Following Napoli’s 2-0 win against Monza, manager Antonio Conte spoke to DAZN, addressing various aspects of his team’s performance and tempering expectations about their title chances.
Conte began by discussing Romelu Lukaku’s contribution: “The important thing is that Romelu actively participates in the game, that he contributes significantly to achieving the final objective, but this applies to everyone. He’s working, we’re trying to give him higher workloads than average because he arrived in less than optimal conditions, having been out of the squad and training with the youth team. However, he can always make a positive impact. Today he worked hard; if he scores, even better, but the important thing is that he does things well for the team.”
The manager then addressed the team’s overall fitness: “All other teams are training; the problem is who isn’t training. I make them train properly. During the break, those who remain will use it to get into condition. Some players arrived in the last days of the transfer market, and we’ll try to improve their condition even more.”
When asked about Napoli’s chances of winning the Scudetto, Conte was cautious: “The advantage is that you can train the team for the whole week; the disadvantage is that we’re not as competitive as those playing in Europe. That said, we continue to work, we do it to make dreams come true, but reality says we’re very far from making flights of fancy. We have to sweat for every game, as we did today, and grow. It’s been less than three months; the president was the first to talk about total reconstruction.”
Conte emphasized the need for realism: “Osimhen and Zielinski are leaving, and I hear talk of certain things. I know there are high expectations of me because I’ve done important things, but let’s let the fans dream while I keep my feet on the ground. There are many teams ahead of us that we’re chasing. I hear people talking who know nothing about championships. We need to accelerate to bring Napoli where it deserves to be, which is not in tenth place, 20 points behind Inter.”
