Fiorentina chief Corvino slams Juventus over Melo treatment

Fiorentina chief Pantaleo Corvino has slammed Juventus over their treatment of Felipe Melo.

The Brazil international has come under intense scrutiny since his €18.5m transfer from Fiorentina during the summer.

Corvino told Sky Italia: “Before Melo's arrival we played with a three-man midfield and the lowest player of this midfield was Fabio Liverani, a classic playmaker who started from behind the front line.

“At the end of the season Prandelli said to me that he wanted a connoisseur who had more quantity than quality and so I went to sign Felipe Melo from Almeria. I knew him since the time he won the Brazilian League with Cruzeiro and I knew that he had good feet and so I thought I did a good piece of business at that price.

“He expressed himself well with us and he has also done well with the Brazilian national team. He is playing with the same system that Fiorentina adopted. For a long time during the season we played with a trequartista who was Santana. In Brazil it's different because they play with two holding midfielders in front of the defence: Melo and Gilberto Silva.

“I think that Juventus have not made any mistakes from a tactical point of view. Having two strikers plus Diego you need three central midfielders capable of making more interceptions than being creative.

“The problem is that you always tend to see the player who is in front of the defence as a playmaker, while I think Juve had need of a player of quantity. If then there is also quality so much the better.”