Maurizio Sarri tells off Napoli for “moments of superficiality” against Empoli and feels paternal towards Gonzalo Higuain.

The Partenopei were left with no centre-forwards for this evening’s game, but still managed to win 2-0 thanks to Dries Mertens and Vlad Chiriches.

“We still need to get rid of those moments of superficiality that already compromised other performances,” Sarri told Sky Sport Italia.

Maurizio Sarri tells off Napoli for “moments of superficiality” against Empoli and feels paternal towards Gonzalo Higuain.

The Partenopei were left with no centre-forwards for this evening’s game, but still managed to win 2-0 thanks to Dries Mertens and Vlad Chiriches.

“We still need to get rid of those moments of superficiality that already compromised other performances,” Sarri told Sky Sport Italia.

“We had 23 shots on goal, but cannot make such mistakes when the game is still open. The performance was not bad, all things considered, but 10 minutes of that complacency can make all the difference.”

This weekend it’s the showdown with Juventus, but Sarri is eager to play down the idea of this as a Scudetto clash.

“We should stop letting this false pressure be piled on to us. Everyone knows what our place is in the League. Before the season even began, we lost the top scorer in the history of Serie A, who got 36 goals last term.

“It was an enormous risk that could’ve lost us a lot of points. We filled the team with promising young players, then lost his replacement who had scored seven goals (Arkadiusz Milik).

“I want to see the potential of this squad when casting aside those moments of complacency.”

Sarri was asked how he will greet Higuain when they meet this weekend, the first encounter since Pipita pushed through a €90m transfer to Juventus.

“Higuain did well with me and was always hard working in training. I’ll salute him the way a father does with a son who made him cross.”

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