Alberto Gilardino warns Genoa fans that they must recognise it will be a scrap to secure Serie A safety this season after their 3-0 defeat to Juventus. ‘I knew this was the case.’
It has been a disastrous week for the Grifone, who managed one point from the last four Serie A games and midweek were eliminated from the Coppa Italia in a penalty shoot-out by city rivals Sampdoria.
Because of the violent clashes between supporters around that Derby della Lanterna, today’s match with Juve was played behind closed doors at the Stadio Luigi Ferraris.
Dusan Vlahovic scored twice, from the spot and on the counter, while Francisco Conceicao completed the rout late on.
“Undoubtedly, players like Malinovskyi, Messias and Ekuban are important for this team, but we cannot afford to create alibis right now,” Gilardino told DAZN.
“It was a good first half performance, the second saw a naïve error from De Winter that rather changed the game, because when you allow these situations against big clubs, it opens up the spaces and you get punished.
“We are fragile defensively at the moment and we know that when we concede, we open up even more. We tried to play between the lines with Fabio Miretti and send Andrea Pinamonti forward, but let’s also not forget we had some teenagers playing today.”
Genoa face tough campaign, warns Gilardino
Gilardino had already expressed his frustration with the club over the summer when Albert Gudmundsson was sold to Fiorentina without a suitable replacement brought in.
“We’ve got to just keep going. This is what we’re facing this season, I knew this was the case and it’s important that everyone understands that. A lot has happened, between injuries and players who have left.
“It is important to spend even more time in training working on the details, that is the only way forward. A player like Messias is essential to get that change of pace and take opponents on, so we don’t have another figure like that who can break forward from midfield.”
Milan Badelj went off injured after just 25 minutes today, further reducing the options at Gilardino’s disposal, so the coach was asked if Miretti can be moved further up into the Gudmundsson role.
“Miretti is the player who can connect the midfield to the attack, as he has those characteristics and we need to work on them. The main issue now is to become more solid in defence, not concede so easily, as it will keep us in games longer and therefore make more of the attacking capabilities.”