Napoli-Lazio, Spalletti: “A bad evening, what a disappointment. Naive about the goal”

The first defeat against Maradona in the league, for Napoli, comes at the hands of Maurizio Sarri’s Lazio, the last coach before Luciano Spalletti to have really made the Neapolitans dream of the Scudetto. The environment remains very serene, the public applauded the Azzurri anyway after the adverse result, but the misstep remains. “There was a lot of regret upon returning from the changing rooms, it’s a game that went wrong and it was a bit unfortunate. Nobody lifted their hands from the wheel though, we had to have more quality without systematically going to the outside,” Spalletti explained to Dazn.

DEMERITS

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In any case, for Spalletti there are still some responsibilities of his team. “We put in less quality than usual – he continued – dribbling in the dirtiest way ever. We forced side outs because they didn’t give us lines of play. We were not very patient, without trying to free the halfback: both for us and for the opponents it was the position to climb. In the second half we tried to do the same things again with higher quality, there was some space to go inside the pitch. The goal was to try to trigger Lobotka to then play in the frontline, in the second half he succeeded more and better, the search was also correct but in terms of quality more had to be done. There was the possibility of making plays to overcome their defensive line, given that Lazio played very short”.

COMPLIMENTS

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If Napoli had some shortcomings from a technical-tactical point of view, the attitude was still appreciated by the coach. “I expected such an attitude from the Biancocelesti, they are very compact and always move as a block. We made choices in the worst way ever, but I’ve seen a good attitude, the right application and the will, and those are the key things. I didn’t see presumption, but the intention to play the game. Lazio defended well, they were lucky on Osimhen’s crossbar and we were naïve on Vecino’s goal with that central clearance on the edge of the box, because it’s very dangerous. Then the ball found that little corner… But I congratulate Vecino, he’s a great professional and a great footballer, well done. Did he cheat on me? I wouldn’t say, everyone has to do their job without thinking about the previous relationship” concluded Spalletti.