Fiorentina saves, now Paolo Vanoli lashes out: "You have made trials of me"
Florentin won a hard-earned salvation by drawing 0-0 at home against Genoa, thanks to a clear upturn in its results after a forgettable start to the season. A goal achieved, although certainly different from the one with which the championship had begun, however, Paolo Vanoli claims. And the purple coach, who took over from Stefano Pioli in November, has put in his sights all those who have criticized him despite the many difficulties he and the team have had to face in the last six months.
“No one has told us that, with four days to go, we were on +9 and that we were good at it,” Vanoli stressed in a press conference. “I understand that you have to make the criticisms, but I had to achieve Fiorentina’s goals by leading a team that had not been built by me. Today we made some technical mistakes also because of the anxiety of reaching this result. Mentally we gave everything until the end, although we certainly could and did give more.”
“We accept the criticism of the Fiorentina fans. It was they who pushed us to salvation, although the halved stadium did not always give us the warmth we needed. But we started with other goals and found ourselves at the bottom of the standings. We decided to isolate ourselves from everyone, even from the press, but for four weeks you people have been on Paolo Vanoli’s trial. And, in all this, I had to save the team,” complained the Fiorentina coach.
On the field, the match at the Franchi was anything but a spectacle: very few noteworthy actions in a match in which both teams seemed devoid of real motivation, with Genoa already safe for some time and the Viola with their heads turned more to the standings than to the game. The home crowd expressed its disappointment with resounding booing at the triple whistle, testifying to a season that deeply disappointed the expectations of a square accustomed to quite different stages. With this point, the violets rise to 38 points in the standings, while Daniele De Rossi’s Genoa moves up to 41, fourteenth place.
Fibrentina’s salvation came at the same time as Cremonese’s clear 3-0 win over Pisa, a result that still did not change the violets’ fate but keeps the fight not to be relegated lit up in the last two days. The grigiorossi, dragged by a rediscovered Jamie Vardy – scoring for the first time since last January 8 – and goals from Bonazzoli and Okereke, rise to 31 points, just one length behind fourth-last-place Lecce. The salvation race between the two teams will therefore be decided in the last two days of the championship.
Having cleared the salvation file, at home Fiorentina immediately opens the chapter related to the future of the bench. Vanoli’s position, despite today’s pride-laden statements, remains far from armored. Technical director Fabio Paratici has already let it be known that a discussion between the parties is planned to clarify programs and intentions, without excluding or confirming the continuity of the coach. Among the profiles evaluated by the management are Andoni Iraola, who is, however, considered difficult to reach, Domenico Tedesco and Fabio Grosso, the latter steadily rising in the club’s hierarchies. Unlike what happened to Daniele De Rossi with Genoa, Vanoli’s renewal will not be automatic even following the salvation achieved.
