Vanoli: ‘Fiorentina will move on from those who don’t want to fight’

Paolo Vanoli admits Fiorentina are in free-fall after their Conference League loss to Lausanne-Sport. ‘If the players don’t react, we’ll look into the eyes of those who don’t want to fight, and move on.’

The Viola crisis seems to know no end, because this was yet another defeat that showed practically no fight, barely any shots on target, and some incredibly weak defending.

They knew this was a head-to-head, with only one point separating them in the table, and indeed the 1-0 victory allows Lausanne-Sport to go directly into the Conference League Round of 16.

Instead, Fiorentina will enter the play-offs, but are at least seeded, so will face either Jagellonia or Omonia Nicosia.

“I expected a different response from the lads who hadn’t played as much, and we knew that there were difficulties playing on an artificial pitch,” Vanoli told Sky Sport Italia.

“In any case, I prefer to look at the positives. Even with a victory, we probably still would’ve had to go through the play-offs, so now we prepare for February.”

The squad was put into a training retreat straight after Sunday’s dire 2-1 home defeat to Hellas Verona, which left them rock bottom at the foot of the Serie A table.

Nothing seems to have shaken this team into a reaction, as along with the results, the performances have exhibited players who look frightened.

“I think they have what it takes to react, and we have a big opportunity to prove that on Sunday,” added Vanoli.

“If it doesn’t happen then, we have the January transfer window, where we’ll look into the eyes of those people who don’t want to fight, and we’ll move on. When we get to January, we’ll evaluate.”

Vanoli has overseen one win, two draws and five defeats in all competition. Did the coach expect more to have advanced since he took over from sacked Stefano Pioli on November 7?

“The players are trying, it’s natural that we expected a lot more. The responsibility is mine, the lads need to focus on preparing for the next game against Udinese.

“At this point, we need to find something different to free the minds of these players. The situation is weighing on them, you can see in the way they can misplace even simple passes, but we must find the strength to change this moment.

“We have what it takes and we must fight for it. I must try to revolutionise some things. We had some ups and downs, the last two games I felt were in a positive trend, as we had beaten Dinamo Kyiv and the performance against Verona was good, aside from the result.

“Then we ran into tonight’s performance, so this is where the coach must understand what is going on and what to change in order to give them something different, because evidently what we’ve got so far has not worked.”

Excluding the preliminary round wins over Polissya in August, Fiorentina have won only three games this season, all of them in the Conference League against Sigma Olomouc, Rapid Vienna and Dinamo Kyiv.

They lost 12 competitive matches, drawing the other six.

The most alarming thing about this Fiorentina team is the total lack of fight and pride, even compared to former squads that were relegated amid bankruptcy.

“I agree, but I must try to find the key. Sometimes you find it by making changes. The players are struggling to do certain things right now, so I must give them other solutions,” added Vanoli.

“When you are in a training retreat, it is to stay together and talk. However, talk only gets you so far, we need action now. We’ve got to shake off the fear, cling to all we’ve got and try to bring home a result that is too important this weekend.”