Fiorentina are two-time Serie A champions, six-time Coppa Italia winners and have finished in the top half of Italy's top flight in 10 of the past 13 seasons.
La Viola have been Europa Conference League runners-up in two of the past three years and were semi-finalists last season. The team finished 2024/25 in sixth place, too, after winning 19 of their 38 Serie A fixtures.
Fiorentina on course for shocking relegation from Serie A
Raffaele Palladino's departure for Atalanta over the summer saw Fiorentina appoint ex-AC Milan boss Stefano Pioli to take charge but that proved anything but an inspired appointment. Pioli, in his second spell as Viola head coach, lasted just 14 matches, winning only four, all of which were in European competition, and was dismissed in early November.
He has been replaced by Paolo Vanoli but the ex-Rangers player isn't faring much better with one win - you guessed it, in the Conference League - from seven.
The weekend's home defeat by Hellas Verona prompted familiar whistles from the Artemio Franchi crowd, after Gift Orban's controversial late winner in second half stoppage time.
Fifteen games without a win is, unsurprisingly, the joint-longest winless run in Europe's major leagues this season, along with the seemingly doomed Wolverhampton Wanderers.
While the outlook appears especially grim for the Firenze club, they do have four more points than the Premier League's basement-dwellers, and key metrics indicate the team should begin to pick up wins before long. But, that's a lot easier said than done when morale in the squad has already taken a quite considerable and sustained beating.
Fiorentina spent heavily in summer, certainly by Serie A standards, and while the club did lose Nicolas Gonzalez to Juventus, Michael Kayode to Brentford and Sofyan Amrabat to Fenerbahce, on paper it appeared they recruited well enough to mitigate for those exits.
The club also managed to retain last season's top scorer, Moise Kean, who netted 25 goals in all competitions.
The former Everton striker has endured a difficult 2025/26 campaign so far, scoring just two league goals, one of which was from the penalty spot. Data behind Kean's barren spell is among the most perplexing in Europe this season.
Kean has registered the most Expected Goals (xG) of any player in Serie A this term. Given the quality of the chances he has been presented with, the Italian should have scored eight goals, rather than his meagre two.
As a collective, Fiorentina sit seventh in the xG For table, meaning they've hardly struggled to create opportunities, but instead have fallen short when it comes to converting them.
Furthermore, Fiorentina have recorded the highest xG of any Serie A side from set-pieces. Only two teams, though, have scored fewer than Fiorentina from set-plays.
From an attacking standpoint, their luck should begin to turn before long but defensively, the team have been one of Serie A's poorer outfits, which has undoubtedly contributed to their zero wins, six draws and nine defeats.
Whilst it's true that Kean probably needs to rediscover last season's form in front of goal, the man at the other end of the pitch, a former Manchester United goalkeeper no less, should also bear some responsibility for Fiorentina's current position.
Five of Fiorentina's league defeats this season have been by a single-goal margin
David de Gea joined Fiorentina ahead of the 2024/25 campaign, having spent a year as a free agent, and this summer signed an extension until 2028.
After 15 matches this season, only one goalkeeper in Serie A has performed worse from a shot-stopping perspective. The 35-year-old has conceded from corner kick routines on a regular basis and struggled to control his penalty area, which was a common gripe among supporters at Old Trafford.
The Spaniard has claimed just three of the 196 crosses which have been delivered into Fiorentina's box and is conceding on average, close to two goals per game.
Fiorentina have conceded the most goals from set-pieces (10) in Serie A this season
Fiorentina's festive fixture schedule could make or break their campaign, either saving them from a first relegation in 24 years, or all but condemning them to it.
The club are only eight points adrift of safety but must begin picking up points - and scoring goals - sooner rather than later.
Only on three previous occasions in their 99-year history have Fiorentina been relegated from the top flight. Their most recent demotion in 2002 came as a result of bankruptcy and the time before that in 1993 was due to an inferior head-to-head record against the teams around them who finished on the same points, despite boasting a better goal difference.
Relegation with this squad, having placed sixth last season and given their recent European exploits, was unthinkable at the beginning of the campaign.
Amidst stadium renovations and the upcoming 100th anniversary of the club's formation, relegation would be disastrous.
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