Napoli coach Luciano Spalletti admitted he’s ‘enjoying’ the positive moment but takes nothing for granted against Spartak Moscow and revealed Hirving Lozano ‘is very motivated’ to return to his best shape.
The Partenopei are flying high under the guidance of Spalletti, but the new coach believes he has been helped by the fact that he can make additional changes during the game.
Since the introduction of five substitutions during the coronavirus pandemic, Spalletti said the ‘life of the games’ has been prolonged ahead of the Europa League match on Thursday.
“If you look at the last game, I think that the new thing about the five substitutions has lengthened the life of the football match,” Spalletti said at the Partenopei.
“Consequently, to be safe, you have to score three goals. While before with two goals it became a difficult result to turn around, now, with five substitutions you are never safe.
“That’s why we had the space and the possibility of going to attack the defensive line of Cagliari, when they tried to do something, some situations emerged that we had to exploit.
“It’s a bit of a reflection that was shown to the team, which we talked about.”
Spalletti believes the younger coaches in Serie A are trying to make the Italian game more European.
“The young coaches who are there now, try to bring the game closer to a European football,” he said. “Pressing high, winning the ball back in the opposition’s half, building from the back.
“The principles that benefit the possibility of scoring more goals. But the key thing is to put three, four players in the attacking department 20 minutes from the end, to get flashes of speed and technique to overturn a result in a few minutes.”
Hirving Lozano, who suffered an injury to the eye during the Copa America, has played in all six Serie A games but has only started two of them and contributed one goal in the process.
“He’s a great lad, a person of unique delicacy,” Lozano said. “But everyone in here has those skills and those characteristics.
“He’s doing well. He’s a bit delayed improving his conditions due to the accident with the national team.
“However, I see him very motivated, smiling. Among other things, I think he’s in the right environment, like [Victor] Osimhen.
“Naples seems to me a suitable environment for players like Lozano and Osimhen.”
Spalletti believes the players recovering from injuries are doing better.
“I see them well. Personalised training sessions have been done because Sinatti is a coach who pays attention to details,” he said. “The availability of the players themselves makes the situation complete.
“When you are there alone, nobody sees you, there are no cameras to make what you have to do more difficult. Here, on the other hand, you can do well that part that is a little more hidden, which makes the difference.”
Spalletti said he was ‘sorry’ to have excluded Faouzi Ghoulam from the list but stressed the Partenopei are ready for the Europa League match against Spartak Moscow.
“We are all ready,” Spalletti said. “I’m sorry to have left Ghoulam out of the list, we did it because he was injured at the moment, and it was a rule.
“He’s one of those who dictate the rhythms, the times of the whole group. When you have players like this, who are coaches on the pitch, my job becomes easier.”
Spalletti admitted he’s a bit like ‘a farmer’ but added that he’s enjoying the positive moment after six wins in six Serie A games.
“I’m enjoying myself. I’m good when the game ends and we have won,” he said. “Sometimes they say I’m a farmer and it’s true, I’m a bit of a farmer.
“And for us farmers, dreaming is never prudent. We look at tomorrow’s harvest because if the season changes and you don’t harvest, it’s useless to have long-term dreams.
“It depends on the season that passes tomorrow and what we are able to bring home. We are thinking about what we have ahead, what happens tomorrow, what we can collect tomorrow.
“Sunday is a bit further ahead and we don’t know what will happen in the next few days.”
Spalletti revelead he might make some changes ahead of the match at the Stadio Diego Maradona tomorrow.
“It’s a situation according to the next one,” he said. “Those three to four players that we can save to have fresh legs in the next match will be saved.
“Three, four, four and a half….”
But the coach is not afraid that the newfound confidence will turn into complacency.
“You must have confidence because you have to say things to each other freely,” he said. “If there’s someone who can have their say because they see that it’s one more solution, they can say it and if they say it is correct, we take note of it and we all go to perform.
“The coach is not the intelligent one. The intelligent one is the one who says intelligent things. The essential thing is that there’s no presumption, that the players want to share this moment in which everyone makes themselves available and does what needs to be done.”
But the coach doesn’t take anything for granted against Spartak Moscow and felt the team didn’t deserve to lose the first game.
Spalletti has experience with Zenit St Petersburg in Russia and knows what to expect.
“Spartak lost the first match and that could be a pitfall,” he said. “It might seem that they are a tame team, while as Insigne said before, they didn’t deserve to lose.
“If you happened to see that Legia Warsaw scored in the 90th minute, there’s something to open your eyes for.
“For them, this becomes a game to stay in play, if they lose this they are out. In Russia they care a lot about the European games. For them, there’s not possibility to take other competitors lightly.
“The Italians are an extra stimulus for them. They are the strongest of all to fight, because they are used to it, even for social difficulties. They are willing to sacrifice and fight.”