Simon Sohm promises to be a fantastic summer signing for Fiorentina after he was instrumental for Parma in recent seasons.
La Viola completed the permanent transfer for €15m, which further confirms the club’s intent to strengthen and become serious contenders for UEFA Champions League qualification next season.
Head coach Stefano Pioli has already expressed his ambition to reach that target, and many of the players, including Sohm himself, have declared that they will be trying their best to make the top four.
This ambition needs to be matched by serious work, a very organised team, and reinforcements in weaker areas.
Up until now, Fiorentina have been doing well in the transfer market.
They have already signed a veteran striker who will improve the squad in Edin Džeko.
In addition, midfield and defensive reinforcements have been added with Jacopo Fazzini and Eman Košpo, who joined the team recently.
With the addition of Sohm, Fiorentina are already becoming much more powerful than last season in terms of squad depth and player choices for each position.
They know that a few other targeted signings would greatly help the team, especially on both wings.
This player analysis and scout report aims to explore Sohm’s playmaking and goalscoring traits thoroughly while identifying his possible roles at Fiorentina and how his playmaking and shooting abilities can help the team perform better.
The analysis will also reserve a section that looks at his defensive level to determine whether he is useful in both the defensive and the attacking phases or solely when the team is in possession of the ball.
Simon Sohm: Possible Positions & Roles At Fiorentina
Sohm’s main position is central midfielder, with the possibility of playing without issues both as a defensive midfielder or as an attacking midfielder.
What is striking and impressive about Sohm is that he is efficient in both defence and attack.
The following positional map confirms that Sohm has usually been used as a left central midfielder with Parma, especially this season.
With Fiorentina, he is expected to play in the same position in Pioli’s potential 3-5-2 formation since he showed in the latest friendly games, especially against Leicester City, that he is planning to use that formation at the start of the season.
Even if Pioli changes his formation going forward, Sohm proved that he keeps the level of his performances high even if he plays in formations with four defenders with Parma.
Simon Sohm Positional Map
Being tall and very powerful physically makes Sohm a great asset to the defensive phase.
He is capable of winning more aerial duels than his midfield teammates and will most likely be relied on for this particular duty.
Sohm will also be much needed during defensive transitions as his pace will be needed to recover, intercept passes, and win battles against opponents.
This is one aspect that Sohm will need to work harder to improve, as his numbers are not that excellent in this regard if we consider his potential from a defensive perspective and especially his outstanding physical abilities.
Succeeding in achieving better defensive statistics and, therefore, putting on better defensive performances with Fiorentina will surely be much more valuable to the team and to Pioli, who loves this type of hard-working, all-around midfielder.
More importantly, Sohm has usually been remarkable in the attacking phase thanks to his penetrations and accelerations.
Even when put under pressure, he succeeds most of the time in providing the necessary key pass or finishing actions by himself.
Scoring goals on key occasions and against tough teams like Juventus means that Sohm is used to finishing and goalscoring from various situations and has the confidence and experience needed to continue being a valuable goalscorer following his move to Fiorentina.
La Viola will have to exploit his high goal contribution rates and work on increasing his attacking contribution.
Knowing that Fiorentina have more resources than Parma, Sohm’s attacking work will be even more rewarding.
For example, having a veteran striker like Edin Džeko and a talented attacker like Moise Kean upfront will surely make Sohm’s key passes even more impactful.
These strikers can be much more crucial than Ange-Yoan Bonny at Parma and, therefore, improve Sohm’s assist-making stats.
It is important to note that Sohm was capable of providing seven assists and scoring one goal in the 2022/2023 Serie B season.
In the following season, he provided five assists and scored one goal in Serie B, while his goalscoring breakthrough took place last season in Serie A, when he netted on four occasions.
Although these numbers do not mean that Sohm is a world-class midfielder, they confirm that he can contribute in front of goal.
If he finds the needed support from the coaching staff and the playing system, he can increase both his assist-making and goalscoring numbers.
That’s why playing at an ambitious team like Fiorentina at this specific time, when the team is eager to achieve excellent results, will definitely push Sohm to perform better, especially from an attacking perspective, knowing that Pioli is known for encouraging midfielders to advance, press high, and contribute extensively to goalscoring.
Simon Sohm Finishing & Assist-Making Traits
With 0.91 shots per game and a shot accuracy rate of 32.4% last season, we cannot argue that Sohm has the potential to be among the best goalscoring midfielders in Serie A.
However, his goalscoring numbers are not outstanding like those of some other midfielders.
That said, his attacking input at Parma, especially last season, was remarkable, and he promises to become more decisive if encouraged to advance more often and aim to shoot more from distance.
Furthermore, last season saw a drop in his assist-making contributions, and that’s an aspect that he should work on at Fiorentina to improve his goal contribution rates overall.
He has usually shown great potential for assist-making whenever he penetrated towards the final third and provided key passes with Parma.
Simon Sohm Left-Footed Finishing
In terms of goalscoring, Sohm’s latest Serie A goal against Bologna showcases the importance of his attacking movements.
He made himself available in the correct spot and at the perfect timing to receive the ball and advance before finishing using his left foot, knowing that this was not his only goal using the left foot.
Such goals highlight the ability of Sohm to be very useful with Fiorentina whenever he advances, knowing that organising his forward movements and making them more recurrent, especially without the ball, like in this example, would certainly make Sohm much more useful from an attacking perspective, as he proposes a concrete attacking solution during such actions.
