Luciano Spalletti wants his squad to impress against Milan tomorrow despite the injury crisis.
Napoli sit two points behind the Rossoneri in the table and a victory tomorrow evening at the San Siro would see them rise to only four points behind league leaders Inter.
Speaking to gathered reporters in a press conference earlier today, Spalletti first discussed the injury crisis currently plaguing his squad, saying “we can win the game with those we have at our disposal, we play it with the aim of bringing home the three points.”
On the topic of motivating his players, Spalletti detailed “what did I say, we have to stop a bit too. I don’t accept the game of injuries and who’s missing. In these moments we need examples, we need to let examples speak, we need runs, courage, solutions.
“Tomorrow we have 16-17 players in the squad available, so that’s enough to go and play games against anyone. It’s clear that if it gets worse every time who has to play… don’t worry about the minutes you could have played, show your value now.
“We go with what we need, then it is clear that we want to be ambitious and it depends on us, to get certain things then sometimes may not depend on us because things happen but the behaviour needed is clear even if football is sometimes so dramatic that in a moment you cancel out all the weekly work but that will happen once in our favour and once against.”
The former Roma coach was happy to be back from suspension, nothing “I know that I created problems for the players by getting sent off, I can’t do without them, when someone is missing I’m in difficulty and uncomfortable, I want them all close, and I know how important everyone’s presence is.
“I didn’t do the right thing and I punished the team in these two games and the responsibility for the two defeats is mine and it won’t happen again because I was pained to see it from the outside.”
He did not want to discuss the departure of Kostas Manolas and the lack of defenders in the squad, saying “the story of Manolas concerns the relationship between him and the club, it’s with those who are there that we can aspire to win the game, so I don’t talk about Manolas.
“Seeing him happy at the Olympiacos presentation makes me happy for him, for the rest we have needs for the pitfalls that can happen to you. The observations you make, let alone if we don’t make them, now the market is closed and this is the squad we have at the moment.”
Again touching on the lack of defenders, Spalletti highlighted that “yes, but I don’t have to make these considerations here, I like all the players in the squad but if you dry it out something is missing, and it has to be put back together.”
He touched on the absences in the Napoli squad. “Mario Rui is not in the squad, neither are Fabian, Insigne, Osimhen, Koulibaly of course. It’s quicker to say who is there.” He laughed.
The Napoli coach commented on what he expects from Milan in tomorrow’s match. “I expect the team I’ve seen in the last two years, with the work done by Pioli, with a clear way of staying on the pitch as well as the choices of the individual champions he has at his disposal.
“I don’t want to play against struggling teams, I want to play against strong teams, because Napoli are a team that can play against strong teams, I don’t need to make others worse to show my strength. We have to play as a strong team tomorrow, alive, Vesuvius must not be a postcard but we have to have it inside us to do what we need to do.”
Speaking about talisman Lorenzo Insigne’s concerns about not being understood, he said “Only a coach who has lost his mind could give up on someone with his qualities, he is a good captain of a team, it should never be taken as the best possible because every opportunity can be the right one to become stronger.
“He seemed to me from the start in line with the figure I imagined from the outside. He’s a player who has a heart, even if he wanted to play from the start and I expected that, then there’s me making a mistake and asking him for 70 minutes.
“I took a bit of advantage of his availability, it’s a quality of his to be there and help but I had to evaluate if there were evaluations that led to being able to play those 70 minutes as he wants to do, but I put my own spin on it and he performed below his potential.”
He discussed the team’s good performances even in the negative results, noting “we lost a few too many balls that cost us runs, metres, balance, the last one was the game in which we lost the most balls this season, we can put it as a cause and you have to keep in mind the lost ball or the lost counter because then a goal can be the result of a single mistake but the lost games are the sum of all our mistakes.
“You never lose because of a single moment, but always because of everyone’s attitude.”
Finally, Spalletti spoke about what he has asked of his squad ahead of tomorrow’s match against Milan, “we did at times what I asked. I feel good with myself, I have to work as if I were always the Napoli coach, as well as the players must think that they will have only one shirt, only in this way you go deeper in behaviours and thoughts.
“We have made some mistakes, but we have also confirmed others done very well, on the moments we are in debt, I am convinced and it does not mean that tomorrow we will be compensated. We are what we do.”