Spalletti explains why ‘below par’ Napoli lost the scudetto battle against Inter Milan

Luciano Spalletti was highly critical of his players as they faced his former team

. Spalletti admitted that Napoli were “below par” and played “too slowly without the usual quality”.

The defeat against Inter brings an end to Napoli’s run of 11 consecutive victories. They were also the only remaining unbeaten side in Europe’s top leagues which is no longer the case but Spalletti knows exactly how it happened.

“Inter did what they always do, try to press with Hakan Calhanoglu on Stanislav Lobotka, and that is where we should’ve done better to find passes out to the final third.”

Spalletti explained.

“That opened up space behind Calha, but we didn’t move the ball around with our usual quality, it was always a bit slow and predictable, without finding the space behind their midfielders.

“We can do more in terms of quality and seeking different solutions to attack those spaces. Effectively, some of our players were a little below par today. So were you in the studio, you deserved to be substituted.

Despite having 64% of possession,

failed to generate many serious chances, forcing Andre Onana to only 1 save in the final minutes of the game.

“You are meant to move the ball side to side in order to pull the opposition out of shape, but that doesn’t work when you do it slowly and without the usual quality.”

When asked about if his team should’ve been more direct in their attack with Osimhen up front, Spalletti replied:

“We tried a few times, but Francesco Acerbi is very physical and takes his position well, so it’s not that easy. Inter are organised and very physical, we needed more strength in the tackles and those aren’t really our characteristics.”

Also asked how Napoli should have reacted after their first crucial loss of the season, Spalletti replied:

“We will probably train better than we did before, because what I saw tonight was below our capabilities, so evidently it’s my fault and we need to do better in training to find our form and fitness. We then play the games and see what happens.”

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