Luciano Spalletti was ready for a tough test in Napoli’s upcoming Serie A clash with second place Atalanta.
The Partenopei currently sit five points clear of Gian Piero Gasperini’s side at the top of the league table and will be desperate to win in Bergamo tomorrow to further extend their gap at the top. Napoli have already booked their spot in the Champions League Round of 16 and look to be one of the most exciting teams in Europe this season.
Speaking in a press conference, Spalletti first discussed what kind of risks await in the upcoming Atalanta clash.
“Many risks tomorrow, they have good players who make a very good collective, it will take the awareness of being strong even if we come out of Anfield with this certainty.
“What we always say, we will need quality and physical strength, they are well created and then there is Gasp who is a veteran of the terrible kind.”
He looked ahead of the Champions League draw and which teams he’d like Napoli to avoid.
“It’s a wrong game to prefer one or the other because then you always have to put quality into the games and you have to believe that it always depends on your strength. We don’t want to play easier matches, we want difficult matches and to have the strength to face them.”
The Italian coach touched on what disadvantages Napoli may face during the World Cup break later this month.
“I don’t see any, we all have to go through it, some have an extra player and then we will evaluate if without playing top level matches the condition of some will drop while those who go there will play but will have higher fatigue.
“Individual evaluations will be made. From our point of view we do not fear that period, we have a healthy team, players who know how to manage themselves and who know how to put in professional quality.
“To be 100% professional you need correct behaviour off the pitch and we have players who are their own coaches.”
Spalletti spoke about if Napoli could be considered a big club now and what beating Atalanta would mean.
“You have to get respect, they hardly give it to you.
“I was afraid of the match at Anfield, I had already been there and it’s one of the teams we watch all the time because they give the idea of where football is going and so the players did well even if we conceded something in the last few minutes, but for the peace of mind of the result now earned.
“In Bergamo a test that is very similar, it would be the confirmation of the important steps forward because there too there is stadium, team, structure, game, all the components, but I’m calm because the team trained very well yesterday, we don’t have any players disguised as our players, we have them all correct.”
Finally, Spalletti commented on what kind of match Napoli would play against the Bergamo outfit.
“There is not just one thing, the pitch is so big that there are always multiple solutions. We will have to do everything, interpret the changes in the same game, and we have seen that the team knows how to play with an open mind and knows how to behave in different situations.”
Great coach but he made his first mistake at Anfield. And his words here, that he was worried about that game, showed that he went into the game with the wrong mentality, playing with two defensive midfielders instead of his usual one (Ndembe ove Zielenski) and playing for the draw. Had the game gone another five minutes they would have been knocked into second place. Why not play with the same attitude as the other games? In that game he never attacked with more then two OShimen and Kvaratskhelia.
Great coach but he made his first mistake at Anfield. And his words here tell us he was worried about that game, showed that he went into the game with the wrong mentality, playing with two defensive midfielders instead of his usual one (Ndembe over Zielenski) and playing for the draw. Had the game gone another five minutes they would have been knocked into second place. Why not play with the same attitude as the other games? In that game he never attacked with more then two OShimen and Kvaratskhelia.