Monza coach Raffaele Palladino has hit out at his critics ahead of tonight's clash with Fiorentina.

Palladino was left unimpressed to the reaction from their defeat to AC Milan.

He said: "This year's championship is a complicated one, we were aware that it would be different from last year's, when we scored a lot of points against the big teams. This season we lost against Inter, Atalanta, Roma, Juventus and Milan.

"We must not cause drama, in recent days there has been non-constructive criticism that the team did not deserve. There were mistakes against Milan, it's true, but in my opinion the criticism towards the team was exaggerated.

"I am always very sincere. It bothered me because the criticism wasn't constructive, but destructive. We need to clarify one thing: we lost against teams playing in the Champions League or Europa League. We have never lost head-to-head matches, we are tenth in the standings. We have more points than last year, we have the same points as Lazio. There are many positive aspects.

"There were clear mistakes with Milan, but the criticism was excessive. We must be positive with the environment, this is a message I send to those who were less than constructive in their analysis of the match."