Cagliari vs Fiorentina preview - Montella eyeing impact from newbies

Fiorentina head coach Vincenzo Montella is imploring his new signings to help the club consolidate fourth place amid an injury crisis and following a frustrating conclusion to a thrilling meeting with Genoa.

La Viola, who next visit Cagliari on Saturday evening, had third-placed Napoli in their sights as Alberto Aquilani scored his first career hat-trick to steer Montella's men towards a dramatic comeback victory over Genoa in Florence.

The points would be shared from the frenetic encounter, though, with visiting debutant Sebastian De Maio forcing the 3-3 draw for the Grifone and leaving Fiorentina three points adrift of their rivals for Champions League football.

Rafael Benitez's side had dropped two points from their 1-1 home draw with Chievo and Montella admitted failing to take advantage by closing the gap to a single point had been hard to take.

He is, however, backing on-loan Manchester United midfielder Anderson and striker Alessandro Matri, recently borrowed from AC Milan, to make the difference in future games, starting at the Stadio Sant'Elia this weekend.

Montella told the Corriere dello Sport: "It was an unfortunate evening. It's a shame because if we look at other team's results then you can see that everyone's finding it really hard to win games in Italy.

"Now we have to consolidate fourth place in the table so, from our point of view, Napoli only getting a draw in their game was a good result for us."

Fiorentina, who are missing Borja Valero, Mario Gomez, Nenad Tomovic and Giuseppe Rossi through injury, have defied the odds to remain unbeaten in six games.

Montella is therefore going to rely heavily on the contributions of new recruits Anderson and Matri.

"The team are struggling a little bit due to the rigours of this current period," he added.

"Anderson has great desire to win. He's a great player at this level but he does not yet have 90 minutes in his legs.

"Matri worked incredibly hard for the team, I kept him on the pitch right until the end because he has a great spirit of self-sacrifice."

Cagliari are unable to call on the services of injured striker Nene or suspended midfielder Andrea Cossu as they go in search of a first win in seven attempts.

Sunday's home defeat to Milan was a third consecutive reverse and Rossoblu boss Diego Lopez is starting to feel the pressure in what is his first full season as a Serie A manager.

"We must always work hard and try to improve, reducing the number of errors to a minimum" he told the Gazzetta dello Sport.

"We have to stay focused because the championship is still very long, and very treacherous."