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Tottenham loanee Radu Dragusin leaves Italian media confused after Fiorentina win
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- Tottenham loanee Radu Dragusin leaves Italian media confused after Fiorentina win
Tottenham loanee Radu Dragusin was involved in a big Fiorentina win on Monday evening.
The 24-year-old central defender joined the Florence-based outfit on a season-long loan deal in the summer.
With Roberto De Zerbi bringing Tosin Adarabioyo, Jan Paul van Hecke and Marcos Senesi in during the summer window, Dragusin's role was lost.
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A 32-cap Romanian international, he knew that playing regular football at this stage of his career was vital to its longevity at the top level.
He's endured a mixed start to life with Fiorentina this season, as he attempts to meet the performance-based criteria to trigger a permanent deal.
Dragusin's latest opportunity to make progress on that front came on Monday evening, but it doesn't appear as though he took it.
Italian media left frustrated by Jekyll and Hyde Radu Dragusin
Fiorentina travelled to Sassuolo in Serie A on Monday night, hoping to pick up just their second win of the season.
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That's precisely what Paolo Vanoli's side did, running out 4-2 winners at the MAPEI Stadium.
Dragusin started his 10th Serie A game of the 2026-27 season and played the full 90 minutes in the victory.
However, as local Florence-based news outlet La Nazione writes, the Spurs loanee impressed and frustrated in equal measure.
"Like his captain (David de Gea), he doesn't properly evaluate the pass to Laurienté and gets caught out when he doesn't run back," they said.
"For someone like him, these are unexpected mistakes. In other situations, he handles things without fear. 5.5."
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So, just how good were Dragusin's underlying numbers from the win over Sassuolo, and do they paint a similar story?
'Commanding' - Tottenham's Guglielmo Vicario wins Italian media over in Juventus vs Napoli Where did Dragusin lead all players in Sassuolo vs Fiorentina?
It seems as though Fiorentina are witnessing some of the same frustrations with Dragusin as Tottenham saw.
When he's on form, the Romanian is a quality and combative defender who looks every bit of one who belongs at the top level.
However, showing that on a consistent basis always proved difficult for him, and his underlying numbers from Monday night show the same story.
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Per FotMob , no player on the pitch made more defensive contributions than Dragusin's 10.
He also completed 84 passes, played four passes into the final third, made six clearances, won two ground duels, all three aerial duels and won a foul.
On the flip side, he also made just one tackle, one interception, two recoveries, committed a foul and was accurate on just one of three long ball attempts.
Dragusin also picked up a yellow card for his troubles, as he continues to cement a key starting role for Fiorentina.
He will face a big test next up though, as Fiorentina welcome Juventus to Florence on Sunday.
