Gennaro Gattuso has insisted Napoli are “not dead” and have a “great desire” to turn their season around ahead of their game against Lazio on Saturday.
The Partenopei coach Gattuso said that the Partenopei will have to focus on putting together an unbeaten run to boost their confidence.
“If I had seen a dead team, I would have come out here and told you,” he said at a press conference. “I see a great desire, but we need a great run to climb the table.
Gennaro Gattuso has insisted Napoli are “not dead” and have a “great desire” to turn their season around ahead of their game against Lazio on Saturday.
The Partenopei coach Gattuso said that the Partenopei will have to focus on putting together an unbeaten run to boost their confidence.
“If I had seen a dead team, I would have come out here and told you,” he said at a press conference. “I see a great desire, but we need a great run to climb the table.
“This club can’t have a position like this, we have great values, great players, despite the need to put them in their best condition and give them peace.”
He said he wants to see “continuity” at the San Paolo and points to this weekend’s opponents for inspiration.
After the loss to Inter at home, they are travelling to the Olimpico to face another team among the top four and Lazio are currently on an unbeaten run of 12 games in the League.
“We need to continue, make fewer mistakes,” he said. “We need to play like a team and give our results continuity.
“Between the Parma and Inter game it seemed like to different teams, we must start by improving our physical shape and to play how I like us to.
“It’s obvious that we are facing a team that have been doing well for months, but they started poorly. They were tired and didn’t play the football they wanted to play. But they are back on their feet and have bounced back. That’s something we would need to do as well; we need results to help us boost the morale.”
After Italy international Alex Meret made a blunder against the league leaders on Monday, Gattuso revealed that Davide Ospina might get the nod in goal on Saturday, but revealed he will “decide tomorrow”.
“He hasn’t trained for two days, we will see tomorrow, who will play,” he said. “Meret made an error, like the other players have done. Let’s see tomorrow.
“I will make a decision tomorrow, but we are a team and don’t talk about exclusions. I have two great goalkeepers, even [Orestis] Karnezis is good and we will evaluate ahead of every game.”
Gattuso have to cope without Kalidou Koulibaly against the threat of Ciro Immobile in Rome as he admitted that he doesn’t want to "risk losing" the defender to a setback.
“He has worked for three days,” Gattuso added. “We can’t afford another setback. Yesterday we performed a scan and there’s still an issue. We can’t risk anything.
“We know how important he is, but I can’t risk losing him for two to three months. I like to protect my players. On Monday we will increase the workload and see if he can enter the pitch.”