Serie A saw Napoli pick up a 3-0 loss to Juventus in Turin, losing ground in the title race.
Antonio Conte’s side never truly seemed to turn up and didn’t create too much during the tie. Juventus were deserved winners, riding on goals from Jonathan David, Kenan Yildiz and Filip Kostic.
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Conte spoke to Sky about the loss and he described the current situation as one of ‘real emergency’ due to the number of injuries, departures and lack of new signings.
The Italian said: “The last league game we lost was against Udinese, and then many others happened, including the Super Cup, which we played in a state of emergency. Now we’re in a real emergency.”
Speaking specifically about Napoli losing players – with David Neres now also out, Conte believes the situation is quite alarming.
“We’re losing players one after another. We’re not talking about short absences: some have had surgery, others have had extended recovery times. We’ve also lost our goalkeeper, others weren’t available today. It’s becoming really difficult.”
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Despite that, the Italian had praise for his players and revealed they’re still giving their all.
“We have to keep moving forward. These guys deserve praise: they play with intensity, with few days of recovery, with the group increasingly thinning out. The boat is in the middle of the sea with very high waves and it’s dangerous, but no one wants to disembark. It’s a question of honor, of men even before sportsmen.”
He also added his opinion to the fixture congestion, with Napoli set to face Chelsea next week.
“We play Chelsea on Wednesday, not the last-placed team, and then Fiorentina comes two and a half days later. We’ll be the same team as before; no one’s recovering. Those who were supposed to be back have extended their time.”
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Conte’s career shows that he does struggle when his teams are juggling league competitions with European games. This period of the next few weeks will speak volumes of how he responds to the challenge.
Kaustubh Pandey I GIFN
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