Galloppa: ‘Fiorentina defeat will weigh on us, positive result fundamental’

Fiorentina caretaker manager Daniele Galloppa admits fumbling a lead to lose 2-1 at Mainz in the Conference League ‘will weigh on us, as a positive result would’ve been fundamental.’

The Primavera youth team coach was promoted to the main job for this trip to Germany after Stefano Pioli was sacked on Tuesday.

It had been a strong start to this experience in Mainz, as Simon Sohm gave the Viola an early lead in the hope of maintaining their perfect Conference League record.

However, the substitutes proved decisive, as Benedict Hollerbach and in stoppages Jaesung Lee turned it around for a 2-1 Mainz victory.

“Unfortunately, this will weigh on us, because bringing home a positive result would’ve been fundamental,” confessed Galloppa on Sky Sport Italia.

“The lads should’ve been more mature and marked better inside the penalty area. I think we should’ve been 2-0 up by that stage, not losing 2-1.”

Moise Kean did have the ball in the net and was flagged marginally offside, while the striker also missed a sitter.

“The lads want to react, it’s only normal they are disappointed. It was frankly difficult to ask for more from them after just two days. They tried and created, albeit getting a lot of things wrong on a purely technical level. They want to turn this around.”

Roberto Piccoli also missed several big scoring opportunities before he was replaced by Kean, and seemed nervous when clear on goal.

“Roberto is working hard, he has been stopping after training sessions to practice his finishing. I don’t think he is fearful, but it would be important for his confidence to score,” insisted Galloppa.

“We’ve all got to roll our sleeves up and emerge from this difficult moment. We saw some positive things in the first hour, the sensation is that as we lost intensity and started to struggle physically, we also lost something in terms of mentality. We didn’t have the focus to sense the danger on those goals.”

Galloppa has said he would’ve made bigger tactical changes if given more time, so how does he think Fiorentina ought to be playing?

“I think that for the characteristics that these players have, they can play with two centre-forwards, or two support strikers behind one upfront.

“They do better with three in midfield and can sustain the tempo more.”

Although Paolo Vanoli is the hot favourite now, a decision has not yet been made on a new coach ahead of this weekend’s relegation dogfight against Genoa.

Curiously, that game will be the debut for new Grifone boss Daniele De Rossi, who replaced the fired Patrick Vieira today.