Fiorentina keep finding new ways to throw leads away, says Vanoli
A 2-2 draw with Atalanta extended Fiorentina's run of defensive collapses, with Paolo Vanoli pointing to individual errors and a lack of unity at the back.
ACF Fiorentina surrendered a second-half lead to draw 2-2 with Atalanta at the Artemio Franchi on October 29, with head coach Paolo Vanoli again left frustrated by his side's defending, Football Italia reported.
Charles De Ketelaere put Atalanta ahead before the break, despite what Vanoli felt was a strong first-half showing from his own team. Alieu Njie's diving header and a deflected effort from Joao Mario, deployed as a makeshift full-back, turned the game around after the interval. Nicola Zalewski then levelled it at 2-2.
The result followed three consecutive defeats for a Fiorentina side sitting in the lower reaches of Serie A, level on five points with Udinese and Parma, with only Venezia below them on three.
A dominant half that still ended behind
Vanoli's frustration centred on the gap between performance and result. "The regret is that we didn't win a game after playing very well," he told DAZN Italia.
That framing matters. A team can control territory and chances for 45 minutes and still concede because of one moment of individual carelessness rather than a structural problem. Vanoli's comments suggest he sees Fiorentina's issue less as a tactical shape problem and more as a concentration one — his players are not losing matches through being outplayed, but through lapses that good teams simply do not allow.
He was blunt about the cost of those moments. "We have these blackouts that are proving very costly and we cannot keep conceding goals in this manner," he said, adding that the team needed to be "more determined mentally when defending."
Two goals, two different defensive breakdowns
Vanoli was specific about what went wrong on each Atalanta goal, and the detail is instructive because the two failures were not the same kind of error.
"On the first goal, Cher Ndour didn't follow De Ketelaere, while on the second we were all sluggish," he said. "We lack street smarts, such as in the game with Inter where we threw it away."
The first goal was a marking breakdown: a runner went untracked, and a player known for arriving late into the box was left free to finish. The second was described as collective sluggishness, which points toward a slower problem — a team not resetting quickly enough once possession is lost, rather than one player being caught out of position. Vanoli grouping both under the same complaint, that Fiorentina do not yet "defend together as a unit," suggests he views individual marking errors and collective transition lapses as symptoms of the same underlying issue: players not yet reading danger the same way at the same time.
That diagnosis fits with his earlier assessment of the squad. "We are a team that plays well, but must learn how to defend, that is what we are lacking," he said, calling the two Atalanta goals ones that were "really gifted" to the visitors. He was careful to add that the talent in the squad is "not in doubt," framing the problem as organisational rather than a quality shortfall.
Echoes of the collapse against Inter
Vanoli's own reference to the Inter match was pointed. Fiorentina led 1-0 at San Siro only to lose 2-1 after conceding twice in stoppage time, and he grouped that result with Sunday's draw as evidence of a club-wide shortage of game-management instinct in moments that should be routine for an established Serie A side.
The pattern is not confined to the closing minutes. Against Atalanta, Fiorentina conceded before half-time despite playing well and then conceded again after taking the lead in the second half. Two different match situations, the same outcome: an advantage, whether in play or on the scoreboard, not being protected.
There was also a selection story within the game itself. Joao Mario started as a full-back rather than in his more familiar role, and the gamble paid off directly with his deflected goal — a rare positive from a night otherwise defined by defensive frustration. Vanoli also confirmed that substituting Niccolò Fagioli at half-time was not related to any fitness issue, without elaborating further on the reasoning.
Fiorentina remain level on points with Udinese and Parma, above only Venezia in the table. With Vanoli attributing the dropped points to recurring, specific defensive lapses rather than a structural mismatch, the next fixtures will show whether those errors are coachable in the short term or symptomatic of a deeper problem in how the squad reads danger as a unit.