Cagliari coach Gianfranco Zola has kicked off his Serie A career with a 5-0 defeat to Palermo.

The Chelsea legend was appointed coach over Christmas.

"We did not start 2015 on the right foot," confessed Zola on Sky Sport Italia.

"We must take this defeat as a lesson. We didn't expect it to be this difficult, but in situations like ours, everything seems harder. We mustn't get self-pitying and instead react.

"A naive error saw us concede straight away and Conti's red card rather ruined our game plan, but even then I expected something more."

Zola added: "At Cagliari I found the right conditions to work. The squad has quality and the club is doing things well. I hope to give the right contribution.

"We need to do something on the transfer market, but Cagliari certainly cannot be reflected by this performance. Serie A is a difficult League and we have to do more. We can't afford errors like this."