Napoli coach Luciano Spalletti shrugged off their stalemate with Hellas Verona, that saw Super Eagles striker Victor Osimhen return ahead of their Champions League quarterfinal second-leg this week.
“Verona kept sitting deep, so we have to make this web of passes to find a way through. We didn’t do enough to create the gaps or make the most of them when they appeared,” Spalletti told DAZN.
“Possession must be done with balance, not fast and not slow. When you dig out that space, this is when you have to speed it up, but passes need to be kept simple, without touching the ball four times, without doing it too quickly so that you don’t know where the next move will be.
“The speed is at the end of a move, finalising it, but building out from the back you don’t need to rush things. You must understand where the spaces are.”
On Osimhen, he added: “He’ll start, yes. Osimhen has this physicality and speed, you can throw the ball up to him and he can protect it, use his head or use a change of pace, he has so many different alternatives. He is a hero of these fans now, so there is always a wave of enthusiasm around him.
“These are players made of different stuff, they have so many solutions. They fill the box of delights with all their various characteristics.”
