De Rossi: ‘Happy with Genoa’s attitude, but we can play a lot better than this’

Daniele De Rossi says that he is pleased with what he saw from his players on his Genoa debut, but insists that his team ‘can play so much better than this’ after Sunday’s 2-2 draw with the struggling Fiorentina in Serie A. 

De Rossi was appointed head coach of Genoa on Thursday following the sacking of Patrick Vieira, three days before Genoa’s match against Fiorentina. La Viola had also replaced Stefano Pioli with Paolo Vanoli in the days leading up to Sunday’s early relegation six-pointer. 

Goals from Leo Ostigard and Lorenzo Colombo cancelled out strikes from Fiorentina’s Albert Gudmundsson and Roberto Piccoli in an eventual 2-2 draw at the Stadio Luigi Ferraris.

You can see how the action unfolded on the Football Italia Liveblog.

With little time to work with his new squad, De Rossi says that the attitude of his players is what was most important, and he feels that his side showed plenty of positivity. 

“I’m very happy with the attitude. They’re incredible guys, who you are as a person starts from the heart. These are the sorts of situations when you need heart. We also have to work hard. We tried to win, I’m satisfied,” De Rossi told DAZN after full-time. 

Having equalised three minutes after falling 2-1 behind, De Rossi was asked if he wants to see a ‘never say die’ attitude from his squad. 

“That’s the basis we need to start from,” he replied. “You can’t underestimate this type of courage or desire. They did well to stay in the game. I would have also liked to have scored one more.

“I think that we can play a lot better than this, we can start over. In my opinion, we have to work a lot on the details, they have to understand what I like to see. It would have been stupid if I’d come here today asking them to do lots of complicated things. Fiorentina are strong, we played a solid game.” 

And when asked if missing out on a trip to Argentina to watch Boca Juniors play against River Plate in order to take over at Genoa was worthwhile, De Rossi said: “It was worth it, I do the job that I love. I’ve felt bigger chills than had I returned to Buenos Aires.”