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Maurizio Sarri bemoans that Napoli are 'mentally spent'

Maurizio Sarri bemoans that Napoli are 'mentally spent'

  • Nima Tavallaey Roodsari (@NimaTavRood)
Napoli failed to capitalize on the opportunity to go top of the Serie A after playing a goalless draw at home at the Stadio San Paolo against Fiorentina.

Afterwards Partenopei coach Maurizio Sarri was not too disappointed when speaking to Premium Sport regarding the fixture: "Our first half was a little tense, we made more mistakes than usual, but in the second created many chances. We didn’t put the ball in the net, but did create the chances in the final third. It was a good performance, we were up against a Fiorentina side in good shape that countered dangerously and I see it as a comforting performance in terms of mentality, approach and once we shook off that initial tension, we had some really clear-cut chances."

Sarri continued by saying that: "We only have to worry when we don’t create chances, but now we are creating them. I was worried by Wednesday’s performance against Feyenoord, not this one. The best chances landed at the feet of Piotr Zielinski, who is not the kind of player who scores often. It’s the kind of game where if you win 1-0, everyone says Napoli have found themselves again. I saw intensity, tempo and fast passing in the second half. We went through a rough period, but today I saw that movement off the ball again and we just didn’t take any of the six or seven clear chances we created. Compared to the last few matches, we created opportunities with greater ease. Mentally we're one month older than the others in terms of tension given the qualifying round of the Champions League, so we've spent more mentally."

In conclusion Sarri spoke about individual players starting with Insigne: " who is undergoing treatment and we’ll see when he is able to resume training, but any date for a comeback I give you now would be a wild guess. Adam Ounas is a player with a lot of talent and a lot of issues, because French football is very different to what we see in Italy. We’re working on it, above all to improve his defensive movements."