Napoli boss Gennaro Gattuso was left frustrated as he watched his side lose in disappointing fashion to Hellas Verona on Sunday afternoon.
Gennaro Gattuso took responsibility for the loss as his side blew an early lead to lose 3-1 to Hellas Verona.
Napoli had a dream start to the game with Chucky Lozano scoring within nine seconds, the quickest in the club’s Serie A history and third of all time in the competition.
Federico Dimarco pulled one for Hellas Verona just before the break to level matters going into half time. Antonin Barak and Mattia Zaccagni turned it around for a 3-1 Verona victory in the second half.
It is another heavy psychological blow just days after losing the Supercoppa 2-0 to Juventus. Gattuso was left disappointed with the manner of the loss and blamed it on woeful finishing and missed chances.
“I make the decisions, so when we don’t win, it’s my responsibility. It’s disappointing because we had the right game-plan, we made it difficult for them, created four or five scoring opportunities in the first half, and could’ve killed the game,” Gattuso told Sky Sport Italia.
“The regret is that, we could’ve done so much and kept wasting it. We were always four against four and didn’t make the right passes. We know this Verona side loves to play physical football, so we started to do what they wanted.”
Gattuso admits Napoli are going through a ‘poor run’ at the moment and hints at a possible psychological block affecting his side.
“All teams have ups and downs this season, we need to clear our minds. I expect what we prepare during the week. We played the first half exactly the way we wanted to, but we did everything wrong in the second half.”
“We made the wrong choices. It’s not easy, you can’t just go to the supermarket and ask for €10 of determination. It can’t be brought out of the players just by saying it. It’s about the interpretation of the game, we had one in the first half and a totally different attitude after the break.”
Gattuso will be hopeful his side can return to wining ways when Napoli take on Spezia in the Coppa Italia quarter-finals on Thursday.
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