Read the comments by Stefano Pioli after the match against AC Milan

I’ll start from the end. I saw you go straight to the referee. What did you say to him? Did you ask about the penalty awarded to Milan?

“I told him what I thought. To me it wasn’t a penalty and to me these incidents are not good because we are encouraging players to simulate all the time. And this has been happening for a long time now, and not only in the box, also on the rest of the pitch. As soon as a player defends the ball or raises his hands even slightly, the other players throw themselves to the ground and cover their face with their hands, with the referee awarding a foul. 

“In any case, we’ve lost another match, we’re last in the table and that’s very bad. We need to do better, even though we’ve played the match the way we were supposed to: we read it well, the team worked hard, played and suffered when they had to.

“It’s too bad because we get punished because of single moments. For example with the first goal we conceded we were unlucky. There were 10 of us on the pitch because [Luca] Ranieri was out and I didn’t send him back onto the pitch. We weren’t compact in defense near the box and we let Rafa [Leao] shoot. We need to do more and we have a lot to do, that’s it.”

Are you starting to get worried about your position in the table? You have some tough games ahead. The next fixture to focus on is the Conference League, then it’ll be Bologna, then again Inter at San Siro. Are you also worried about what this is doing to the players’ mental state? At one point it seemed as though you were dominating the match, but in the end you lost. So do you think it’s getting mentally hard for the players?

“We must be realists. We are bottom of the table and we should be worried. Despite all the hits we’ve taken, and they’re quite a few, I still see a team who believe in themselves, work hard, are compact, united and want to get over this, and I’m sure we will. Unfortunately it won’t be a fast process. It’ll take more time than we’d anticipated, but we’ll make it. I’m sure we will.”

Hi Stefano [Pioli], welcome back to San Siro, although you never left because you’re always in our hearts. If there’s one person who can save us from this situation, as Prade said earlier, that’s Stefano Pioli. That’s what I’m interested in: I want to know how one can get out of this situation. Because we liked a lot of things we saw tonight from Fiorentina, but tonight and in other matches like the one against Cagliari, there are many chances in which mistakes were made. There must be a reason why these mistakes are made, right?

“Of course. It’s the fourth time we take the lead and then fail to secure a win, or rather the third, as we drew against Cagliari. But I’m also sorry for the club, the fans who really believed in me as I was about to join the club, who really believe in the work we’re doing. It really hurts to be in this position. It hurts me, the players, but me especially because of the trust they’ve put in me. So I want to thank them for believing in me and we’ll do everything we can to get out of this situation, and I promise you we will. However, this is where we stand, so we must make as few mistakes as possible. Again, we made very few mistakes today. But we must try to do something more.”

Good evening coach. It’s certainly a tough moment for the club, but have you seen any improvements over the past few matches compared to the start of the season, even though the team have been more or less the same? Nevertheless, have you seen any improvements compared to the first few games?

“If we consider the first two matches of the season, I believe we’ve always improved since then, except against Napoli. Napoli took the lead right at the beginning of the game and the game didn’t change from then on. I believe the team are growing, as they have shown today. Unfortunately we are bottom of the table, while with this win Milan are top of the table. Admittedly, they didn’t have some of their most important players. We lost to Roma, who with that win against us reached first place in the table. But I don’t think there was that much of a difference between our teams on the pitch. 

“What I mean is that we can’t be bottom of the table because we played our matches, we read the games, we worked as a team, we suffered, we created plays. But at the end of the day the only thing that matters is the final result. We all look at and depend on our results, so it’s our job to do more. However, to me our past two matches have been our best yet. This must convince us that we’re on the right path. Of course, I understand where you’re coming from when you ask me this question. We play and continue losing, but I see that the players have the right team spirit and energy to overcome this very tough period.

Prade has already taken responsibility. He said that if someone needs to leave, that’s him. Do you think he could consider resigning? And secondly, what is the one thing that really didn’t work out from August to now? Is it possible that this team might have some limits and you weren’t aware of this? Have you noticed anything? Because three points after playing seven matches is unacceptable. Have you found a reason why this might be? 

“I’ve always believed that all the good and bad things that happen in a season on the long term are the result of the work done by everyone, meaning the club, the coach, the players and the entire Viola Park. Right now, I firmly believe that I am responsible for this. The club supports us in every way possible. The players and I are the ones on the pitch and we must be held accountable, not Daniele [Prade], not the club or the president. It’s us, and we’re the ones who have to find a solution. 

“It’s hard to explain why we’re where we are right now. I think we’re much better than this. However, although the past two matches weren’t excellent, we’re not far away from that. Otherwise we wouldn’t have played the match we played against Roma, or the one against Milan. We’ve been working more carefully on teamwork, we’re more determined, we conceded very little, but it’s not enough. At the same time, if we keep working like this, I believe we’ll win many matches and lose very few.”

Apart from the referee, I think you said something to [Santiago] Gimenez. I don’t know whether you can tell us what you said.

“Of course. I was nervous. Nothing much. We talked about the 11 points you lost after being ahead. But today after scoring the opener I saw something change. Five or six minutes after scoring, you paradoxically played better and the defensive game seemed very good too. Instead in the first half when you had the ball, I think the players have the necessary qualities to do better. I don’t know whether it’s hard now because of your position in the table.

“No, I disagree. It’s not hard because of the table. Milan sit deep, they move the ball around. They made us press high, but then they sat deep again. Milan concede very little. So it’s not just because of us “not having the right qualities”, it’s also because Milan conceded very little. I believe we have to improve a lot. We won the ball back many times. We defended well, we sometimes sat deeper than usual. We sometimes immediately lose the first ball, which means that then we don’t have control over the game. I think we need to come up with more solutions for the players who wins back the ball. We must make fewer mistakes. One’s mental state is what really makes the difference in every sport, but especially in football. 

“In any case I see the glass half full. We’re in last place and I’m sorry for the club and our fans. But because we’re in this situation right now, the team weren’t afraid when they got on the pitch, they didn’t think ‘oh my God, what are we going to do?’ They played the match. We have to keep working and get out of this bad situation.”

You must remember your first two or three months at Milan, with many difficulties, tough matches that you also lost or drew in the dying moments of the game: Marco Calderoni’s goal for Lecce, 5-0 in Bergamo. But then something changed and Pioli’s Milan was born.

“It wasn’t my Milan, it was the Milan of [Paolo] Maldini, [Frederic] Massara, [Zlatan] Ibrahimovic, [Rafa] Leao, Theo [Hernandez]. It wasn’t mine.”

Do you think you can have the same reaction from Fiorentina?

“Absolutely. I don’t know exactly what we can achieve, but I’m sure we’ll get over this. Because there’s the necessary will coming from the players, as they have the right qualities, will, spirit and unity. We’ll definitely make it through this phase. Of course everything around us now is bad. But we must believe in what we do and get over this and that is what we’ll do.”

Could the match in Vienna be a bit like your match against Rio Ave? 

“There won't be any penalties, though.”

Returning to Florence after a defeat is one thing. But returning to Florence after perhaps a good performance, a good win in Vienna – you were talking about switching gears – the Conference League could be a hindrance. But could it be an opportunity in this case? Because the last game is the one that counts. 

“No, to be clear, the Conference League is a goal, not a hindrance. And it could probably become the goal that could also change how this season will go for us. It's also true that at this moment, the league requires a lot from us. Because the fixtures aren’t easy, because our position in the table is too bad. But it's clear that starting tonight, we'll be thinking about Rapid Vienna. Let's try to get the most out of the game and then focus on Bologna. Thank you.”