The Napoli coach keeps his attention high in view of the match against Empoli, scheduled for Saturday at 6pm. Big congratulations to Zanetti’s team and to the Tuscan club. On the climate of euphoria that surrounds the team, Spalletti uses a particular comparison: “You need to have blacksmith glasses, look only ahead. There is no superstition, only the seriousness of the work”.
“Today we have to be good at ‘mechanising’ the importance of these matches in our heads, without considering other things. It’s like when you wear blacksmith glasses: you don’t see anything from the side, you only see what’s in front of youthis is what is needed, looking only at Empoli”. He said it the Napoli coach Luciano Spalletti in the press conference before tomorrow’s away match in Tuscany, overshadowing Frankfurt’s success in the Champions League and the festive atmosphere around his team, leaders in the league with a fifteen-point lead over the second. “The important thing – he said – is that there is no need to confuse work and superstition. No superstition, just work to do. You have to put up a panel after the Frankfurt evening and move on. Then if someone already wants to buy pastries and sparkling wine, do it: we do it today on Rrahmani’s birthday, but here we only work in a serious and correct way”. Certainly, his team is admired not only in Italy but also in Europe Spalletti replies as follows: “I don’t know if Napoli can become an international model from Italy. Our approach is to play good football, it’s part of our characteristics to get results and the compliments are nice, I read them”. On the rotations, however, he replies: “The turnover depends on the team you have. See if you have strong players and then make assessments day by day. If you have Di Lorenzo what are you looking for? If he always does the same things it is useless to find a replacement. Osimhen when he seems dead in the 80th minute he does 100 meters in apnea, I saw him do something at the end of the game to run back to lend a hand to the defense on the opponent’s corner kick. There are super elements like them and like Lobotka and then there are others who are not the same, there are those who need to recover after 3-4 full games, because when you accumulate kilometers you have to take a break.”
“Delicate game, Empoli has a game that comes from afar”
A difficult match for the Napoli coach, who keeps his guard up, especially looking at Empoli’s game, which put more than one big player in difficulty: “It’s a very delicate match due to their precise tactical geometry, we will have to expand their compactness. They have a way of playing that comes from afar, they know how to play very well on the pitch, they have strong playersvery strong like Vicario, by now everyone is talking about them, Parisi, Baldanzi, they are players that we will find ourselves next year in the big teams competing for the top rankings and they already know how to behave on the pitch, then there is the experience of Luperto that we had and he had to play continuously, all signs of the difficulty of the match and we will have to be good”
“Grateful to Empoli, football is played there”
Fine words from Spalletti for Empoli, the team in which he played as a player and which launched him as a coach: “I started from there and I am very grateful to Empoli. In football we are constantly looking for models from which to take something and to work correctly we need to learn and in those parts there is the possibility to see how football is played. There are many ideas on how to play football and a future vision. I was favored to work there with that approach, 7 years between coach and footballer, 20 as a fan, I’ve had benefits and along the way new experiences are gained and they have allowed me to get here,” added Spalletti.