Vanoli gives first Fiorentina press conference: ‘We all have work to do’

Paolo Vanoli admits that ‘everybody’ at Fiorentina has work to do to get out of the relegation zone in Serie A, has explained how he plans to improve La Viola defensively, and has explained why he decided to take the job on in such a delicate situation. 

Vanoli was officially announced as the new head coach of Fiorentina last week, replacing Stefano Pioli, who was appointed over the summer but failed to win any of his 10 league matches in charge. 

As things stand, Fiorentina sit dead last in Serie A with just five points from their first 11 matches of the season. 

Though he has already taken charge of his first match, a 2-2 draw with Genoa, also in the relegation zone, Vanoli gave his introductory press conference in front of the media on Wednesday. 

Vanoli began his press conference with a few words of sympathy for Viola midfielder Amir Richardson, who has recently lost his father. 

“I want to start by offering my condolences to Amir, because he’s suffered an enormous loss.” 

Then, Vanoli began to explain why he decided to take on this specific challenge at Fiorentina. “Because I know what Florence is like, and I know that the club has shown a lot of growth. These challenges motivate me, they give me energy, but most importantly, they don’t scare me. 

“The road will be long and tough, and that’s why we have to have clear minds. It will take time, sacrifice and hard work to get out of this situation. Let’s leave the January transfer window to one side. 

“I’ve heard a lot of things about the preparations over the summer. I don’t want to compare myself to someone who has done things to help Fiorentina (referring to Stefano Pioli), talking like that, or about the transfer window, would not be the right thing to do. We’re thinking about our next game, which will be important and difficult for us.” 

Vanoli was asked if he thinks it is feasible that Fiorentina avoid relegation while also competing for a European title in the Conference League, to which he replied: “We have to take things game by game.

“The league is one goal, the cup is different. The mistake now would be to think about what we can achieve in the future. We have to take small steps. In the league, we think about the league. In the cup, we think about the cup. Let’s set ourselves small goals, otherwise we get ‘knocked out’ as I call it.” 

Vanoli was asked what he made of the ‘questionable’ activity on social media by some of his players in recent weeks. 

He replied: “We have to teach lessons on behaviour. These guys are kids, who sometimes make mistakes. When we have these mistakes, we simply have to take the player, sit them down and tell them how to behave. That is growth, understanding why players make certain mistakes.” 

And when asked about Fiorentina’s defensive issues, Vanoli said: “If we look at the stats, we have to admit that we all have a bit of work to do. We want to start from the simple things first, like compactness. We concede a lot of goals from set pieces. I’ve tried man-to-man marking in one training session. 

“We have to be more careful, we’ve already seen that with the goals conceded against Genoa.”