Dries Mertens thanks Maurizio Sarri for ‘changing my life’ at Napoli, believes Gennaro Gattuso is ‘the perfect coach’ for this moment and is ‘confident’ against Barcelona.
The club record all-time top scorer sat down with UEFA.com to discuss his recent contract extension with the Partenopei.
Dries Mertens thanks Maurizio Sarri for ‘changing my life’ at Napoli, believes Gennaro Gattuso is ‘the perfect coach’ for this moment and is ‘confident’ against Barcelona.
The club record all-time top scorer sat down with UEFA.com to discuss his recent contract extension with the Partenopei.
“The people breathe football. It's not only from young people to 40-year-olds, it's also the grandmothers, the young children – it's crazy! I think this is something special about Italy; waking up, taking the coffee in the morning and talking only about football.
“They call me 'Ciro', it's a typical name from Napoli, and I think that is because I started to live like them. I go into the city a lot, I love the food, I love the sea, I love all the islands here.”
Mertens was not a hitman at all until Sarri moved him to a False 9 role as a necessity when Arkadiusz Milik suffered a serious injury.
“In the first season with Sarri I only played six games as a starter. So I was always mad, [but he would say:] 'You are so important for me, for the team, and don't worry, you'll have your chances.' One day he put me as a striker and I'm very happy [he did] because it changed my life. He just put me there and said: 'I'm sure you're going to do it well.'
“It's incredible because I never came here to be the all-time top scorer of this club.”
Carlo Ancelotti was sacked in December to make way for Gennaro Gattuso, who has already steered them to Coppa Italia triumph.
“I think Gattuso is the perfect coach at this moment for Napoli because he's also giving a lot of opportunities to the young players, and I think he could be a really good coach for the future. He's won a lot of trophies as a player and he knows what it means to win. That was something that the team was missing.
“You felt it also with Ancelotti because he was a coach who won a lot, and he was willing to put that in the minds of the players and to change that mentality.”
Napoli drew 1-1 with Barcelona in the first leg of the Champions League Round of 16, which will be concluded on August 8.
“It's not going to be easy but we're feeling confident. The key is that we have to score because if we don’t score, we will be out. If you prepare for it, then maybe you never know what can happen,” assured Mertens.