Fiorentina Women have started the 2023/24 Serie A Women’s season in a great way, having won three games and drew once out of four played games all in all. This excellent start granted them the third spot in the standings, just behind Roma and Juventus, who are two points ahead of them, leaving all of Milan, Inter Milan, Sassuolo, and the rest behind them in terms of points. This will help Fiorentina have a considerable boost to perform even better and gain more confidence in their abilities to finish the season well, and why not return to Europe once again next season?
With a squad that combines talent and experience, Fiorentina can reach their desired seasonal objective, especially if they believe firmly in what they need to achieve and work hard to do it. Although the league’s system has changed, Fiorentina still has a big chance to pass the test since this will require finishing among the top five in the first phase and then finishing among the top two in the Championship Round, which will include those top five teams only. This means that
Fiorentina will have to beat their direct opponents in the Championship Round and be prepared for the encounters against them. Indeed, Fiorentina finished fourth with 42 points in the playoffs last season, yet we must not forget that they beat Juventus 4-2 and Sassuolo 2-1, apart from drawing with Milan and Inter Milan 1-1. This means that Fiorentina can disturb Juventus, Milan, Inter Milan, and Roma in the Championship Round, and what they need to focus on even more is the collection of more points than last season in the first phase of Serie A.
This will help them have the advantage over their opponents in the playoffs, or at least avoid being at a disadvantage before the playoffs start, unlike last season, during which the number of points collected during the first phase represented an obstacle for them.
In this tactical analysis and scout report, we will take a closer look at Fiorentina’s squad, their actual formations, and what makes their performances special from a defensive and attacking perspective and identify the aspects that need improvements in both phases. The analysis will aim to present Fiorentina Women’s playing style and tactics and highlight their strengths and weaknesses.
Current squad and formations
Head coach Patrizia Panico has been using not one but a few formations with the team until now as she experimented with new positional changes for the players within her team as well in an attempt to find the best possible formation and line-up for each game. She has already alternated between the 4-3-3, the 4-2-3-1, and the 4-3-1-2, as she also used the 4-1-4-1 at the end of last season as well.
The team’s back four has been rather consistent throughout the first few games, with Katja Schroffenegger and Rachele Baldi alternating with each other for the goalkeeper spot. The defence is usually based on Marina Georgieva, Laura Agard, and Alice Tortelli as centre-backs, with Giorgia Spinelli as a solid backup option and Kaja Eržen and Emma Færge as full-backs, knowing that both Eržen and Færge have been exchanging positions frequently during this start of the season.
It would be much more beneficial for the whole team balance and chemistry to fix both players in their positions for the upcoming period and keep using Kaja Eržen as a right-back and Færge as a left-back.
The midfield is usually composed of Michela Catena, Stephanie Breitner, and Emma Severini, and it combines experience, talent, and attacking traits, especially when it comes to Catena and Severini, who often advance to support the attacking actions either with shots from distance like in this example against Napoli or with critical passes.
Credit: FIGC Calcio Femminile
The team’s attacking organisation is worth attention because it is a special and impressive one. Panico often gives freedom to her attacking players to exchange positions in attack and switch their roles so often during games. This freedom is mainly given to Verónica Boquete, the captain on the field and the one who replaces Panico on the pitch, as we see her often giving instructions to her teammates, especially when it comes to attacking movements.
With plenty of options for the striker role, including Karin Maria Lundin, Milica Mijatović, Pauline Hammarlund, and Zsanett Kaján, Fiorentina do not really have problems in this regard. Panico has been using the players that suit each opponent while keeping Boquete on the pitch to link between these players and facilitate the execution of the attacking actions.
This unpredictability in terms of attacking organisation and line-up helps Fiorentina give no references for the opponents to focus on or prepare to defend. Being able to surprise almost every opponent with a new attacking line-up and organisation makes Fiorentina consistently dangerous and disturbing in attack.
Attacking phase: Strengths and needed improvements
With a 41.7% shooting accuracy and 44.8% in terms of counterattacks with shots so far, we can say that Fiorentina are actually good enough from an attacking perspective as they have been scoring in each one of their games at the start of this season; with an xG that reaches 1.63. One of the strengths of Fiorentina’s attacking phase is the players’ ability to shoot from distance and surprise goalkeepers so often by attempting such shots unexpectedly as Kaján did against Inter Milan recently in this example. Such actions can result in goals or corners, provide more confidence to the whole team, and motivate them to press higher and aim for more attacking actions.
