Gennaro Gattuso confessed to mistakes he has made with Napoli, dropped Allan for “walking around during training” and made a pledge to Mexico for Hirving Lozano ahead of the trip to Cagliari.
It kicks off on Sunday at 17.00 GMT, click here for a match preview.
The coach began his press conference with a surprise announcement on the squad travelling to Sardinia.
Gennaro Gattuso confessed to mistakes he has made with Napoli, dropped Allan for “walking around during training” and made a pledge to Mexico for Hirving Lozano ahead of the trip to Cagliari.
It kicks off on Sunday at 17.00 GMT, click here for a match preview.
The coach began his press conference with a surprise announcement on the squad travelling to Sardinia.
“Arek Milik has a knee inflammation and needs to rest. Hirving Lozano has a muscular issue, Kalidou Koulibaly doesn’t feel at 100 per cent, while Allan didn’t train the way I like. He walked around during training and that’s not alright with me.”
Koulibaly was put straight into the starting XI for the 3-2 home defeat to Lecce after six weeks of injury, something Gattuso concedes was a mistake.
“Kostas Manolas had two days off because his daughter was born in Greece. I knew that Koulibaly and Nikola Maksimovic hadn’t played for a while, but they were training well. I know that I got it wrong, but I didn’t want to lose credibility in the eyes of the players.
“We are struggling to explain why we don’t play consistently. Individual interpretations are not enough, we have to approach the game as a collective.
“I get surprised too, I get nightmares because I can’t explain this situation. Maybe I can explain that we need to sniff out danger earlier. Maybe we think we’re stronger than we are and aren’t prepared to suffer, to respect our opponents.”
Napoli are very unpredictable, going from home defeat to Lecce in Serie A to victory at San Siro over Inter in the Coppa Italia semi-final.
“We cannot take anything for granted, cannot snub any opponent, because we’re paying the price for the wrong mentality. At times we look like a team, at others we fall apart at the first sign of trouble.
“Our performance against Inter was organised and compact, but it was not catenaccio. There are two phases in football, in possession and off the ball. My biggest error was trying to play ultra-attacking football. When I realised this team couldn’t handle that situation, I put the team 10-15 metres deeper. We needed to be compact and not stretched out.
“This is a team that has huge quality on the ball, but off it, we make mistakes all over the field. If we don’t play with vehemence, it becomes too easy for the opposition. We need to be more humble when defending.
“For example, it’s going to be tough against Cagliari, as they always put three or four players into the box and press hard.”
Lozano is injured for tomorrow’s game, but has barely played since Gattuso took over from Carlo Ancelotti.
“I have very strong players in attack and for example we have Fernando Llorente who deserves far more playing time. You talk about Lozano because he cost €50m.
“I make my choices based on how I want the team to play and have to put everyone in a condition to express themselves well. In Mexico, I am persona non grata because of that, but what can I do? I guess I won’t go back to Mexico.”
Napoli squad for Cagliari: Karnezis, Meret, Ospina Di Lorenzo, Ghoulam, Hysaj, Luperto, Maksimovic, Manolas, Mario Rui Demme, Elmas, Fabian Ruiz, Lobotka, Zielinski Callejon, Insigne, Llorente, Mertens, Politano