Spalletti: ‘We have to stay very calm’

Luciano Spalletti believes his Napoli team have to stay ‘very calm’ for the moment, despite stretching their lead at the top of the table to 18 points following a 2-0 win over Sassuolo. The
Partenopei were once again in scintiallating form, with goals coming from their top scorers Victor Osimhen and Khvicha Kvaratskhelia, taking them one match closer to what would be a historic Serie A title.

Speaking with DAZN in the post-match, Spalletti was encouraged by his teams display but insisted they have to remain calm for the moment and looked ahead to next weeks Champions League tie with Eintracht Frankfurt:

“We’re like Guardiola’s Barcelona? Thank you very much, but we have to take it easy, stay calm, very calm. We have to do the things we know how to do and do them well, Sassuolo attacked very well. Tonight was a great performance from the point of view of analysis in general. The last few games we have won but there was less quality.

“Tonight we were synthetic, quick, qualitative in circulating the ball, in creating chances, I think we suffered a couple of times because Sassuolo are a great team, well coached, who play good football.

“In some situations we had to suffer, but we performed like a mature team. Nobody has the presumption to give up, to go softer. These are important signals,.

“We must approach matches without losing concentration, sometimes the head automatically thinks about the advantage we have but we must not allow it. We have to approach every game as if it were the decisive one to go and dream. This attitude of tackling them as a single game makes the difference, it gets us used to being on the ball in the away games.

“Eintracht? They are a very strong team, with very fast players. They defend well, they’re a team used to playing for the single game. That means they are more used to playing for the in or out game than we are. They won the Europa League and kept almost the whole team: that’s a little bit similar to what we are trying to do.”