Fiorentina forward Roberto Piccoli got on the scoresheet at Loftus Road on July 26, but his goal — alongside one from Arthur Atta — was not enough to prevent the viola from falling to a 3-2 pre-season defeat against QPR.
The result carries no competitive weight, but the context around Piccoli does. A 25-year-old striker who managed three goals and one assist across 31 Serie A appearances last season, finishing with an average rating of 6.50, he enters the 2026-27 campaign needing to sharpen his output considerably. Fiorentina ended 2025-26 in 14th place on 42 points — a side that scored just 41 goals across 38 matches — and Paolo Vanoli's team cannot afford another forward who contributes at the margins.
Piccoli's numbers from last season tell a story of peripheral involvement rather than central threat. Three goals in 31 matches is a return that keeps a squad player in the building but does not establish a striker as a reliable source of goals. His AI overall rating of 56 out of 100, with a potential ceiling of 68, suggests the analytical models see room for growth — but potential is only meaningful if the performances start to close that gap.
A pre-season goal against QPR is a thin data point on its own. What it does confirm is that Piccoli is in the mix under Vanoli and working his way into match sharpness ahead of the new season. Fiorentina's next test comes against Watford, and how Piccoli performs across these summer fixtures will shape whether he enters August as a genuine option or a name in the squad list.