Luciano Spalletti explains why he so rarely rotates the Napoli squad and makes only one forced change against Atalanta this evening. ‘It’s difficult to change.’
It kicks off at the Stadio Diego Armando Maradona at 17.00 GMT.
The Partenopei suffered only two Serie A defeats all season, 1-0 to Inter in January and 1-0 at home with Lazio last week.
Despite that setback, Spalletti only makes one change from the starting XI and that is forced upon him, Matteo Politano in for injured Hirving Lozano.
“I confirm the same line-up because we had a few days to work between games and still have five substitutions, so now games are played with 16 players,” Spalletti told DAZN.
The coach in general hardly ever rotates his team, to the point that this week someone turned an apartment building into a page of Panini stickers showing the now traditional starting XI.
With a 15-point lead at the top of the Serie A table and the Champions League Round of 16 coming up against Eintracht Frankfurt, most coaches would be rotating today.
“There are also those who are accustomed to starting and might struggle to find the right tempo, while others who are used to coming on and wouldn’t be too sure about how to approach it differently. It’s difficult to change.”