Antonio Conte explains why ‘atypical’ Romelu Lukaku is so excellent for his soccer and the way he’s instructing Napoli to ‘get their palms soiled’ after a 4-0 victory in Cagliari.
They emerged from the Unipol Domus with an enormous 4-0 consequence because of Giovanni Di Lorenzo’s deflected effort, Khvicha Kvaratskhelia, Lukaku and Alessandro Buongiorno.
“Cagliari is a really tough place to play, the pitch was very dry, it was extraordinarily windy and so that you needed to calculate the flight of the ball,” Conte instructed Sky Sport Italia.
“We began nicely, the interruption for the fireworks and objects thrown stalled our momentum, then we noticed within the second half what we must always’ve executed higher. We have to hold bettering on the duels everywhere in the discipline, holding targeted and concentrated, as a result of that’s what you require in Serie A.”
It was Lukaku’s first begin and one other encouraging signal is that the Belgian and Georgian assisted one another’s objectives.
Conte and Lukaku a match made in heaven
The previous Chelsea striker has all the time performed at his greatest with Conte, so why is he so completely suited to this imaginative and prescient of the game?
“I’ve all the time mentioned that I needed Romelu at Inter, had additionally requested him at Chelsea earlier than he went to Manchester United, as a result of he’s an atypical striker. He’s extraordinarily tall and bodily robust, but in addition superb at sprinting ahead. His situation remains to be nowhere close to optimum, however he turns into basic for us. He’s placing within the effort and I by no means doubted that.
“I hope that Kvara realises we count on many extra objectives from him in addition to assists. Though this recreation wasn’t solely suited to his traits, I noticed lots of effort from him and Matteo Politano.”
The fears from that opening defeat to Verona appear to be a distant reminiscence, because the Partenopei have gained three Serie A video games in a row for the primary time since February 2023. How has Conte managed to rework this squad from that embarrassing show?
“It is a group for my part that through the years didn’t prefer to get its palms soiled. After what occurred final season, the change was extra about mentality than organisation and ways. We did higher within the urgent in the present day and that led to one of many objectives, so it’s bettering, however it isn’t simple to construct that type of mentality.
“I denounced sure issues after that first recreation and knew that the gamers had been good lads, they understood and are engaged on their willpower, grit and ferocity, which we noticed in the way in which we fought and suffered in the present day to maintain a clear sheet. There’s actually enchancment.”
Napoli are simply getting began, as a result of Scott McTominay and Billy Gilmour made their debuts within the last 20 minutes, whereas David Neres has supplied an help in every of his three substitute appearances.
After three rounds in Serie A, already no person had a 100 per cent document, so the race to the highest is extraordinarily tight proper now.
Nevertheless, Conte is keen to shrug off any suggestion they’re going for the Scudetto in his debut season on the Stadio Diego Armando Maradona.
“I do really feel that for the time being all groups are settling down nonetheless, because the switch window closed late and we’re all looking for our form,” concluded the coach.
“We’ve labored laborious during the last two and a half months, we’ve obtained to placed on the blinkers and hold pushing ahead with out taking a look at anybody else.”
Di Lorenzo provides Napoli the lead and runs straight over to supervisor Antonio Conte to have a good time 💙
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