Prade: ‘VAR scandalous, but Pioli is only man for Fiorentina’

Fiorentina director Daniele Pradè hit out at the ‘scandalous’ VAR decision giving Milan a 2-1 victory, but also accepted ‘blame’ for their current predicament. ‘Stefano Pioli can get us out of this.’

The Viola were understandably furious at the final whistle when suffering a 2-1 defeat at San Siro.

Robin Gosens had bundled over the line from point-blank range to give them the lead somewhat against the run of play, but Rafael Leao’s strike from distance beat David De Gea into the far bottom corner.

The biggest turning point of the game was late on when VAR called referee Livio Marinelli to view the Fabiano Parisi clutch onto Santiago Gimenez’s shoulder, deciding to award a penalty that Leao converted.

This particular incident stretched the description of ‘clear and obvious error’ to its absolute limits, as there was contact, but it was also minimal.

“I think if VAR need to call the referee back for a clear and obvious error, then this is a huge error from VAR, and Marinelli simply didn’t have the courage to back his initial decision,” Pradè told DAZN Italia.

“I cannot even describe how we feel right now, these are incidents that change a whole season. It is scandalous. He stayed down for about 20 minutes, was barely even touched, it’s an ugly scene to witness.

“Fiorentina played with courage and did not deserve to lose in this manner, with a player rolling around on the floor. There was a foul earlier on Ranieri that could’ve been a red card, he was out getting treatment when they scored and therefore down to 10 men.

“We did not expect to be in this situation, with three points after seven rounds, but this does not reflect the team and we saw that again this evening.”

Pradè has been the subject of protests from the Fiorentina ultras groups, who blame his transfer strategy for their poor results, and he took the opportunity to publicly back coach Pioli.

“If there is anyone who can get us out of this situation, it is Stefano Pioli. The rest is my fault, the protests from the fans are against me, and it is because the club put the strategy in my hands. If there is anyone to blame for the current situation, it is me.

“There were also other elements that haven’t helped, our stadium is a building site and we cannot have our fans there, we have three tournaments to play in. I feel bad for the fans, for the President, and the coach. If there is anyone who should be fired or resign, it is me, the others need to just focus on their work and realise the potential is there to be a great team.

“We continue to insist that there is only one man for the job and it is Stefano Pioli.”