Palladino wants ‘ambitious Fiorentina with strong mentality’ | OneFootball

Raffaele Palladino confirms his Fiorentina will shift to a three-man defence, as he wants them to be ‘ambitious and with a strong mentality.’

The former Monza coach took over this summer from Vincenzo Italiano, who left for a new role at Bologna, and held his presentation press conference today at the Viola Park.

He also spoke to Sky Sport Italia about this new experience, only his second in coaching, as he was promoted from the Monza youth team by then-President Silvio Berlusconi.

“It is exciting and motivating to be here, I got the sense that I arrived at a great club with ambition and we want to continue the progress that has been made in recent years,” said Palladino.

“I did not have any doubts from the very first call. Fiorentina are a big club with a wonderful new training centre, excellent directors and a strong squad, although obviously it will need some adjustments. I see everything we need to do well here.”

Palladino building on Italiano era at Fiorentina

The Viola have been so close to glory in the last two seasons under Italiano, twice reaching the Conference League Final and also making it to the Coppa Italia Final, but losing every time.

They have again qualified for the Europa Conference League, so could make it a hat-trick of Final appearances.

“We’ve got to give credit to Italiano for what he achieved. It is exciting for me and my staff to prepare for our first European experience. I honestly didn’t expect to be in Europe at this stage of my career, as until two years ago I was working with youth teams, but I thank Monza for giving me that opportunity,” continued Palladino.

“I want Fiorentina to be ambitious and with a strong mentality. We’ve got to be able to fight it out against anyone. We can win or lose, but what interests me is the mentality of taking the game to them.

“We’ve got to entertain the people of Florence and are working to build a great Fiorentina side.”

There should already be tactical changes from the Italiano era, as he is leaning towards a three-man defence.

“I have been fortunate to experiment, so I can vary our tactics. The initial idea is to start with three at the back, but Fiorentina were built to play with a 4-3-3 or 4-2-3-1, which I could also shift to without problems.

“I am not a tactical absolutist, I like to change things around and a lot depends on the players in the squad,” concluded Palladino.

Meanwhile, Fiorentina have announced two pre-season friendly matches.

They will play Hull City at the MKM Stadium in Hull on July 30, then SC Freiburg at the Europa Park Stadion on August 10.