Read Fiorentina coach Paolo Vanoli’s words following his team’s 1-3 loss to Como in Coppa Italia.

The first 15 minutes were good, but after Como scored you started sitting deep, especially in the second half.

“I wouldn’t say we only played well in the first 15 minutes; I’d say the entire first half was good. What I don’t like about my team – something that I saw tonight and days ago against Cagliari – is that they aren’t able to suffer; they can’t handle it. That is what needs to be improved, not the way we play. The problem in the second half was that if things get hard, we have to be able to suffer. If you’re fighting to avoid relegation or to achieve something, you must be able to suffer, end of story.

“It’s a real shame, because we read the game very well in the first half. We scored the opener and took the lead, as was the case in previous games. But then we conceded from a set piece. It’s a matter of attention to detail. We were up against a very good team. I have to say that [Niccolo] Fortini and [Luis] Balbo did well, and so did [Luca] Ranieri who hadn’t played in a while. [Pietro] Comuzzo played well too. However, in the second half, our performance was worse. Another thing we need is ambition, which was also a problem against Cagliari. [Jacopo] Fazzini is another player who played well. Balbo was a nice surprise. Fortini can play in that position, but he must make some technical improvements. He made a mistake and has to grow.”

What would you say your shortcomings have been? And would you say you were soft in the second half?

“I wouldn’t say we were soft, no. I look at the overall performance. However, the team must be in the game from beginning to end. My shortcoming is that I haven’t been able to get this point across to the players. I told them that if you lose a head-to-head match, you lose six points. We weren’t soft; we weren’t able to suffer, which led to Como taking the lead. We have to stay calm in those situations, because you have to think to win those games.

“Of course, Fiorentina shouldn’t be so low in the table and we have to play football. But playing football means focusing on all the phases of a game.

“Ever since I arrived here, I’ve told the team that our goal is to avoid relegation. I think that we got overconfident after our win against Bologna. We must understand that this type of mindset is risky. We must realize that our number one priority is avoiding relegation.”