Rudi Garcia believes his Napoli team had the right attitude against Union Berlin, despite making mistakes in the first half. The Partenopei secured a slender 1-0 victory over the Bundesliga side, the only goal coming from Giacomo Raspadori. Speaking with Sky Sport Italia after the match, Garcia explained the changes he’d made to the side ahead of the match, and why fans can ‘trust’ this change in continuity:
“We suffered almost nothing, we weren’t even too dangerous on an attacking level. But we knew that this match wasn’t won before playing it as we had heard almost everywhere, also because Union has come off eight losses in a row and statistically after this streak it is easier to obtain a positive result rather than another loss.
“In the first half we lost a few too many balls, we did better in the second half. A nice goal, Kvara’s assist and Raspadori’s excellent movement.”
Why should we trust this signal of continuity?
“Tonight we took to the pitch with the right anger, we won the duels. Raspadori’s goal comes after the won duels of Rrahmani and Mario Rui, we know how to fight for every ball and we know how to stay high to recover the ball.”
Elmas’s entry into the game was important to better manage the match. The other substitutions were also good.
“It’s never easy to remove a player at half-time, but our job is to make these decisions. Cajuste was almost the best against Verona at the weekend, but tonight he was less brilliant, he lost too many balls. He’s not a problem for Sunday against Milan, it’s just the story of one match, but I agree: whoever came in gave us a great hand. Without Anguissa we lack a physical player for the substitutions and today Ostigard also helped us. I’m happy with the team’s attitude, Natan’s positive anger after an intervention in front of the opposing bench is what I want from my team.”
The perfect defensive alignment on the disallowed goal against Union Berlin demonstrates the work you have done
“This is very important, Rrahmani took a step forward to put the opponent offside. The work we did during the break with Natan paid, he’s an intelligent boy who understands quickly. I’m happy because he’s slowly gaining confidence and demonstrating that he can perform at a high level.”
Great determination and attention tonight
“Totally agree. Technically we have to do better, but today we needed to continue building low shots, short passes and movements… In the second half the pressing worked well: there are many positive notes, we were up until the final whistle we have to play our game.”
