half games) and for the second consecutive year they find themselves in the slums of the standings, in the middle of the relegation zone. Even if for Rocco these will certainly be fake news, it is instead and unfortunately, the dramatic reality with which to deal. Now you don’t mess around anymore. And there is not even room for useless and harmful verbal controversy, it is forbidden to talk about the stadium and about money. If Rocco appreciated the irony by borrowing Flaiano we could also say that “the situation is serious, but not serious”, unfortunately in moments like this it becomes difficult even to smile bitterly. After the defeat with Benevento, the situation seems serious and serious at the same time. At this point the red cards that the irascible uncle of America waved under my nose in recent weeks become medals for football valor, “everything was already foreseen” would say Cocciante who probably knows more about football than Rocco. But this is not the time to talk again about the mistakes made, from the confirmation of Iachini down, I have emphasized them for three months, now that the red alarm has gone on, that not even the change of the coach was enough, it is to think of Fiorentina to understand which path to take to avoid worse troubles and try to save the season. Yeah, what to do now? We repeat it like a mantra.
This is the question that goes into everyone’s head after seeing Fiorentina not react and if possible get worse even in the face of a changed bench to give the team a shock. Prandelli has no faults, mind you. We only have to say thank you to Prandelli for putting his face on an adventure to the limits of the impossible, accepting for love a contract with no future like no other coach of his level would have done. But from Prandelli’s experience and charisma one must start again by force and force. It is the only way.
The coach spoke with the president immediately after the game, yesterday there was a long face to face on several occasions with the team and with the managers. The summary of the day could be enclosed in a post by Borja Valero, one of the thinking heads of the locker room: “Head down, mouth shut, work hard”. This is the poster metaphorically posted in the purple locker room and memorized by everyone, including executives. It is clear that the work must be done above all on a team shocked by three coach changes in a year, job changes, football systems and ideas, frustrated in motivations, full of personal problems and far from being a group.
It will take some time, but luckily there are still thirty games to play and there is no shortage of time. Prandelli will basically work in three directions. The first, the fundamental one, is psychological-motivational. Yesterday the players were faced with the great responsibilities they have towards the shirt they wear, the weight of the history of this club, but Prandelli also tried to work on the spring of personal pride. It is not possible for players of a certain level to even offer offensive performances for themselves. Nobody can fall that low and if you fall there is a duty to get up. Combined with this idea of individual pride to be reactivated, the discussion has expanded to the group, to the strength that a team can only draw from common goals and ideals that cement it.
This is the synthesis of Prandelli’s working idea shared yesterday with the group according to rumors coming from the changing rooms. Then there are also the physical and tactical aspects on which to work hard, but without resetting the players’ heads everything becomes more difficult. From a physical point of view, I have already written what I understand, even if it is evident by watching the games, how this team has athletic problems. It doesn’t hold, it doesn’t know how to sprint, it looks like a diesel, it’s not reactive. Prandelli’s staff has already worked and will work on this, but the results will only be seen in a few weeks.
Then there is the tactical aspect, the one that led to the break (not personal, of course) between Iachini and the team. The players do perhaps the best job in the world, but they too, as in all jobs, if they don’t have fun, if they are not involved, they become apathetic, apathetic, do not participate, frustration and then depression takes over, as he said. Pradè. Going to training to stamp the card in the long run becomes devastating and it shows. Prandelli, through personalized and group talks, will try to bring the team to a football field that changes the idea of football. From Iachini’s passive football we will pass to active, proactive, even courageous football. Making players entertain themselves in training, stimulate them, involve them in an exciting tactical project is Prandelli’s third mission.
How long will it take? Nobody can know. It will obviously depend on how the team reacts, individually and as a whole. But the company also received a soothing message, there is no water in the throat, excessive pressures could be negative, you just have to change course immediately. As mentioned, thirty games are a lot and Prandelli has the right to work peacefully, he doesn’t have a magic wand and the situation is complex.
Complex also at the corporate level. In this context there are (obviously) also unhappy players, some who want to leave, others with the contract to be renewed, others who want to discuss it again, others who feel penalized. This work is up to the managers, but leaving disturbances in a locker room would risk compromising part of Prandelli’s plan. Coaches don’t want to see sad faces in the locker room. Fortunately, the market is close and if there is someone who will insist on going (Milenkovic?), Others like Pezzella who are waiting to understand the future, or others who are not happy here, solutions will be sought. Forcing the players by contract is an own goal, we hope that the Chiesa affair has taught Rocco something.
As you can see, a very delicate situation and everything derives from Iachini’s confirmation. On that day a dressing room collapsed waiting for something else, a transfer campaign that also had different objectives ran aground. I just hope that Rocco has understood that football is not Mediacom. An extraordinary company captain like him in football risks failure if he does not adapt, if he does not change systems, if he does not begin to trust his managers. My advice is the usual mantelpiece, but if I can afford it with an incorporated red card, at least now let Prandelli and Pradè, who know about football, do it. Trust your men, suggest and check, making your presence felt is essential, but at a distance. Leave the responsibilities, then if things don’t go or won’t go, that’s where the owner will have to present the bill. We need a shared decision-making line, otherwise it ends as with Iachini. Now you tell us that you all agreed, but Rocco also knows that this is not the case. Football is a microcosm where everyone knows everything about everyone, it is useless to deny and deny. If players perceive divisions, uncertainties, differences of opinion within a company, they are all potential excuses for them.
I don’t want to remind you of the Montella and Iachini events, the sale of Chiesa on the last day with “why him yes and we don’t” of those left in the locker room, the lack of goals given to the team, the external attacks to mask internal responsibilities, harmful verbal excess and many other mistakes made, in my humble opinion. Obvious. Rocco, if you can do violence. Yours, admit it, is not the ideal way to play football. And stop (if you can), talking about money, spent and to be spent. Only with money you do not go anywhere. And sometimes even those aren’t enough in football.
Look, if you like, at the example of the Friedkins, Americans in Rome. Rigorous and absolute silence. The coach in the balance, immediately strengthened and put in the conditions to work. The protected team. The fruits are visible. And first of all (as suggested many times) they are starting up again from society. As general manager they went to take on Tiago Pinto of Benfica, one of the best around. I’m just saying this to reflect, maybe she’s right and I’m sure I’m wrong, but the results wouldn’t tell. However, now there is only one hope, that the team will rekindle quickly, that it will immediately find at least the motivations, perhaps from tomorrow afternoon in Udine in the Italian Cup, a goal to be achieved at all costs.
Almost certainly Ribery will be missing, one of the most disappointed by what has happened in recent months. He had come to Florence to have fun, to end his career as a protagonist, with the smile of a juggler. He was one of those who hoped for a different football and a different coach, he lost stimulus and motivation and it shows. If he does not find the joy of playing at the end of the year he could even stop, but the Prandelli treatment seems to be intriguing him. Maybe Sunday San Siro can be a suitable stage for him to rekindle inside …
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