Gennaro Gattuso reiterates Napoli ‘need to be kept on their toes’ after a 1-0 win away to Bologna and explains why he punished two players.
A header from Victor Osimhen proved enough at the Stadio Dall’Ara, but there were some late scares when Bologna created several scoring opportunities.
Gennaro Gattuso reiterates Napoli ‘need to be kept on their toes’ after a 1-0 win away to Bologna and explains why he punished two players.
A header from Victor Osimhen proved enough at the Stadio Dall’Ara, but there were some late scares when Bologna created several scoring opportunities.
“I don’t like this talk of Scudetto and us having to kill teams off easily. Calm down. We are a strong team who can run into difficulty when we only play one half well,” Gattuso told Sky Sport Italia.
“This is a team that needs to be kept on their toes and at times, we still have some off days. When we get hammered, we need to react straight away.”
There was a surprise before kick-off, as Mario Rui and Faouzi Ghoulam were sent to the stands, a decision made by the coach as punishment for a poor attitude in training.
“They stayed in the stands, because they were jogging around in training yesterday. I brought them along anyway, because it’s too easy to just let them stay home and watch it on the couch.
“I don’t like what’s going on at the moment, there are too many people trying to teach me my job. People complained I didn’t play 4-2-3-1, then they want me to play 4-3-3. It’s my responsibility and I make the decisions.
“Dries Mertens has been struggling to score goals that he usually finishes easily. If we don’t kill games off, we struggle, because you can’t dominate a team for 90 minutes and then not score goals. We have to do more in the final third.”
Gattuso was also asked about the way he chooses between David Ospina and Alex Meret.
“Meret has improved a great deal in the way he plays out from the back, so they may well get 30-35 games each per season. I choose based on how the opposition tries to attack us.”
Finally, Gattuso was asked how he would react if they asked him whether Napoli were Scudetto contenders.
His response could not be published on a family site.