Empoli manager Guido Pagliuca has urged his players to take lessons learned from recent setbacks into their weekend clash with Carrarese.

The Azzurri‘s bid to make an immediate return to the top division started positively enough with a 3-1 home victory over Padova. But it has been downhill since with defeat at Reggiana, a home draw with Spezia and last weekend’s 4-0 defeat at the hands of Pescara.

That hammering last Sunday left Empoli with the worst defence in the league – nine goals conceded in four games – and alarm bells were ringing doubly loud given it was goalless with just over 20 minutes left to play.

As expected, Pagliuca made a raft of changes for the midweek Coppa Italia trip to Genoa, where they went down 3-1 to make it four matches without a win in all competitions.

Despite the result on Thursday, Pagliuca said: “It leaves me with something positive, it confirms our desire to grow. The team is very young. We make mistakes that cost us dearly, like with the goals in Pescara, but also Genoa. The second and third goals were avoidable.

“We have to work and improve, but I have a group of serious players who want to get out of this situation.”

Carrarese had no midweek cup distraction having fallen at the first hurdle against Udinese in mid-August but, like Sunday’s opponents, they are also putting together an unwanted run with no wins.

Since kicking off the campaign by beating Spezia they have drawn with Padova and Catanzaro before losing by the odd goal in seven at home to Avellino last time out.

But striker Nikola Sekulov is looking forward to the derby. He said: “The next match is against a very strong team fresh from the top flight. It will be a derby and will certainly be a more intense match than the others. We are aware of the difficulties that await us.”

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