Moreover, Sohm can be instrumental in second balls and can be exploited further in this regard.
More importantly, Pioli can benefit from and develop his excellent shooting abilities further, as we suspect Sohm tends to underestimate and overlook his shooting talent.
Simon Sohm Shooting From Distance
If he keeps trying accurate shots during every game, he can score much more than he scored last season, especially if he receives the ball in suitable situations, like in the following example.
In this goal action, Sohm received the ball in a suitable goalscoring situation while getting the time needed to control it and then shot the ball powerfully yet very oriented, making it complicated for the goalkeeper to save it.
His goal against Juventus is one of the best examples that showcase Sohm’s goalscoring potential and his ability to surprise any opponent thanks to his powerful shooting traits.
Simon Sohm Goal Against Juventus
The goal against Juventus highlights his ability to angle his shots in ways that goalkeepers fail to reach.
It also confirms that Sohm is an intelligent midfielder who knows how to move between the lines and usually exploits the opponent’s marking errors.
In this action, he made himself available for passing as soon as he noticed that Juventus’ defenders focused more on his attacking teammates than on him.
This made him ask for the ball explicitly and score a magnificent goal despite the late arrival of Manuel Locatelli and his attempts to disturb Sohm during the process of shooting.
In terms of assist-making, Sohm can be very useful to Fiorentina mainly because he is very intelligent with passing and usually opts for creative ideas even when put under tight pressure.
He provides an average of 74.8% accuracy in passes to the final third, with 5.62 attempted passes to the final third per match.
This proves Sohm’s tendency to play vertically and his positive attitude in midfield.
He prefers to advance and create passing solutions rather than being just a regular midfielder who opts for the easiest solutions.
Being a midfielder who takes calculated risks makes Sohm an even more appreciated player, especially when considering that he likes to penetrate with the ball and provide key passes between the lines whenever possible.
That’s what makes him even more dangerous for opposing defences.
Simon Sohm Key Passing
It is true that Sohm does not attempt such penetrations so often, with an average of 1.87 progressive runs per match, yet he can be very dangerous whenever he attempts such actions.
Furthermore, pushing him to make such progressive runs inside Tinonent’s half with more frequency will be very rewarding, and that is Pioli’s mission.
This is one of the instances when Sohm decided to penetrate the midfield and serve his attacking teammate with a key pass at the back of the defensive line, creating a precious goal action and proving his assist-making talent.
Another ability that Sohm masters is passing using his left foot when he is put in complicated situations that require that foot.
The following example highlights his tendency to penetrate towards the final third while being tightly marked and continuing to run despite the disturbance, using his physical strength and ball protection to keep the ball at his feet.
At the same time, he is able to scan his surroundings and provide assists, as he did in this action when he noticed his teammate’s arrival in the box.
Serving accurate through passes from the wing while being marked and using his left foot means that Sohm’s playmaking potential can be further explored.
He uses his physical strength and accurate passing intelligently to get out of difficult situations and create the needed danger.
That said, Sohm needs to guarantee more continuity and consistency in relation to his playmaking performances because teams like Fiorentina might not wait for Sohm to develop slowly but need immediate convincing performances.
Therefore, failing to provide assists for the whole season or a poor number of assists this season would mean that Sohm has failed with Fiorentina and would more likely mean he will not be relied on going forward.
Understanding that Fiorentina’s standards are higher than those of Parma and doing his best to prove that he can be crucial in the attacking phase help Sohm succeed at Fiorentina.
Simon Sohm Defensive Attributes
Defensively, Sohm won 59.9% of the total defensive duels last season and 52.3% of the aerial duels per game, with an average of 2.51 interceptions per match.
His physical strength and height allow him to be decisive in the defensive phase, which favours him in most defensive duels.
Simon Sohm High Pressing
That said, Sohm’s defensive statistics were not exceptional last season, and therefore, it will be very important for him to do more work in the defensive phase.
Tactically speaking, Sohm can be very efficient in the high-pressing system, which Pioli believes in and often pushes his midfielders to do.
Sohm has already been actively involved in Parma’s high-pressing system.
Last season, we saw him in the first line of pressing, making crucial interceptions and disturbing the opponents’ build-up from the back.
Knowing that Sohm will certainly have defensive and attacking duties, it will be important for him to ensure that he positions himself well and increases his interception rate per match.
During the defensive transitions, Sohm will also be much needed.
He is one of the quickest midfielders on the team and will, therefore, be asked to cover for his teammates during counterattacks.
Sohm’s overall defensive attributes are good enough for Fiorentina’s standards.
Nevertheless, he will need to confirm and further improve his implication in defensive duels, defensive positioning, covering for his teammates and intercepting passes whenever possible.
Succeeding from a defensive standpoint will automatically make Sohm a very useful player in Pioli’s system before even evaluating his attacking contribution, because most teams strive to secure the defensive phase with reliable defensive players in the first place.
Conclusion
Sohm promises to make his full breakthrough with Fiorentina after he showed some very positive signs last season with Parma.
Fiorentina is looking for a fresh and ambitious start, and Sohm strives to impose himself within Pioli’s starting eleven and confirm his talent in Serie A.
That’s why, the hopes are high for him to succeed at this new environment, especially if we consider that Sohm has the traits needed for him to develop even further under the management of a head coach who already likes to work with this type of profiles.