Credit: FIGC Calcio Femminile
Moreover, with quick one-two combinations near or inside the box, Fiorentina always succeed in creating the needed space to find a shooting interval, even if the angle looks impossible for opposing defenders. With the support of Kaján, Mijatović was able to score her team’s single goal of the match against Inter Milan thanks to a quick one-two passing combination that excluded three direct markers to Mijatović in a second, allowing the latter to have the ball inside the box but in a very complicated angle for shooting. Nevertheless, Mijatović showed glimpses of her excellent shooting skills in this match and scored an outstanding goal.
Credit: FIGC Calcio Femminile
The two examples above prove that Fiorentina has a few excellent and creative attacking players. Along with these players, Boquete can be considered the team’s attacking dynamo who provides key passes, acts like an advanced playmaker, shoots when needed, and regularly provides assists or key passes.
Her impact at Fiorentina has already been remarkable, and this season looks more promising for her and Fiorentina since they started well and are determined to do better than last season. But to achieve that, she will need to avoid losing energy in an excessive way when shouting to her teammates on the pitch and rather economise that energy and keep it for accelerations and defensive duties.
With 75.3% in terms of passing accuracy, Boquete’s danger is mainly related to key passes, and she has already been crucial in this regard as she provided assists to her teammates and was able to score goals, too. This assist to Catena explains Boquete’s talent and ability to spot adequate passing destinations and provide her through pass with accuracy and perfect timing.
Although Catena is a midfielder and not a striker, she was still able to score this goal, showing that she can usually provide numerical superiority in attack and be crucial in terms of finishing, especially when coming from behind, which gives extra attacking weapons for Panico.
Credit: FIGC Calcio Femminile
Fiorentina’s attacking phase has been an excellent one so far this season, and what is needed at the moment is to work on consistency as well as on missing the least possible number of chances per game. Also, exploiting set-pieces more crucially and alternating their plans during these pieces would be fruitful for Fiorentina. In addition, improving the success rate in terms of penalty-taking is very important since Fiorentina have been receiving penalties but not scoring all of them.
Defensive phase: Strengths and weaknesses
From a defensive perspective, it should be said that Panico will have to work harder with the team on this aspect since it looks less effective than the attacking one. The team concedes 2.24 goals per game on average, which means that the defensive line cannot keep a clean sheet. Much work will be needed to make this defensive line more compact and less penetrable. First, switching to a defensive line with three centre-backs (by adding Spinelli as a left centre-back) can be a valuable change to guarantee more defensive stability and compactness. Moreover, playing with a consistent defensive line is crucial to getting used to mechanisms and movements with and without the ball and improving the chemistry between the defensive players.
In this regard, using Eržen in her prominent position as a right-back and not using her as a left-back is very important and can save the team from potential defensive problems. This change in Eržen’s position created issues against Inter Milan and could have led to conceding goals. Since Eržen is not really comfortable with playing on the left, she was obliged to lose the ball in her attempt to dribble internally past her opponent, as you can see in this example.
Credit: FIGC Calcio Femminile
In addition to avoiding unnecessary defensive changes, Panico will need to work harder with the defensive players on individual marking during set-pieces and crosses since the team have not really been good enough in this regard, and they often left sufficient space for their opponents to shoot and have the advantage on the ball.
This conceded goal picture against Inter Milan shows how distant Fiorentina’s defenders were to Inter Milan’s attacking players, which eventually led to the latter having the advantage on the ball and scoring a goal. Moreover, midfielders are also responsible for conceding this goal since they had to support the defence in this action and be the first to get to second balls instead of Inter Milan players.
Credit: FIGC Calcio Femminile
Conclusion
Fiorentina Women have started the season in an excellent way. They are intelligently collecting points by winning against less powerful teams and avoiding losses against big teams such as Inter Milan. Their biggest challenge at the moment is to collect the highest number of points during this first phase of Serie A and avoid losing points when meeting teams like Juventus, Roma, Milan, Inter Milan and Sassuolo. This will facilitate their playoff journey afterwards and give them more chances to win a European spot at the end of the season. But some work is needed to achieve that, mainly from the defensive perspective.
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