Antonio Conte was ‘moderately satisfied’ with a 0-0 draw away to Juventus and explained his change of Napoli tactics was inspired by Scott McTominay and Billy Gilmour.
The Partenopei continue their positive run of results after that dismal opening 3-0 defeat to Verona, as three straight wins were capped off by this goalless stalemate in Turin.
The visitors arguably had the best scoring opportunities with McTominay and Matteo Politano forcing saves, while Teun Koopmeiners and Andrea Cambiaso fired off target from promising positions with 65 per cent possession.
Giving former Manchester United midfielder McTominay his first start also inspired Conte to change the Napoli tactical system to a 4-3-3.
“The idea came to me because on the last day of the transfer market we got McTominay and Gilmour, plus brought Folorunsho back into the squad. The midfield then became a pretty strong group of players and we had to make the most of that,” Conte told DAZN.
“We had already started working on it last week against Cagliari, alternating between the systems, and 3-4-2-1 will be useful, but I also concentrated on this tactic. It fits this team, they can do it, let’s say I was a little concerned about our defending with this approach, but we did very well.
“Instead, we can do better upfront with the channels to get those one-on-one situations. I realise the difficulty of getting a draw away to Juventus, a team that was 18 points away from Napoli last season. I had asked for consistency and it was a good performance in terms of focus, but we can and must do better when we have the ball, as there were some favourable situations.”
Napoli still finding form under Conte
Conte was asked if he had changed the system for this particular match in order to limit the Juventus wide men, but he insisted that was not the case.
“In all honesty, if I had been trying to neutralise Juve, we’d have kept with the 3-4-2-1 formation. A good coach adapts to the qualities of his own players and lets them develop their ideas. If we had wanted to be more defensive, we’d have had five defenders, but the idea was not to allow Juve to dominate the initiative.”
Lukaku had a great start to his Napoli career, but struggled today and was substituted when the coach replaced the entire front three.
“I think we did it well with the midfielders. Romelu still needs to get into the kind of shape that I require. I chose this system because I feel that with the squad at my disposal, this is the best approach,” added Conte.
“We worked on this system, I am moderately satisfied with the defence, but we could’ve done far better in attack and I think we had the clearest scoring opportunities. I realise it is not easy to play at the Allianz Juventus Stadium, which is why I made this stadium my fortress when I was here.”
Goalkeeper Alex Meret went off injured in the first half, replaced by Elia Caprile, as he was suffering from a muscular issue.
Forza Napoli.