Player Focus: Salah Effect Has Fiorentina Dreaming of Return to Former Glories

Vincenzo Montella was stood in his technical area, his hands in his pockets, when Milan Badelj played a ball in behind the Inter defence. Khouma Babacar had pulled up after an earlier dash and grimaced again as he tried to chase it down on goal. Although only minutes remained until half-time at San Siro, a change was going to come. Montella had turned to the dug-out looking for Mohamed Salah. He scanned the bench once then did so again but couldn’t see him. Where had Salah got to?

“He was late,” Montella explained after the game. “He disappeared for five minutes.” Pausing with a glint in his eye, the suave coach then joked: “Maybe he was praying. Evidently he prayed well.” If Salah’s prayer was for a goal, it was soon answered. No sooner had the second half started than it arrived. Inter’s narrow midfield had granted Fiorentina freedom in wide areas. Marcelo Brozovic and Fredy Guarin did little to help out their full-backs, allowing Manuel Pasqual and Nenad Tomovic to push up and whip in a number of dangerous crosses.

Goalkeeper Samir Handanovic had already clawed one from the feet of Babacar in the first half and another from Pasqual had him in difficulty in the 54th minute. Diving to stop it from reaching Josip Ilicic he came but didn’t collect. Salah pounced on the loose ball quick as a flash and dispatched it into the back of the net.

Without the absent Borja Valero and David Pizarro to manage the game, Fiorentina were then reduced to nine men like PSG were against Bastia a couple of weeks back as Montella used all his substitutes only for Tomovic and Stefan Savic to go off injured. “I’ll have to apologise to the lads,” the coach said. “I made a big mistake replacing Aquilani with Tomovic down on the ground. I must buy them dinner.” Still the Viola held on and clinched a famous win. Famous because of the manner in which it was sealed. Montella described it as “heroic” “because [in the end] Vargas was playing as a centre-back…” Juan Vargas!

Then there was Fiorentina’ history at the Giuseppe Meazza. They aren’t exactly in love with playing the Beneamata there. They had lost on their last 12 visits to Inter. They hadn’t beaten the Nerazzurri in their own backyard since May 7, 2000. Those were the days of Manuel Rui Costa, Gabi Batistuta and Enrico Chiesa. And yet Salah, barely a month after touching down in Italy, had ended the wait in the most improbable of circumstances. To think that things had finally looked like coming together for Montella’s old Sampdoria strike partner Roberto Mancini. Inter had won three on the spin in Serie A for the first time since the autumn of 2012, a feat that had proven beyond his predecessor Walter Mazzarri.

But Salah had struck again. It was his third consecutive game on the scoresheet. Travelling Fiorentina fans were disappointed Montella didn’t play him from the start - so far he has made only one in the league - but they were understanding given his contribution to knocking Tottenham out of the Europa League last Thursday. Few quibbled with Montella’s decision to replace the hobbling Babacar with him, a player he had partnered so well away to Sassuolo, instead of fellow January signing Alberto Gilardino, even if it raised an eyebrow or two in the media.

“I made a tactical decision and wanted to make the most of Salah’s form, which has been just extraordinary,” he explained. “I know that when a player is in that kind of form, it’s the coach’s duty to encourage it. I think he can play any position up front. He attacks the space well and is very good at getting straight into the groove of a game when coming off the bench.” Along with Napoli’s purchase of Manolo Gabbiadini, and the deal Inter did for another Basle alumnus Xherdan Shaqiri, his loan from Chelsea has been the signing of the winter transfer window.

Montella didn’t give the impression he was overly enthused when Salah joined, in part because it meant he was losing his most spectacular player, Juan Cuadrado. “Obviously as a coach I’m sorry he is leaving,” Montella said, “but the club did the right thing. The sale was inevitable [considering the player had a buy-out clause and Chelsea met the asking price]. If they’ve paid that much for Juan it means he’s worth it as a player. Now Salah’s coming in. Technically he’s similar to Cuadrado but he can’t do the defensive side of the game as well [The Colombian often played wing-back] or be the fifth player in midfield, but he is a great footballer. At this point, we’re missing a winger. A deputy for Joaquin because we only have him on the right.”

That was quite the insight into what Montella had in mind for Salah. Clearly he considered him to be either a second striker or one of the wide players in a 4-3-3 rather than a 3-5-2. But Salah’s impact has been immediate. After setting up Babacar on his first start, his teammate returned the favour. Barely 20 minutes after coming on against Torino he put Fiorentina ahead with only five more left on the clock only for Giuseppe Vives to get an equaliser. Then as was the case the season before last with Basel, he tormented Spurs, harrying Jan Vertonghen and finishing past Hugo Lloris to put the tie beyond them.

Even amid the many options Montella has - “I have so many I have to make substitutions in training” - Salah provides something different to the target man Gilardino, the string-puller and dead-ball specialist Alessandro Diamanti, the penalty box poacher Mario Gomez and those returning from injury Federico Bernardeschi and of course Giuseppe Rossi. “When Juan left we needed someone like Mohamed. His speed would help any team,” Gomez told La Gazzetta dello Sport. “Roma play like this too, releasing Gervinho. We’re still a team that likes to impose our passing game on opponents but with Salah we have another weapon: quick counter-attacks. And you saw that against Spurs.”

The darting runs and incisiveness of his cuts have caused all sorts of problems already. Salah has soon made Fiorentina fans forget Cuadrado. He’s more direct and decisive. The Egyptian makes fewer passes per game: 21.5 compared with 40 because he is focused on concluding moves rather than starting them. Just look at Salah’s goal per minute ratio. It’s 59.3. Cuadrado’s was 362.5 this season. Around 57% of his shots have been on target, which is better than the 37.7% his predecessor managed. His conversion rate stands at 42.9%, much more favourable than the 7.5% Cuadrado left before moving to Stamford bridge. Salah has already created 10 chances. His average of 2.5 per game is the highest at the club, and that little bit higher than the 2.1 their former South American fantasista could conjure.

No wonder supporters in the Curva Fiesole are asking: Cuadrado who? This has been a tremendous piece of business. Fiorentina got the money they wanted for him - €32m - and the added bonus of Salah in exchange on loan. That arrangement can be extended for another year for €1m in the summer. Then there’s an option to make things permanent in 2016 for €16m. When you consider Salah is still only 22, four years younger than Cuadrado, you cannot but marvel. Chelsea were maybe wrong to give up on Kevin de Bruyne, a player who is now rightly being hailed as a player of the season contender in the Bundesliga on account of his performances for Wolfsburg. You wonder if they will regret not making more of Salah, too.

There’s a new Pharaoh in Serie A, a pretender to the throne and nickname of the unfortunate Italy international Stephan El Shaarawy, out again with a fractured foot. Inspiring Fiorentina to the top of the pyramid anytime in the near future would appear improbable but returning the Viola to the Champions League even this season, for the first time in five years, and to the Coppa Italia final, not to mention going deep in the Europa League, does now look a distinct possibility.

Do you think Salah can help Fiorentina to success this season? Let us know in the comments below