Former Manchester United goalkeeper David de Gea endured a difficult start to life at Fiorentina on what was his first appearance in 18 months.
The Spaniard spent the entirety of last season without a club after being released by United, where he spent 12 years, the majority of which as first-choice goalkeeper.
According to the blog post, he eventually found a new club this summer when he signed with Italian side Fiorentina for the forthcoming campaign.
De Gea made his debut on Thursday night in the Europa Conference League playoff against Hungarian side Puskas Akademia. He was unable to save Zslot Nagy’s penalty after just eight minutes before being left powerless to stop Mikael Soisalo’s effort to make it 2-0. Fiorentina still went on to pull off a dramatic comeback after goals from Riccardo Sottil, Lucas Qaurta and Moise Kean.
Unfortunately for Fiorentina, the Hungarian side had other ideas as they scored late on thanks to Wojchiech Golla to secure a 3-3 draw ahead of next week’s second leg. All is to play for in the tie.
Fiorentina manager unhappy
Fiorentina boss Raffaele Palladino was furious after the side’s performance.
Speaking to Sky Sport Italia, he said: “It was a bad start, that goes without saying, and it was honestly inexplicable. We made errors I don’t even see in training sessions, they were big mistakes to go 2-0 down.
“Then we did well to stay in the game, open it up with Riccardo before the break and I liked the attitude of the second half, we had a very different approach, hunger and turned it around. The regret is conceding a goal on a set play when a player was off the field injured, but we still shouldn’t have conceded it.
“There is a lot that needs improvement, we still don’t have a clear identity and are fragile. This is the situation, we need to analyse everything and recognise we need to start with the right attitude.”
He added: “Obviously, we have a team that is a work in progress, many players have been arriving at different times in pre-season, so we haven’t had much time to work all together. Puskas are at a more advanced stage of their preparation this season, but it must not be an alibi, instead motivation to do better.
“I need the players and club to give us all a hand, but we knew it was going to be difficult making this many changes and it will take time.”
De Gea will hope Fiorentina can improve in order to progress next week.