Conte, one point ahead of Inzaghi, has experience and broad shoulders, as he often recalls, therefore he will have re-motivated the Azzurri and will have invited them to frame the match lost against Maradona in a correct and constructive way, without allowing themselves to be overcome by misplaced discouragement . There is no atmosphere of defeat around the team. De Laurentiis wanted to send a message on social media to reiterate what everyone knows: Napoli’s objective is to return to Europe, which they lost last spring after 14 consecutive participations, not the scudetto. At least that’s the basic design. “Then never say never,” commented the president. And Conte certainly didn’t arrive in Naples to be satisfied. He wants the best, without shouting it from the rooftops, to leave his men alone to live and play. “Let’s not raise the white flag at the Meazza,” he said with the strength of someone who restarted the blue car and knows he can lead the way.
In the last seven matches between Inter and Napoli one of the two has always been in first place: the true elite of the championship, therefore. Inzaghi wants to seize the opportunity offered by the calendar after resting some of the starters – from Dimarco to Thuram – in the Champions League match won against Arsenal. On the other hand, some summer forecasts had Inter as favorites for the second tricolor and Napoli at the back, without giving the right weight to the 150 million market and the reconfirmations of players who absolutely wanted a change of scenery, such as Di Lorenzo and Kvara, convinced by Conte. The ranking situation after 11 days gives a sense of the depth of the work carried out by the coach so far. Tonight he intends to evaluate the team’s personality against a strong opponent, capable of scoring in 28 consecutive games at the Meazza.
It will take a more decisive attitude and a higher pace than in the match against Atalanta, without any fear towards this Inter team who in the recent match against Juve scored 4 and conceded as many. In this respect, rather than the defense men, the decisive role must be played by Lukaku and Kvara, the two attackers who on 29 October allowed Napoli to win over the Rossoneri’s Meazza, breaking Fonseca’s defense with extreme ease.
Lukaku and Kvara didn’t shine in the match against Atalanta and this is also why Gasperini had an easy game. The focus is on the high motivations of Big Rom, who returns to the stadium where the applause of the Inter fans quickly turned into boos due to his farewell. Don’t betray the “deal” with Conte, who worked hard for De Laurentiis to conclude this onerous transfer operation because Lukaku is the best offensive interpreter of his game, with that ability to offer goals and assists and to sacrifice himself for the team.
Kvara’s light must also come back on, just as McTominay needs to calibrate his insertions better and Politano needs to have more continuity. The pressure from Inter and the 70,000 Meazza players will be strong and Napoli have started a technical reconstruction, choosing certain men, also to withstand the weight of these comparisons.
The deep passion for the blue pushed 51 thousand Neapolitans to applaud Conte and the team seven days ago at the Maradona after a heavy defeat. Cheering is instinct but also reasoning: the message of the reconstruction plan and the logic of small steps has been understood. Those who will be at the Meazza and those who will remain in Naples – the trip has been forbidden to residents of Campania – are ready to applaud a performance and a result that allow Napoli to always arrive at the break in first place.
