The Napoli coach: “We are demonstrating that we have enthusiasm, desire, determination. We must never lose them because they are the qualities that made us win the scudetto, now we must try to defend it despite long-term injuries”
Aurelio De Laurentiis’ immediate reaction is one of sincere gratitude towards Antonio Conte. “Great victory for a group led by a true leader” wrote the president at the final whistle on “Apart from everything, I’m happy for the boys because it’s a helmet moment, maintaining ourselves at this standard in my opinion is incredible. We must continue to make a virtue of necessity, we move forward united and compact and we have shown it, beating Atalanta, Qarabag and now Roma, winning in a convincing way, we have sent a message to ourselves: if we want, we can”, continued the coach.
the analysis
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Conte’s analysis shifted to what the pitch said. “Certainly coming to Rome and testing personalities like ours, they defend forward, it wasn’t easy. It’s an excellent team. I asked the boys to look the opponent straight in the eye right from the start, they did it and I’m very happy about it. However, we are living in a moment of great difficulty because many players are unavailable and all this will last for a while yet. I’m not worried, but I hope that the players who are there now don’t fail, because otherwise the situation would be even more serious. The group responded to the great, we had to change the game system, returning to the scheme we had adopted at the beginning.”
right path
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“They said McTominay was sacrificed, but he is a box-to-box midfielder and in my opinion this is his role” Conte observed about the Scot. In any case, there aren’t that many choices, also considering Gilmour’s unavailability. “Elmas generally plays as a ten-man but if necessary he can be deployed further back. Vergara becomes an option when another of the midfielders gets injured. We are demonstrating that we have enthusiasm, desire, determination. We must never lose them because they are the qualities that made us win the scudetto, now we must try to defend it despite the long-term injuries.”
stopover
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With such a relaxed atmosphere, Conte returned to his journey during the last break of the championship. No case, obviously. “In England it’s normal to go away, at Chelsea and Tottenham it’s standard practice, I didn’t even ask for it. There are months in which we always play, there’s nothing strange, I always will. The pressure and preparation for the match takes away energy, we need a breath of fresh air and it’s also good for those who stay in Castel Volturno” he concluded.
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