Fiorentina vs Torino: Preview

Fiorentina gets a chance to snap a 3-game skid when it hosts Torino. The Granata snapped a 4-game skid of its own last week with a close-fought win over Lecce before washing out of the Coppa Italia on Wednesday. That means the Viola have a rest advantage over their visitors, which of course won’t mean anything if they continue soiling their shorts every weekend. Speaking of which, the reverse fixture ended scoreless after Moise Kean turned in the clubhouse leader for Serie A’s Miss of the Season and gave us our first indication that this year would be cursed.

The match will be played on Saturday, 7 February 2026, at 19:45 GMT/2:45 PM EST at the Stadio Artemio Franchi in beautiful Firenze. There’s currently a severe rain watch on for Tuscany but the skies should be mostly finished dumping their contents by Saturday, although there’ll likely be some intermittent drizzle to ensure the playing surface is fully soaked.

Three things to watch for

1. Set piece struggles cut both ways

I’ve written time and again about Fiorentina’s struggles to defend dead balls this year. David de Gea stays glued to his line at all times and only Robin Gosens is above-average in the air for his position; every other player in the squad struggles to defend high balls. That shortcoming, combined with a physically small roster, means that every opponent is licking its lips whenever it wins a corner or a free kick in the Viola half.

Except, perhaps, for Torino. In a stunning display of set piece futility, il Toro has scored just twice from dead balls (excluding penalties, obviously). That’s fewer than everyone in Serie A, even with Lazio (huh?) and Hellas Verona. It’s not just a statistical quirk, from what I can tell. Torino’s also got an aerially-unimpressive squad despite playing 3 at the back. Marco Baroni could look to get more size in his XI to take advantage of Fiorentina’s obvious shortcomings here but I’m expecting a true battle of futility whenever Andrea Colombo blows the whistle.

2. Torino’s skeleton crew

Torino’s missing something like 12 first team players and is heading into its 3rd game in 7 days. Baroni’s got a fine head of hair but you fear for it a bit as he tries to figure out how to create a lineup. Given his tactical proclivities and the situation, Torino will probably focus on the defensive side of their game first and foremost, sitting deep and attempting to frustrate their hosts while relying more on individual skill from Duván Zapata and Sandro Kulenović up front.

That’s the best way to beat Fiorentina right now, of course. Despite scoring in 3 straight games, the Viola have scored 2+ goals just twice in Serie A this year. Designed (poorly) to hit on the break, they lack the on-ball creativity to solve deep blocks. Albert Guðmundsson slithers in and mostly out of games, Nicolò Fagioli is shackled to a deeper role, and everybody else is a blunt instrument rather than a flickering poniard.

Paolo Vanoli should have Moise Kean ready to start for the first time in a month but the striker will be rusty and is at his best attacking space over the top. My guess is that he’ll deploy his mezzale as box crashers and place the burden of actually breaking Torino down on his wide players. If Torino can push everything down the wings and turn Fiorentina into a crossing team, Baroni will feel he’s obtained a tactical victory. It’s on Vanoli and his players to find an avenue through the middle as well.

3. The fabled front 5

Now that Kean’s back, Vanoli can trot out an XI featuring his 5 most attacking players: Moise up front, Guðmundsson and Manor Solomon on the wings, and Marco Brescianini and Giovanni Fabbian as the mezzale getting forward. In theory, that’s an interesting approach. Solomon can hold the width on the right and combine with Dodô as Kean, Brescianini, and Fabbian provide 3 big targets in the box. On the left, Guðmundsson can drift around and thread balls through to the midfield runners.

In practice, I doubt it’s so simple. For one thing, none of these players has been all that good of late, and the best-laid schemes collapse if the players aren’t good. For another, Torino will, as mentioned earlier, welcome a series of crosses into a packed penalty box if it means denying space in behind and between the lines. Finally, these are all dribblers or off-ball runners rather than passers, maybe excepting Guðmundsson (and what he does best remains a mystery). I don’t think these pieces complement each other and anticipate a lot of kludginess.

Possible lineups

Ted’s Memorial Blind Guess Department

The bookies favor Fiorentina pretty strongly, considering that this is the 3rd-worst team in Serie A, has lost 3 straight, and has taken just 1 more game at home than on the road. To that latter point, the Franchi’s reduced capacity and the team’s own haplessness have squelched the match-day atmosphere. Torino’s been fairly bad on the road too but the bigger problem is all the absences. Quite frankly, though, this looks like a low-scoring draw to me. It’s two bad teams dealing with all kinds of internal problems.

Because of the curse, though, I’ll take Fiorentina to snap its skid and come out with a 2-1 win behind a brace from Kean to exorcise his demons from that first meeting. Picking a Torino scorer is trickier with both Cristiano Biraghi and Giovanni Simeone doubtful but I’ll say it’s Zapata bullying Marin Pongračić to turn home a cross. I’m also expecting a slow, sloppy game, both due to the weather and the relative form of these clubs, with a lot of unpleasant passages of play. Should be uh not fun.

Forza Viola!