Napoli have collected more point away than at home and Kalidou Koulibaly has urged his teammates to improve their performances at the Stadio Maradona: ‘Our fans don’t deserve this…’
The Senegal international insisted that he still believes in the Serie A title despite a 3-2 loss against Fiorentina yesterday.
The Partenopei have won just three of their last nine games at the Stadio Maradona, collecting one draw and five defeats, the last one against the Tuscans yesterday. Vincenzo Italiano had already beaten Napoli away in January in a Coppa Italia Round of 16 clash.
Oddly, Napoli are the best away team in Serie A this season with 37 points in 16 games (11 wins, four draws and just one defeat). They have scored 31 goals away from the Stadio Maradona, conceding 12.
Their trend is very different at home, where they lost five games out of 16, collecting just 29 points. Juventus, Milan, Lazio, Fiorentina, Roma and Inter have more than the Partenopei, who have scored 27 goals and conceded 14 at the Stadio Maradona.
There can be multiple factors behind the Azzurri’s disappointing results at home: from the pressure coming from fans to the lack of experience highlighted by some Serie A pundits, including Juventus and Italy legend Alessandro Del Piero.
“We wanted to win at all costs,” Koulibaly told DAZN yesterday.
“Now we need to prepare for the game with Roma and I still believe we can it [win the title]. We won’t look at the others, but we’ll only focus on ourselves.”
The Partenopei host the Giallorossi next Monday, but given the circumstances, it may not be a huge advantage to face José Mourinho’s side at home.
I have never understood the logic of choosing a captain based on seniority or whether they are homegrown.
Surely it should be based on character, determination, fortitude, leadership skills and communication?
Insigne has always had a tendency to crack under pressure at the most crucial moments. He is a weak leader. When faced with adversity, his game falls apart and his body language is awful.
Koulibaly comes across as a much stronger character. It’ll be interesting to see how the team performs with him as captain next season.
Sorry but being 2 (Milan) or 3 (Inter) pts off the top with a further 18 pts to play for does not signal that a title is lost.
All media spin, just like every week there’s a new “favourite for the title”. A few twists and turn could still happen and all 3 teams are still in it. And still not writing off Juve completely either as another draw for Milan or Inter and a win for Juve and they are right back in the mix.
Will go down to the wire.
Good point Bruno. K2 would be much better and if I were Spalletti I would have made that change from the time that Toronto deal was confirmed.
Napoli always bottle it
@Nico
Napoli and Inter are level on points
I appreciate there is a game in hand, but the current league table shows just 2 points between the top 3
Napoli can afford to finish level with Milan also, as the H2H is the same and they have a better goal difference
A very long way to go in this title race
Just take a moment to look at Milan’s upcoming fixtures…
@Adi
Napoli rarely have had a title to lose, they can come up short but to say they “always bottle it” is just unfair
Would you say the same of Milan this year? that they bottled it if Napoli win the title? Doubt it