Cagliari have been one of the most exciting teams to watch in Serie A this season. The coach Rolando Maran strengthened his team during the summer transfer window and built a team that is capable of battling out for the top positions in the league.
The most surprising arrival was the one of Radja Nainggolan, who fit the team in a perfect way and quickly became a key figure for their good performances. Another spot-on deal was the loan of Giovanni Simeone from Fiorentina, who is successfully fulfilling his attacking role.
Fiorentina on the other side are pretty inconsistent, starting off poorly but are improving step by step. The 2-5 defeat by Cagliari is proof of their inconsistency and inability to take advantage of their opportunities.
Cagliari were dominating in the first half and took the 3-0 lead, managing to stop Fiorentina from creating chances. La Viola’s coach Vincenzo Montella made a couple of changes with substitutions in the second half. This resulted in them switching the formation and immediately improving their build-up and attacking actions.
They found a way to expose Cagliari’s defence more often and scored twice, but the lack of strong decision-making and good finishing was crucial. Despite switching to a four-man defence, they couldn’t find the right formula to stop Cagliari’s versatile attacking actions.
In this tactical analysis, we will break down both team’s tactics and see why Fiorentina conceded five goals despite standing their ground in the second half.
Cagliari’s counterattack ability
Cagliari caught Fiorentina on a counter on a few occasions, and La Viola had no proper reaction to them. Their 3-5-2 formation wasn’t helping much as they would leave the flanks uncovered during the defensive transition. Cagliari used their pace and connection to expose their opponent on the left, and they created five counterattacks with three of them ending up with a shot.
Fiorentina couldn’t find the right way to mark their opponents and their defensive structure was easily broken. Their poor timing when it came to tackling and diving into defensive duels was also a huge part of their inability to stop the outstanding Cagliari movement in attack.
