Maurizio Sarri insists his “only doubt is whether to start three strikers or four” as Napoli go all-out with Real Madrid. “I won’t accept a timorous approach.”
The first leg in the Champions League Round of 16 kicks off on Wednesday at 19.45 GMT at the Bernabeu.
The decider is at the Stadio San Paolo on Tuesday March 7.
“My only doubt is whether to start three strikers or four,” shrugged the Coach in a Press conference when asked if he would change his attacking approach at the Bernabeu.
Maurizio Sarri insists his “only doubt is whether to start three strikers or four” as Napoli go all-out with Real Madrid. “I won’t accept a timorous approach.”
The first leg in the Champions League Round of 16 kicks off on Wednesday at 19.45 GMT at the Bernabeu.
The decider is at the Stadio San Paolo on Tuesday March 7.
“My only doubt is whether to start three strikers or four,” shrugged the Coach in a Press conference when asked if he would change his attacking approach at the Bernabeu.
“It’s not as if changing two or three players would suddenly make us a team that sits back and soaks up pressure against Real Madrid in our own penalty area.
“I’d have to change 11 players and even that wouldn’t work, because I am incapable of playing like that. So we will field the most attacking line-up possible, as long as we keep enough balance and stamina to defend too.
“Determination and gall are indispensable here. We’d be running a risk anyway, so playing a timorous game would be counter-productive.
“We must have the wonderful madness to play our football regardless. We need to realise what level we’re at against the top teams in the world.
“The team must think it’s wonderful to come here and play against Real Madrid. It’ll go the way it goes!
“It is important to play here, don’t get me wrong, but it’s just as clear that last week we played in a stadium with 1,500 people. It was a long and rational process that took me here and that takes the edge off the emotional impact.
“It is gratifying for me to have started my career so low down the ladder. It’s a formative experience, because you see everything in the lower leagues. There you either improve or you die. I think it’s an experience everyone should go through.
“Of course there are exceptions, as Pep Guardiola – who in my view is the best Coach out there right now – inadvertently did damage. His experience of going straight from great player to winning Coach made many clubs think they could take the same path and hurt Coaches who were thrown into certain situations too early into their careers.”
Napoli have paradoxically done better on their travels in the Champions League this season than at the Stadio San Paolo.
“We had some difficult away games, as in Besiktas that was not an easy task. I think my team can do just as well away as at home. We had dominated at home to Besiktas and made such stupid mistakes that we ended up losing it. We had the wrong approach with Dinamo Kiev and that should be taken into account too.
“I hear people talk of the difficulties of playing at the Bernabeu, but it’s only natural it will take on this mystical aura if Real Madrid have put out amazing teams over the last 40 years. That’s because of the teams, though, not the stadium.
“We tried to prepare all we could, but there aren’t many antidotes to pure talent, otherwise Diego Maradona, Zinedine Zidane and Cristiano Ronaldo wouldn’t have existed. And that’s only right, because otherwise you may we as well play football on the PlayStation.
“These are players who can change a game at any moment and that’s something you cannot prepare for.
“What I absolutely will not accept is that we lose because we are timorous. If we go out, I want it to be because Real Madrid played better, not because we were afraid to stick our heads round the door.”
Sarri was asked if he will change his zonal marking technique for Sergio Ramos on set plays.
"He scored seven goals this season when man-marked, so that hasn't worked…"
Diego Armando Maradona is in Madrid to cheer on Napoli and will be in the stands tomorrow, but Sarri invites him to the locker room too.
“I hope he’ll have time to speak to the team before the game. Facing a legend who has faith in you and says you can put in a great performance, that puts fuel in the tank.
“Clearly I consider myself fortunate to be here, that’s evident. I’d say my career path is 50-50, I am half fortunate and half earned my place here with years of hard work and graft. When I see people getting ready to go for a shift at the factory, of course I consider myself very lucky.”