Sarri: 'Mertens among world's best'

By Football Italia staff

Maurizio Sarri set the Napoli ambitions after a 6-0 win over Benevento and called Dries Mertens “one of the best strikers in the world.”

The Belgian bagged a hat-trick in the Derby di Campania thrashing at the Stadio San Paolo.

“Clearly we asked the lads for a very different approach to the one seen in Ukraine,” Sarri told Mediaset Premium just days after a 2-1 Champions League defeat to Shakhtar Donetsk.

“They did well, played a first half of a very high level and then controlled the game without problems. It is the response we wanted.”

Napoli are still top of the table with a perfect record after four rounds, along with Juventus and Inter, but Sarri won’t listen to Scudetto talk.

“The objective is to play like we did in the first half today. I don’t intend to look too far into the future.”

The Coach was again asked why Mertens was on the bench in the Champions League loss to Shakhtar.

“Mertens is different in terms of characteristics to centre-forwards like Robert Lewandowski and Gonzalo Higuain, but when it comes to goals, he’s on the same level as one of the best strikers in the world. We never even considered letting him go.

“If the game against Shakhtar had remained in the balance, then Mertens coming off the bench would’ve been a decisive weapon in our arsenal, just as he was last season against Benfica. The problem was that this time we were 2-0 down.

“Marek Hamsik is improving and gave some positive signals. I did think of letting him take the second penalty, above all so he could get closer to the club record, but then they told me that a penalty didn’t really qualify, so I let our striker sate his hunger for goals instead.”

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