Montella not thinking of Spurs

Fiorentina Coach Vincenzo Montella says he’s concentrating on Sassuolo, not the Europa League tie with Tottenham.

The Viola take on Spurs on Thursday in the Last 32 of the Europa League, but the former Fulham striker insists he’s only thinking about tomorrow’s match with Sassuolo.

“I’m still not thinking about it,” Montella told his pre-match Press conference.

“We still have five days to prepare for the Tottenham game.

Fiorentina Coach Vincenzo Montella says he’s concentrating on Sassuolo, not the Europa League tie with Tottenham.

The Viola take on Spurs on Thursday in the Last 32 of the Europa League, but the former Fulham striker insists he’s only thinking about tomorrow’s match with Sassuolo.

“I’m still not thinking about it,” Montella told his pre-match Press conference.

“We still have five days to prepare for the Tottenham game.

“Sassuolo? We play similar football, they play an attacking game.

“[Their strikers] are Italian and have everything. [Domenico] Berardi is very skilled at playing between the lines, [Nicola] Sansone runs deep while [Simone] Zaza is a bit anarchic.

“[Sergio] Floccari and [Antonio] Floro Flores are great players too, we’ll face a very difficult game.

“Italian football is very difficult. We drew with Genoa and there was some discontent, but then you see Lazio lost to Genoa and Milan went down to Atalanta.

“Since Verona, we’ve had a great consistency of play and results, whereas before we were lacking in consistency in our results.

“No team has been better than us over the 90 minutes. Our position in the table [fourth] is well-deserved thanks to the quality of the players.”

Montella also discussed the options available to him, and says Mohamed Salah is overcoming the language barrier.

“They’re all growing. Salah hasn’t had 90 minutes, but physically he’s ready. He speaks English like me, so we understand each other.

“He’s been made to understand our football by watching videos.

“As for Borja Valero, he had a bit of a downswing earlier in the season, but he’s sat out and had the chance to rest and now he looks good.

“We’re used to seeing him play better than in the last little while, but it was only a slight decline.”