Maurizio Sarri concedes Napoli “lost our way as a group and everyone tried to find the solution by themselves” in a 3-0 defeat to Fiorentina.
Kalidou Koulibaly saw red after just eight minutes in Florence and Giovanni Simeone went on to score a hat-trick.
“We lost our way when confronted with the adversities of the match. We lost our tactical confidence and after the opening goal, we lost our nerve too,” the Coach told Sky Sport Italia.
Maurizio Sarri concedes Napoli “lost our way as a group and everyone tried to find the solution by themselves” in a 3-0 defeat to Fiorentina.
Kalidou Koulibaly saw red after just eight minutes in Florence and Giovanni Simeone went on to score a hat-trick.
“We lost our way when confronted with the adversities of the match. We lost our tactical confidence and after the opening goal, we lost our nerve too,” the Coach told Sky Sport Italia.
“We tried to react, but lost our way as a group. Everyone tried to find the solution by themselves. We’ve always done well to react, but that didn’t happen today.”
Now the gap at the top of the table is four points with three rounds to go.
Was the fact Juventus came back to beat Inter 3-2 with two late goals on Saturday evening a weight on Napoli’s minds?
“It was a bad performance today, Fiorentina played very well. I don’t know if that Juve result affected us, but if someone was thinking about that, then it means the overall approach was wrong. We can’t lose energy on other teams.
“I saw a team today that from the very first minute was lost tactically. We reacted in a way that was not logical. We’ve got a lot to work on this week, as we have to analyse this defeat and figure out what happened.”
Sarri has always tried to play down Scudetto talk, even when they were top of the table.
“We must have our minds on the next game. If we always focus on the next game, we can have a good season. I want the whole team to fight back straight away.
“Naturally, if we hadn’t gone down to 10 men after eight minutes, it would’ve been better, but we simply lost our tactical shape and the things we normally rely upon. When a side puts in a performance like that, talking about individuals seems unfair. We lost as a team.
“I don’t think there were too many expectations. In Naples, there is an excess of enthusiasm after every victory, but if we were a team that couldn’t handle our extraordinary fans, we wouldn’t have had three such strong seasons.”