Max Allegri explains his Napoli choices against Bodo/Glimt and urges his team to ‘never lose patience, because anxiety and haste lead to mistakes’ in the Champions League.
It kicks off at the Stadio Diego Armando Maradona at 20.00 UK time (21.00 CEST).
The Partenopei are in crisis after a dismal series of results, as they have lost both Champions League games to Arsenal and Villarreal.
More damaging still is their Serie A form, fresh off a shocking 1-0 defeat to rock bottom Venezia on Saturday.
Allegri eager to avoid Napoli anxiety
“We need to play well on a technical level, as they are a team who defend well with a low block, and then avoid more than errors I’d say we trust our teammates too much and don’t predict mistakes, which is what happened on Saturday against Venezia,” Allegri told Sky Sport Italia.
“We could’ve done better in that situation, as Rrahmani and the others tracked back too late when the mistake was made.”
Alisson Santos is the latest addition to the absentee list, joining Antonio Vergara, David Neres, Costantino Favasuli and Alessandro Buongiorno on the treatment table.
“We can always improve, we’ve got Anguissa from the start, Matteo Politano is back, and I honestly doubt Vergara will be available for Saturday, as he hasn’t yet trained with the squad,” added Allegri.
“I realise it is a difficult time, but we need a little patience, because the squad hasn’t lost all its quality. We just need to do that little bit extra, as those details are penalising us.”
There is some positive news, as midfielder Andre Frank Zambo Anguissa gets his first start since September 5, but Kevin De Bruyne is used as a playmaker, a role he does not enjoy.
“Lobotka and Gilmour played a lot at international level, while Anguissa is back from a long injury, he played five minutes against Florence and then got hurt. I thought I’ll start him, so if it happens again, I’ll have a substitution left over,” joked Allegri.
“I don’t think it will happen, but he certainly doesn’t have 90 minutes in his legs.”
Norwegians Bodo/Glimt are known as giant-killers and famously knocked Inter out of the Champions League play-offs last season.
They started the current campaign with a 5-0 loss at Bayern Munich, but then beat Borussia Dortmund 1-0 at home.
“Champions League games are a little different to Serie A, first of all you need to be very organised and never lose patience, because in the last 20-25 minutes they can change totally. We saw on Tuesday against Villarreal, the game seemed to be in hand,” added Allegri.
“We’ve got to play until the referee blows the whistle, keep passing the ball, sometimes bypass some intermediary passes and be more direct. You need precision and technique to play football, but also the desire to go and get results, realising nobody will just give us anything.
“There are moments where things go badly over the course of a season, but we’ve got to take responsibility to turn things around, without anxiety, because anxiety and haste lead to mistakes.”