With
Gonzalo Rodriguez out, Vincenzo Montella put Nenad Tomovic at centre-back with Nenad
Savic and Facundo Roncaglia going to right and left centre-back. David Pizarro
came back at his deep-lying playmaker position while Fiorentina’s coach paired
Luca Toni and Stevan Jovetic up top in the usual 3-5-2 system. Cristiano
Bergodi opted to go with a 4-3-1-2 formation, with both Mervan Celik and
Vladimir Weiss supporting centre-forward Jonathas.
First half
The
trademark of the match was clear, with Pescara not pressing high up the pitch
and defending low in their own half and Fiorentina dictating the tempo, turning
it into a slow, ball retention game. In possession, Pescara had no chance to
counter-attack, due to Fiorentina immediate pressure when the ball was lost. A
great work was made by Jonathas: the Brazilian striker showed defensive
capacities collapsing back and tracking Fiorentina’s playmaker Pizarro.
Fiorentina was too much slow moving the ball ending simply to hold the ball for
long periods but creating less scoring chances than supposed after a such high
game control. The best opportunities came from set pieces and Pescara was into
a solid defensive shape in those situations. Very impressive was the display of
Pescara’
netminder, Mattia Perin, which made some big saves and showed control and
confidence all over the match. With Pescara so tight, Fiorentina tried to find
open spaces on the flanks, specially on the right where Cuadrado create
troubles to Pescara left-back Francesco Modesto in the first half. In the
defensive phase, Pescara switched to a 4-4-2 formation with Celik or Weiss
dropped into midfield as left wingers. This move allowed Bergodi’s team to have
two players on the flanks against Cuadrado and Manuel Pasqual. While the team
was moving the ball around, Fiorentina lacked a midfielder with cutting inside,
coming from behind ability to push forward, helping Toni and Jovetic up top.
Also, team passing lacked of the needing crosses you have to utilize in the way
to open a close box as Pescara defense were. On the left, Borja Valero stayed
in his usual position and gave offensive support but he wasn’t trenchant as
usual. Very good was Pescara midfielder Birkir Bjarnason: while in the first half he lacked to give true support on the
wing to Modesto, he was poised and accurate with the ball on his feet.
Second half
As the
second half started, the gameplan was the same, with Pescara defensive effort frustrating
Fiorentina once more. Montella’s players was not able to open the box through
quick passing. After Jonathas goal, with Pescara even more closed around its
penalty area and Fiorentina passing play clearly not working, Montella made two
questionable calls when Adem Ljajic
replaced Toni while Harsi Seferovic replaced Pasqual few minutes later. The
first sub was clearly a mistake: while playing with the ball on the ground
wasn’t effective, Montella had to stay with his pivot in the middle of the box,
while the flankers had to provide him nice balls through the air. Instead,
Montella stayed strict to his brend of football, inserting Mati Fernandez in
the way to create spaces on the ground with quick moves and short passes. After
15 minutes from Ljajic’s ingress, Montella changed his mind, inserting a tall
forward as Seferovic. Both those changes and the idea to take off Pasqual, the
best crosser in the team, made Montella’s thoughts hard to understand.
Pescara too made some risky movements when they decided to don’t insert a left
midfielder to close Fiorentina’s right side and don’t move Celik or Weiss up
top in the way to exploit counter-attack options, taking pressure off from the
block of defense and midfield. When Bergodi made this decision, Pescara managed
to net his second goal -- also thanks to a Roncaglia big mistake.
Conclusion
It was a match between an active team against a passive one. Pescara try to stay
balanced during the whole match, closing the spaces and playing a defensive football through
positioning over pressing. This plan worked due to Fiorentina inability to move quickly
the ball and to provide nice balls to both Toni and Jovetic. Another question
to rise up is the compatibilty between Toni and Jovetic in some games as both
are strikers, i.e. forwards searching the net that need of ball support from
the midfielders. Neither had significant impact on the game.
Fiorentina missed some decent opportunities -- give credit to
Perin, Pescara’s goalkeeper – but they didn’t enough with the ball on their
feet and Montella’s poor decision also raised some questions.
