Trying to make sense of Moise Kean’s off year

Pain. | Giuseppe Maffia/NurPhoto via Getty Images As this miserable season finally winds down, everyone (including me) is focused on what Fiorentina will do this summer. Fabio Paratici has a bunch of decisions to make but for my money, the biggest one is what to do with Moise Kean.

The punditocracy has been rumbling with that question for the past couple days and that rumbling is unlikely to quiet down until there’s some resolution. The primary narrative, as far as I can tell, is that the Moose has badly underachieved and is no longer untouchable, a state of affairs that nobody could’ve imagined 12 months ago. Let’s run through the facts here.

Kean’s had a bad season by any objective measure, scoring 8 league goals in 26 appearances (1 every 255 minutes) from an xG of 15. 38. For comparison’s sake, Kean had 19 league goals in 32 appearances (1 every 143 minutes) from an xG of 21.

89. He’ll probably end up playing about 700 fewer Serie A minutes, evidence of his (lack of) health. He’s dealt with a lower leg injury of some type, variously listed as an ankle or a shin, and that issue has curtailed his effectiveness on the pitch.