Sarri: 'Napoli fits and starts'

By Football Italia staff

Maurizio Sarri felt Napoli had some “dips in concentration” against Chievo and explained how he’ll introduce the new signings.

The hosts made short work of third-placed Chievo, securing a 2-0 victory with Manolo Gabbiadini and Marek Hamsik goals.

“I started Gabbiadini because I hoped that he would find the goal and he found it,” Sarri told Mediaset Premium and Sky Sport Italia.

“The substitution with Arek Milik was not because he was doing badly, I simply wanted someone who would attack the space and hold up the ball, as the team was getting too deep.

“We still have some dips in concentration and that is something we really need to work on, because it is not acceptable. I saw errors of laziness and superficiality during the games against Genoa and Chievo.”

Sarri has been rotating the squad, but still hasn’t given debuts to Nikola Maksimovic, Marko Rog, Emanuele Giaccherini or Amadou Diawara.

“I have used 18 players so far and hopefully after the break for international duty we’ll have players like Maksimovic and Rog ready. Let’s not forget Maksimovic was a deadline day signing and Rog didn’t start training with us until September 9.

“Giaccherini will soon be at our disposal and can play, as he’s been with us for 10 days. It is not easy to get into the tactical movements and mechanisms of this team. (Piotr) Zielinski worked with me at Empoli, so he already knows the drill.

“Kalidou Koulibaly has improved a great deal, but still has margins to get much, much stronger. Raul Albiol is fundamental for us back there and sees a lot of the ball.

“It makes a Coach enormously pleased to see Christian Maggio really get into the system and this season he has made very few mistakes. It’s not easy for a 34-year-old player to embrace such a different style of football that he’s not accustomed to.”

Napoli are the only unbeaten side in Serie A and also won their Champions League opener away to Dynamo Kiev.

“The team has done well in these seven games and the sensation is that we can get a lot better in terms of performance. We are doing different things to last season, as the side has some really impressive flashes. For the moment that’ll do, but we can extend those flashes and have to improve our mentality.”

Sarri was asked about a statement released by President Aurelio De Laurentiis this week, complaining that there should be no “excuses” after the Coach criticised referees.

“I get the sensation the President never talked about the Scudetto, but about Europe. He talked about a Scudetto dream for Napoli and a team that fights to be competitive on many levels.

“We don’t have a big difference in viewpoints. I did not attack the referees. This controversy erupted where there was none.”

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