Luciano Spalletti saw a ‘superlative’ Napoli performance for the first half-hour against Torino and explained what makes Kvicha Kvaratskhelia ‘stratospheric.’
The Partenopei picked up where they left off before the break for international duty, top of the Serie A table and notching up a sixth consecutive victory in all competitions.
Andre-Frank Zambo Anguissa bagged a brace in the opening 15 minutes, followed by a Kvicha Kvaratskhelia solo strike.
Torino fought back with Antonio Sanabria and had several second half chances, as well as more possession, but could not chip away further at that lead.
“We were superlative in the opening half-hour, but then didn’t manage to maintain that standard, also because Torino managed to make it into a man-on-man battle all over the field,” Spalletti told DAZN.
“It was very difficult to free players between the lines under that press, almost impossible if you don’t have the players with the right characteristics.
“If you have a player like Anguissa, you train in a different way. Today we needed an exchange so we could send players running into space.”
Before the goal, Spalletti had been shouting at Kvaratskhelia to stop going so wide.
“I told him off because there was the possibility to play in a more advanced role. Torino were keeping their wing-backs very high indeed and he continued to remain wide, so I wanted him more towards the centre.
“He did well in the second half. Kvara has this extraordinary ability to play on the right or left foot, his versatility makes him stratospheric.”