Conte: “Too much criticism of Napoli. Lukaku? I would have expected a greeting”

Napoli enjoys what they have and what is rightfully theirs. A clear victory, without flaws, against a Cremonese team that was unable to put up any concrete resistance. The evening passed pleasantly at the Maradona, thanks to a complete performance by Antonio Conte’s team. “I had no doubt that the team had not lost their hunger. With Lazio we had 70% of ball possession and made twelve shots without hitting the target, nothing went right. Now there was desire, determination, revenge. After the last match there was a little too much criticism, it seemed excessive to me for a team that won a scudetto and a Super Cup in two years like in Maradona’s era. We are in second place and we are still missing several players like Di Lorenzo, Neres, Lukaku and Vergara. The season has been very difficult and I think being there is something really important, because we know the work that goes into it and we deserve to finish in the best possible way, making others talk. I know very well that communication is also important, maybe the others do it more completely than ours” observed the coach at the end of the match, interviewed by Dazn.

the usual suspects

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Aside from the blemish of the missed penalty, McTominay stood out as one of the best on the pitch. “Deploying Scott as a central midfielder is a situation that we had to force during the year because only he and Lobotka and, if necessary, Elmas were left. In my opinion that is his position, because he is a player who knows how to box-to-box, we also worked a lot in the construction phase. He manages to have more space, to arrive in the penalty area with the lights off, unlike when he plays more advanced because the opponents expect him more. Then we look for a way to get all the best players to play together.” Conte also had words of praise for Alisson. “He had a great performance, he is improving. Gutierrez also did well, he knew how to play coming onto the pitch. We are happy, we had fun and with these three points we are in second place waiting for the others. The players deserve to finish in the best possible way, it was tough for them too. Despite this, we were good at never losing our way” continued the coach.

disappointment

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Conte also spoke about Lukaku, although he did not have the opportunity to meet him when the Belgian met with the club at Castel Volturno. “I didn’t have the opportunity to speak to him, I know that one of our managers did. My office was there but no one knocked on the door and I was very disappointed because I would have expected a greeting or a message anyway. In these situations you try to understand everyone, the coach has to do it, even if no one makes an effort to understand the coach in this case”, he concluded with a hint of bitterness.