Luciano Spalletti insists he is ‘fortunate’ to work with this Napoli squad, gives an injury update on Giovanni Simeone and Victor Osimhen ahead of the Champions League with Milan. ‘We need to evaluate carefully.’
The Partenopei shook off the shock of last week’s 4-0 home defeat to Milan by picking up a 2-1 victory away to Lecce this evening.
Giovanni Di Lorenzo had opened the scoring with a towering header, cancelled out by Federico Di Francesco before a stroke of luck on Antonino Gallo’s own goal, and the coach assured he didn’t need to do anything special to motivate his squad.
“I am fortunate to be dealing with players who know how to evaluate their behaviour as the games tick by,” Spalletti told DAZN.
“The captain’s armband really helped give even more responsibility to Di Lorenzo and it’s wonderful to see the way he behaves, both on the field and in the locker room. Only fortunate coaches have that at their disposal and he deserves all the best.
“The Stadio Via del Mare is a difficult place to play in and Lecce had good results against all the big clubs, as they are well-organised and give their best in important situations.
“I told Marco Baroni that we know his team now and it’s not easy to bring home points. We also had a few players not fully fit, so this is a result that gives us a sense of calm to prepare the next games.”
Cholito Simeone came off the bench as a substitute, but only lasted 17 minutes before limping out again with a right flexor issue behind his knee.
“We need to evaluate him carefully, it seemed to be muscular at first, then the knee, then above the knee. When he tried to come back on again, he felt that spot in the muscle harden and it was best not to risk any further.”
With Simeone not fully fit, the return of Osimhen from a muscular injury sustained on international duty with Nigeria becomes even more crucial in the Champions League against Milan.
The striker continues to reassure fans he will return and could even have featured today, but Spalletti warns they have to hold back his enthusiasm.
“Osimhen wants to play every game, but there are situations that need to be evaluated carefully. He really did run the risk of hurting himself badly and being ruled out for the rest of the season, so the medics were right to make him take some time out.
“Now we need to see if with a little strong physical activity the pressure on the muscles grows and how he reacts, because so far he has only done some basic jogging.
“It does become difficult without him, because he has this way of running into space, this physicality, he can draw everyone to him and therefore create the space for his teammates.”