Juan Manuel Vargas

Fiorentina/Genoa

Left wing-back/Left winger - Peru

2010/2011 Mid-season: 206
End of 2010/11 - Start of 2011/12: 179
2011/2012 Mid-season: 233
End of 2011/12 - Start of 2012/13: 253

End of 2011/12 - Start of 2012/13:

Like many other Fiorentina players the 2011/12 season was a nightmare to forget for Vargas who had his worst season so far in Italy. The bad news is that the move to Genoa doesn't look to have improved anything at all, and while battling various injuries, Vargas has barely featured for his struggling new team.

Ironically his former team, Fiorentina, who are completely transformed this season with one interesting player after another put into the kind of tactical and stylistic South American feel to it lineups Serie A hasn't seen in years by arguably the most promising Italian coach, former expert-poacher,  Vincenzo Montella, has a left-wing-back weak-spot where the only outfield Italian regular Pasquale tries admirably, but where a healthy Vargas would now have been a great fit (and upgrade) with a real chance to resurrect his stumbling career.

Instead Vargas is likely on the decline and with it the days of frequently being linked to big clubs all but over and I think he will be close to the exit, if not gone entirely, on the 2012/13 mid-season ranking.

It was Vargas strong left-leg/foot that set him apart, in fact even in his worst season his 1.7 successful deliveries per game place him in the Serie A top 10 but it's still decline from leading the league with 2.5 in 2009/10 and going top 5 in 2010/11 with 2.0 per game.

 2009/2010 season:

Dynamite two-way player with a great left foot.

After being moved from left-back to left-wing before last season, giving him more attacking freedom he really broke through and is still regularly put in connection with big clubs, not least Real Madrid.

He is pretty fast, really strong and works very hard both on the attack and when defending.

His left foot is capable of some of the hardest deliveries known to man and obviously with that kind of thunder in his boots, the shooting ain't too bad either.
I've also witnessed some impressive accurate long range passes coming from him. His short passing game on the other hand, doesn't really stand out as anything special.

Even though he has good enough control to maintain nice speed with the ball at his feet when on the move, he isn't really the kind of winger well capable of dribbling past opposing backs using flair, he will get his great deliveries in consistently though still making him effective.

Being a good left-back as well puts him just ahead of another very effective hard working winger like Valencia (who has more upside though) and even if Vargas isn't quite as fast, his defending sets him apart.

Alberto Gilardino

Fiorentina

Striker - Italy



Original 200 writeup:

Even during the periods where Gilardino was often criticized for his shortcomings in all things related to technique, including below-par finishing turned into a complex when he was at AC Milan, there was one important area where I always found him very elite; those without the ball perfectly timed runs or cuts of his in between defenders, and rather uniquely not even necessarily when having space or his team in transition, but in the narrowest conditions sometimes, just gliding in between say the fullback and centre-back, finding himself through on goal with a great chance to score.
He needs the pass of course and especially when that's been coming from Andrea Pirlo it has been a thing a beauty, but just because Pirlo is a great passer from deep, do not underestimate the great run which (especially with pass coming from deep I think you can say) is just as important.
It's definitely one of the things I'll be looking forward to see at the World Cup. That connection. If it's still there.

At Fiorentina, Gilardino has still been doing that and in Montilivo back in central midfield he has someone with at least somewhat similar potential for passing, but especially this season with Pazzini gone for good and the final downfall of Adrian Mutu, Gilardino without a strike partner alone up front in mostly 4-2-3-1 has found himself much more playing with his back to the goal, so therefore we have seen less of those runs.

His finishing has improved in recent years though and that way, this season at least, making up for those Gilardino-through-on goal chances perhaps being more rare.

He is also stronger these days with better balance and that combined with improved technique meant that, despite me never really seeing him as a target-man type, that his play also in this area has become pretty impressive, and is possibly a reason that neither Toni or Amauri (other than poor form) were selected for the World Cup.

Always very hard working Gilardino, while Fiorentina was still in the Champions League, was asked to carry a lot in attack and rarely got relief in some tough 3 games every 7-8 days stretches, with Fiorentina simply having no replacements, and he did start to look very unfresh around the time they were unluckily knocked out by Bayern, which then became a major reason for Fiorentina's disappointing league form I think. There just wasn't enough depth for a two front battle which is a real shame cause at times they did show a very high level. But they didn't have enough depth in anyway to sustain it.

Gilardino did however get some rest towards the end, where for Fiorentina there wasn't much to play for anyway, so hopefully he'll be fresh for the World Cup where just like in qualification, where he ended Azzurri top scorer, he'll very likely be the first choice centre-forward.

The 300 update:

It's tough going currently for Fiorentina in Serie A where they find themselves fighting for every point they can get in a lot close games.

Gilardino as described above has improved since his Milan days when it comes to technique, strength and teamwork. He does however seem to have lost some quickness that in recent times probably would have served the team better than whatever it is that has improved.

Quite simply with Joveti out for months recovering from knee surgery, Mutu being Mutu more outside than inside the pitch and newcomer Ljajic either not quite there yet or alternatively simply not seeing enough confidence from Prandelli successor Mihajlovic, there really haven't been enough final third quality from Fiorentina to take advantage of the assumed better teamwork from Gilardino.

Mutu has just returned though and it will be interesting if him and Gilardino can re-discover their old spark.