Gilardino´s Fiorentina frustration

Fiorentina’s Alberto Gilardino has revealed frustration over his side’s slow start in this season’s Serie A, but is hopeful of a strong finish.

Fiorentina are in ninth place in the Italian top flight, nine points adrift of a Europa League berth for next season, but are unbeaten in their last five league games.

Gilardino believes a turbulent end to Fiorentina’s last campaign, which saw the departure of manager Cesare Prandelli to take over the Italian national squad, and the absence of key personnel have been the reasons behind their inconsistency.

Montenegrin striker Stevan Jovetic has been unable to play after suffering a severe knee injury, and Adrian Mutu also missed a large part of the season after a club-imposed ban in the wake of his doping ban.

“Fiorentina definitely has had various problems this year, both physical and structural, many players couldn’t play for various periods, essential players that would have been able to make a difference,” Gilardino said.

“We definitely didn’t do what we wanted to do and what we said we wanted to do at the beginning of the season.”

“Anyway we will try to do our best in this last part of the championship, seeing as many injured players are back.”

“Of course a player like me found the first half of the championship difficult, because I wasn’t flanked by players who could make the difference and, as I’ve said, Fiorentina suffered from the fact that various players were injured.”

Gilardino is looking forward to playing for Italy in Tuesday’s friendly against the Ukraine in Kiev, and believes such matches are important to try out new players and tactical formations.

“Playing for the national team it’s always an honour for me and I’m always excited and proud to wear the jersey of the national team,” he said.

“Tomorrow it will be a tough game, even if it’s a friendly match. We know we need to play these kind of matches with the right attitude and we really want to play well.”

“I don’t know which line-up the manager will choose, I think he will try to make everyone play a bit, so maybe even those who didn’t play the other night will have the chance to play tomorrow night. Everyone is determined and focused on playing well.”