Rafa Benitez criticised Napoli’s performance in their 2-0 defeat to Verona, particularly the lack of “intensity.”
Luca Toni’s brace gave Hellas a 2-0 result at the Stadio Bentegodi and now Napoli could lose third place too.
“You could say we didn’t start the first half well, or the second, and we paid a heavy price for that,” said the Coach in his Press conference.
Rafa Benitez criticised Napoli’s performance in their 2-0 defeat to Verona, particularly the lack of “intensity.”
Luca Toni’s brace gave Hellas a 2-0 result at the Stadio Bentegodi and now Napoli could lose third place too.
“You could say we didn’t start the first half well, or the second, and we paid a heavy price for that,” said the Coach in his Press conference.
“Clearly I didn’t prepare my players for this situation. We only did what we had to do for about 25 minutes in the first half.”
This was the Partenopei’s third consecutive away defeat and has to ring alarm bells.
“Last season this team set a record of 10 away wins, so I expected the same this season. I did not expect this performance and we need to do better.
“I was cross because I don’t like to lose and I especially don’t like to lose this way.”
Benitez seemed particularly frustrated at the response from his squad after rotating much of the line-up.
“We had three good games in a row, against Lazio, Inter and Dinamo Moscow, but it seems we are not capable of maintaining that level of intensity for a fourth. We saw that today.
“It wasn’t that the starting XI was wrong. It was the attitude in the opening minutes that we got wrong.”