Stanislav Lobotka reveals the extent of the problems within the Napoli squad this season, warning they ‘would’ve made even Pep Guardiola seem mediocre’ and ‘some players wanted to leave.’
The Partenopei achieved the most extraordinary triumph by winning the Scudetto under Luciano Spalletti in 2022-23 and also reached the Champions League quarter-finals for the first time in their history.
However, a year later they were languishing in 10th place in Serie A, out of Europe completely and having gone through three different coaches.
The third was Francesco Calzona, who is also Lobotka’s boss at international level with Slovakia, so the two are now reunited.
“It was not easy for him, but then I feel that the season was so bad we would’ve made even a coach like Pep Guardiola seem mediocre,” the midfielder told reporters in Slovakia.
“It wasn’t just about the coach, but the whole club, the players, quite simply last season everything went our way and this season it was the complete opposite.”
Same Napoli for Lobotka, very different results
Only Kim Min-jae effectively left from the first team that won the title, but it seems that was not entirely down to the players.
“The coach and director of sport left, some players wanted to leave and the club wouldn’t let them go. At the start of the season we were doing well, but then just the darkness fell upon us. We lost our way mentally.
“People expected us to play the same way we did the previous season, but so many things just didn’t work.”
Napoli went through Rudi Garcia and Walter Mazzarri before bringing in Calzona, in a job-share with his role for Slovakia.
“I think of all the coaches we had that season, we played the best football under Calzona, but at the end of the day it’s about results. We created lots of chances and didn’t score enough goals,” continued Lobotka.
“It was also psychologically damaging that we kept losing two or three games with goals conceded right at the end. The harder we tried, the worse it got.”
Antonio Conte has now been appointed to take over at Napoli, so will he face a similar situation?
“I don’t know him personally, but Conte had a great career. It won’t be a problem for me if we move to 3-5-2.”