Gennaro Gattuso admits “preparing to face Juventus gives you a headache” and the current Napoli coach has “copied and pasted” some of Maurizio Sarri’s tactical ideas.
It kicks off on Sunday at 19.45 GMT, click here for a match preview.
“This game represents a great deal for us. We want to give a sense of consistency to the performance three days ago,” said the coach in his press conference.
Gennaro Gattuso admits “preparing to face Juventus gives you a headache” and the current Napoli coach has “copied and pasted” some of Maurizio Sarri’s tactical ideas.
It kicks off on Sunday at 19.45 GMT, click here for a match preview.
“This game represents a great deal for us. We want to give a sense of consistency to the performance three days ago,” said the coach in his press conference.
The Partenopei have lost three of their four Serie A fixtures with him in charge, but did knock Coppa Italia holders Lazio out of the competition with a 1-0 result on Tuesday.
“Preparing to face Juventus gives you a headache. They play well, have so many champions, pass it around cleanly and you can see the influence of Maurizio Sarri.
“He is one of the best coaches in the world and built a perfect machine. I have great respect for Sarri, and will admit I did copy and paste some of his tactical ideas. I like the way he views football.
“There will be many fans at the San Paolo and it is our duty to put in a great performance to boost that enthusiasm. The atmosphere is an important strength for us to draw on and enthusiasm makes everything seem easier for us.
“What I want is for us to sniff out potential danger, work for each other and not let the opposition take control of the game. I saw many positives against Lazio and we need to follow that path.
“Juventus play in a different way to Lazio, as for example the Biancocelesti always have five men on the defenders, whereas Juve are more technical than physical. We must cover more passing lines, try to cut certain players out of the game. It’s far more complicated.
“We must try to stop the ball reaching those who play right behind the striker, block those who make the through runs. Unfortunately, there are quite a lot of players who fit that description.”
Kalidou Koulibaly, Dries Mertens, Faouzi Ghoulam and Kevin Malcuit are out of action, but Gattuso confirms Nikola Maksimovic should at least be back on the bench.
“Allan had the tests and there’s bruising, plus his son was just born and that is the most important thing for any father. Seeing as he couldn’t play anyway, I decided to send him home to Brazil to meet his baby. He was playing with pain-killers to get through, so hasn’t been well for a while.”
This makes it more likely that January signings Diego Demme and Stanislav Lobotka will get a chance to start.
“Demme is a player who makes everything simpler, as he moves well and can still improve his positioning. He is not particularly creative, but is linear and keeps things under control. His teammates know they can rely on him.
“The statistics show we concede a goal for every three attacking moves our opponents make, yet we have a very low conversion rate for changes. That shows. We need to be more determined, sometimes we practically gift goals.”
Gattuso is known for his man-management and passion, so has he prepared a pre-match pep talk for the players?
“I don’t prepare motivational speeches. Tomorrow, two-and-a-half-hours before kick-off, I open up my heart and my mind and let it all out.”
It remains to be seen how the Stadio San Paolo crowd will react to Sarri’s first visit back to Naples since joining their arch-rivals Juventus.
“We are professionals,” noted Gattuso. “I wrote important pages with Milan, but I would never say never to joining Inter. This is work, it’s wrong to talk about betrayal. Gonzalo Higuain and Sarri made history with this Napoli and I don’t think the word betrayal is right in these circumstances.”