The coach’s analysis after the knockout in Turin: “The new arrivals? They have to grow, but if I say one thing it’s because I have some experience”
Second defeat in the championship, the first after a break for Antonio Conte since he took over as Napoli coach. The Azzurri fall against Torino, for the coach the responsibilities relate more to the management of the match than to the action which then led to Simeone’s goal. “Certainly in the first half we looked good so to speak, having possession and maybe even creating a couple of situations, but we limited ourselves. In the second half we put more energy into it and in the end we scored the goal ourselves, it’s not that there were any blunders but practically a rebound. Gilmour played a great game, then his touch set Simeone in motion. It wasn’t immediately due to some difficulties. We did a bit of everything, even if I congratulations to Torino.”
There is one clear fact, Napoli have conceded goals for seven games in a row. Conte links this problem to the offensive attitude of his game. “On a defensive level we play as a team and we always move into the opponent’s half of the pitch. We are the team that has the most ball possession and that leads the ball the most into the last third of the pitch. Then if you leave fifty metres, you also have to be good at defending them and this is the next step to take, duels must be accepted” observed the coach. The absences certainly had an impact, especially the last minute ones of McTominay and Hojlund. To a new question on the overall level of the squad and the summer transfer market, Conte preferred not to repeat himself. “I don’t want to go back to hackneyed topics. As a football man I think I have a minimum of experience as a former footballer and coach, they are simple concepts for those who know football and know that we want to build something. I don’t feel like repeating the same things, I have already expressed myself once. We have to think about working, our season passes through the growth of the new arrivals and it will be very important, we will find ourselves facing a match every three days and there is no time. We have to play and improve every time, I also have to have the patience to see these steps forward” he concluded.