Europa Conference League: Fiorentina lacking goals as they face Hearts

Germany-born Vincenzo Italiano is in his second season as Fiorentina head coach

Football fans in Florence are proud of their European history.

Fiorentina reached the final of the three competitions that used to dominate the continental landscape - losing the European Cup to Real Madrid in 1957, beating Rangers to lift the Cup Winners' Cup in 1961 and suffering bitter defeat against arch-rivals Juventus in 1990's Uefa Cup.

Names like Gabriel Batistuta, Roberto Baggio and, briefly, Mohamed Salah have shone in the famous purple shirts. Recent times, though, have not been so kind.

Prior to qualification for this season's Europa Conference League, in which they visit Hearts on Thursday, the Viola had gone five long seasons without making it to European competition.

In that time, they have changed head coach six times, been taken over by a new owner and entirely overhauled their squad.

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Only attacking midfielder Riccardo Saponara remains of the group that started that 2016-17 season - and he has been loaned out numerous times in between.

The years without Europe were not particularly kind to the club, with relegation only narrowly avoided in 2019 as they struggled despite the efforts of AC Milan's recent Serie A-winning coach Stefano Pioli.

That prompted a revolution as Diego and Andrea Della Valle, the wealthy brothers who own the Tod's shoe empire and bought the club in 2002 following its financial collapse into Italian football's fourth tier, walked away.

In stepped Italian-American media magnate Rocco Commisso. There were great celebrations over his arrival, but the initial feel-good factor failed to produce any major upturn in form.

He tried a number of coaches - Vincenzo Montella, Giuseppe Iachini and Cesare Prandelli - before coming up with the man who would get them back into Europe.

In truth, though, it was a deal that almost never happened.

In the summer of 2021, a man well known to Scottish football fans - Rino Gattuso - was appointed coach, but the former Rangers midfielder's stay turned out to be shorter than some people's holidays in Tuscany.

A little more than three weeks had passed before he was out the door and a less-heralded name brought in.

Nicolas Gonzalez, who has returned from injury, is the only Fiorentina player to score more than once this season

Vincenzo Italiano proved to be much more than just a fall-back option. Having gained plaudits for his exciting play in charge of Spezia, he quickly transformed his new team from dull and predictable to expansive and entertaining.

Even the loss of striker Dusan Vlahovic in a big-money mid-season move to Juventus could not derail the team's progress to European qualification.

At one stage, they looked like they might even make the Europa League, but in the end they sneaked into seventh spot and made it into the tournament recently won by Serie A rivals Roma.

'A difficult second album'

This campaign, though, has been a bit of a difficult second album for Italiano as other sides appear to have worked out how to deal with his possession-based 4-3-3 formation.

They edged past Dutch side Twente in their European play-off game, while their league form has been, at best, inconsistent.

Injury to key Argentina forward Nicolas Gonzalez, who could make his return on Thursday, has not helped their fortunes and they have tended to enjoy a lot of possession but struggled to find the net.

Their 1-1 draw with RFS was perhaps the high point of that scenario when they fired off no fewer than 23 shots but could only score once against the Latvians in their Group A opener.

Brazilian Artur Cabral - signed from Basel to replace Vlahovic - has alternated the striker's role with Real Madrid loanee Luka Jovic with decidedly average results so far.

Ademola Lookman gave Atalanta a 1-0 win on Sunday that leaves Fiorentina 11th in Serie A

The chopping and changing between the two has even resulted in an experiment to stick Ivory Coast international Christian Kouame - previously used as a winger - back into a more central role.

Goalkeeping, too, has proved a bit of a headache, with former Tottenham Hotspur man Pierluigi Gollini blundering badly in their away defeat by Istanbul Basaksehir and making the relatively unfancied Pietro Terracciano look a more dependable option.

Big Serbia central defender Nikola Milenkovic, often linked with a move to the English Premier League and occasionally compared with Nemanja Vidic, is a solid presence at the back, with his favoured partner the equally rugged Brazilian, Igor.

Skipper Cristiano Biraghi is a free-kick threat from full-back, while Morocco midfielder Sofyan Amrabat has been a revelation in a holding role after the club failed to reach a deal for Arsenal's Lucas Torreira, who so impressed on loan last season.

One winger, Jonathan Ikone, will be suspended for the game in Edinburgh, while another - Italian youngster Riccardo Sottil, the son of Udinese coach Andrea Sottil - is also out through injury after a bright start to the season.

It was more of the same at the weekend as the Viola enjoyed most of the possession but no goals in a 1-0 defeat by Atalanta in Bergamo.

Hearts will hope that form continues for at least another couple of European games before someone finds the shooting boots that have been hidden in the Fiorentina dressing room so far this campaign.