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Napoli-Pisa – Conte suffers more than expected, but in the end bends (3-2) the team excellently put on the field by Gilardino.

Conte against Pisa rotates his players less than expected, despite the hard-fought effort displayed by Napoli in Manchester to try to contain the impetuous progress of Guardiola’s team with one man down.

Napoli, Conte’s words

The coach of Napoli, Antonio Conte, commented on the victory to Sky.

Match
“It is never easy to win. We played against a physical team: they have pace and acceleration, in addition to an intensity that places them among the best in these statistics. When you have opponents who can withstand challenges, it becomes a problem. In the first half, we struggled to make diagonals with the midfielders: but we are happy to have achieved four victories, there are six-seven teams of excellent level.”

Lucca
“I hugged Lucca because he is working hard and entered the field well. When I talk about calmness and preach prudence, I say it for this: we, unlike others, do not have a settled squad to go through a season with different commitments like the Champions League, the Coppa Italia, and the Supercoppa. The players come from different realities and find the Scudetto on their shirts: they play with high expectations. We, unlike others, have to work on the field to grow and improve, but sometimes you do not have time and experience is gained slowly. When I hear talk of a big transfer market, well, that’s another thing.”

Europe
“Certainly, by playing you gain experience and can train. For us, this season will be the most complex: in the squad there are 9 players, you are putting half a team with players coming from other realities. Patience is needed, accepting mistakes because the shirt weighs heavy. Compared to teams that play in Europe regularly, we are not settled. This brings physical and mental stress.”

Manchester
“You have to be good at high pressing and when the team makes you play low. Before Di Lorenzo’s expulsion, the game plan was visible. After 18 minutes, it is inevitable, you have to hope to defend yourself and bring home the result. However, everyone is starting to understand that there are different phases of the game: everyone comes to press you high, even City no longer has the same pressure as before. Even a coach like Guardiola, yesterday at Arsenal’s home, wanted to bring home the result.”

Then to DAZN.

Performance
“Starting with four wins is never easy for anyone, doing it gives us satisfaction. Before, I heard talk about the squad issue: I am repeating that we made signings because we had to fill a squad that did not exist before. Whether it is an important market or not is to be evaluated. We have taken players from different realities, they need time, as I have already said in the press conference. This will be the most complicated year for us because, unlike others who have already experienced the Champions League and had the squad ready, we find ourselves with many players who need to gain experience. This requires patience, understanding, and waiting for these players to grow because we cannot always play with the same eleven. We are taking risks in progress. If you put in nine players, it means you have put in half a team and therefore you will find difficulties, also because you have the Scudetto on your shirt.

Transfer market
“I am happy because Lucca is working hard, but he comes from a different reality. He needs to feel the new level. Training is also important because you train with high-level players. Patience is needed. When I hear people say ‘important transfer market’, I say important in terms of numbers because if you average out nine signings, even if you spend 150 million, it’s 15-20 million per player. Important players have a different cost, from 50-60-70 million. It’s a different thing. Lucca’s situation applies to all the others who have arrived this year from different realities. Lucca is eager to work and learn, it will be up to me and the staff to try to enhance their football knowledge. If you think we have taken players ready to play in the Champions League and everything, I say we have taken players who need time and time is not there, so we take risks. We took Hojlund who is young and was not playing at Manchester United.”

Spinazzola
“He had the tendon problem at the best moment of his career, when we won the Euros in 2021. But he has quality, he has physicality, if he stays focused for 98 minutes, he is a top player. In fact, he is playing.”

Standings
“We are looking at the journey. We have already put 12 points in the bag and this is important. It is important to have started on the right foot. Then we know very well that Milan has the structure of a team that played in the Champions League last year. Those who played in the Champions League or the Europa League have already structured squads, something Napoli did not have. I repeat: we have taken nine players and everything depends on the growth of these players who have arrived from different realities. We need calm, patience, and acceptance if sometimes mistakes are made.”

Good morning
“We have to see what he had, we will make evaluations. Hopefully it’s nothing serious, otherwise this boy will have to go get blessed.”

Antonio Conte’s celebration after Gilmour’s goal (Photo by Salvatore Fornelli)