Verona-Naples, Spalletti: «The time for words is over. Tomorrow’s result will say a lot about the championship final “
The Napoli coach presents the challenge with Tudor’s Scaligeri: “If we fail to put quality on it, we will need to demonstrate that we also have a body”
Db Genoa 29/08/2021 – Serie A football championship / Genoa-Naples / photo Daniele Buffa / Image Sport in the photo: Luciano Spalletti
The coach of Napoli Luciano Spalletti presents the challenge between Hellas Verona And Naples, valid for the twenty-ninth day of the Serie A championship. It will be played tomorrow, March 13, at 3 pm at the Bentegodi stadium. A complicated match, which the Azzurri have the obligation to win to immediately relaunch their ambitions after the home stop against Milan.
Osimhen said he believes in the Scudetto.
«The time for words is over, in the sense that we will then evaluate how much they have served in the end of this championship, or how much they have entered into ourselves. Tomorrow everything will be much simpler: it will be a very honest match, we will be there with our responsibilities, with our talent, with our fears. This match is worth a lot. We know it. The result of this match will tell us where our thoughts will go, because then a defeat could be fatal. So it’s all wrapped up in what we want to do with our football lives and our careers, in the sense of what the championship finale will be. The result of this match will say a lot “
Did Sunday’s match remove certainties from a tactical point of view?
“I’ve seen her more than I usually do. In the game I find that Milan, who will fight for the Scudetto all the way, came to play the game so that Napoli were not the real Napoli. So no, it didn’t take away any security. Especially at the beginning we did many things well done, then we were conditioned by this goal and the reaction was not the best we could have had. But it is a goal that has been repeated, sometimes, during the season: you have to guard the limit in the area on the rejected, on the inactive balls. It had happened to us before. Unfortunately it is part of us, because of our quality we are less interested in the dirt to be used in the game and more oriented towards the technique, the quality. Tomorrow’s game, if we fail to build on our sense of team building, we will need to show that we also have a body. If technique is not enough, we must be available for physical confrontation, our opponent is an opponent who is well trained by Tudor, who has shown that he is a great coach. Verona is good at daring battle but also has a tactical, team, game-building quality “
Some players are not at their best, with tiredness, muscle overloads and more. Can Spalletti give a signal to the team through some choices? You have always explained to us that it is difficult to find a balance with Osimhen and Mertens together, but – to give an example – can trying it be useful to give a shock?
«We have recovered the squad available, even if something always happens to us like Meret (luck continues to be in credit with us), so now it is easier to make some choices. Of course, it may be that we are going to change something here at the end because we have more players available, because the injured have made a correct preparation to be able to do more minutes … so, yes, what you are correct is correct. nut. I usually have pretty clear training when I get to the end of the week. In this case, I carry a doubt here until tomorrow. I only have one. On the tactical aspects: you have treated me fairly well this year (he is addressing journalists, ed) so I am grateful, you were honest enough, maybe we will take a moment to speak well beyond the press conferences. When playing with two halfbacks and a playmaker the half has two possibilities: he can lower himself in the defenders’ line or get up if marked to take away the marker and receive. Rising five or six meters he goes to meet the ball and there is the man who comes to mark him. He takes him away and the other half comes to pick her up, getting up and going to be a midfielder. It’s a natural thing, like the trocar that drops to the median line to receive. These three players here rotate easily, they become low vertex and two middle ones, become high vertex and two middle ones… and they can be all three. Fabian Ruiz scored several goals playing as a halfback, but why? Because in the flow of the action he goes to play the mezzala. Starting with the low medians or with only one median changes little “
«If Lobotka’s short dribble is compatible with the vertical Napoli seen at the beginning of the season? But yes. You can’t always do the same thing. If they attack you in my opinion it is even better, then this “manhunt”, this continuous pressure, can dare to bother some players. It is a difficulty but it leaves some space behind you and if you use this tactic here it is clear that you have to be more vertical. It’s okay to dribble but you have to go and play there. If it leaves you superiority in your own half and gets carried away, it’s different. You have to play. Is it all about being able to dare a verse to one’s reading, starting with that of the opponent? “